St. Louis Rams Face Injury Plagued OL in Buffalo

Dec. 2, 2012; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Trainers attend to Buffalo Bills center Eric Wood (70) on the field during the second half against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Buffalo beats Jacksonville 34 to 18. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Chris Long and Robert Quinn, with 7 and 8.5 sacks on the season, respectively may well be licking their chops right now in preparation for this Sunday’s contest against Buffalo. The Bills just placed starting Offensive Tackle Chris Hairston on season ending injured reserve with an ankle inury, in addition to losing right tackle Erik Pears to IR just a month ago. This leaves the team with 3rd year player Scott Young to make his first career start on the right side against seasoned vet Chris Long. On the other side, Robert Quinn will face off against 2012 2nd round pick Cordy Glenn.

With the weather report calling for rain the next several days, Sunday’s matchup could turn out to be a sloggy mess, making the in-the-trenches matchups that much more important.

Another key to watch Sunday is how the rest of the front seven including Michael Brockers handle the Bills 4th ranked rushing combo of CJ Spiller and Fred Jackson. Spiller has 907 yards with a whopping 6.6 yards per carry, and Jackson has 423 yards at 4.0 yards/carry. These two carried the offense last week against Jacksonville, with 186 yards on the ground. Spiller is enjoying a breakout year in Buffalo after two mediocre seasons.

Fortunately for the Rams, James Laurinitis is 3rd in the league in tackles, with a combined 116, and Jo-Lonn Dunbar is near the top of the league with 13 tackles for loss, according to profootballweekly.com.