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Remember Monday night when A.J. Green was hobbling all over the field with a leg issue?
It took three plays for Green to go down with a new injury, this one to his hamstring, and the injury looks much worse than last week’s. It came on the third play of the game against the Bills in Week 11. On Cincinnati’s first offensive drive, Green went down with a hamstring injury that had him writhing in pain on the sideline.
It happened on a pass play intended for Green down the left sideline that was incomplete. After lying on the field for a few minutes, Green was carted back to the locker room to be further examined by trainers. He has since been called questionable to return by the team.
If Green is out, the Bengals are suddenly left with Brandon LaFell, Tyler Boyd and James Wright as their top receivers, though tight end Tyler Eifert is a pretty good receiver himself.
But that wasn’t all. On the Bengals’ first defensive possession, Vontaze Burfict went down with a neck injury after being hit by Domata Peko while both players were attempting to make a tackle. It looked like it was a head injury.
His return is probable and he may be back in on the next defensive drive as he was putting his helmet back on rather quickly. The Bills scored on their first drive, a seven-yard touchdown run by LeSean McCoy.
Even if Burfict is hobbled, that would be bad news for a Bengals defense that’s struggled against the run going against a Bills offense that dominates on the ground when McCoy is healthy.
We saw that on the first drive with McCoy walking into the end zone on his seven-yard scoring run. This also comes with Rey Maualuga a healthy scratch in this game, meaning guys like rookie Nick Vigil and third-year man Marquis Flowers could be getting a lot more snaps than expected.
We will update this post as more details become available.
UPDATE:
Burfict returned to the game before the end of the first quarter and immediately started making plays. It looks like he’s just fine.
Green has been ruled out for the rest of the game, a very bad sign as to the severity of the injury. According to ESPN, he’s scheduled to have an MRI on Monday.