Substitution error left Bills with nine players on the field for final snap vs. Rams

The Bills had a valiant comeback effort in Sunday’s eventual loss to the Rams, but they made a critical error on the last play of the game.

When Los Angeles punted to end the game on fourth-and-7 from the Buffalo 42, the Bills did not have 11 players on the field.

In fact, via Bill Barnwell of ESPN, Buffalo had just nine players on the field for the snap.

The Rams had called timeout after lining up to go for it on fourth-and-2 and being hit with a delay of game penalty. So there was, presumably, enough time for the Bills to get ready for the play. But head coach Sean McDermott said postgame that his club had a substation error.

“Yeah, punt block — we should’ve been in that,” McDermott said in his press conference. “Honestly, we didn’t have enough guys on the field to do that. So, that’s something — we’ve got to figure that out.

“Just a substitution thing on the sideline,” McDermott added. “So, that was the information I got because I was saying counter-sub, going for the block here. And something happened there in terms of the substitution.”

So what exactly happened there?

“Yeah, it comes down to substitutions, like I said before,” McDermott said. “So, it’s communication, it’s understanding who’s in the game, who’s available. So, we’ll go back and figure that out.”

With just seven seconds left, it’s unlikely that the Bills could’ve truly made a game-changing play at that point to end up winning. But the Rams had blocked a punt earlier in the game that turned into a touchdown, so anything is possible.

Buffalo just needed to have the proper personnel on the field.