Orchard Park, NY (WBEN) The Buffalo Bills’ defense has been improving over the past few weeks but that unit wilted when needed the most as the St. Louis Rams toppled the Bills 15-12 and put away any playoff hopes the Bills may have had.  

The tone was set early when neither team could manage a first down in the first four possessions. Mario Williams got his hands on Sam Bradford for his 10^th sack of the year and finally Buffalo opened the scoring a short time later with a 35 yard field goal from Rian Lindell.

It looked like Buffalo would begin to blow the game open when rookie cornerback, Stephon Gilmore grabbed a deflected a Sam Bradford pass and scampered into the end zone but the play was called dead back on the St. Louis 49-yard line due to a holding call on linebacker Kyle Moore. The Bills would have to settle for a 40-yard Lindell field goal to close out the first half.

The Rams got on the scoreboard in the third quarter with a drive that lasted over six minutes and culminated with a one yard run by Steven Jackson to take the lead 7-6.

Buffalo responded with a lengthy drive of their own to re-take the lead. That nine –play drive was capped by a one yard Ryan Fitzpatrick (25/32/247/1/1) pass to tight end Lee Smith but the two-point conversion failed and Buffalo led by just five, 12-7.

Sadly for the Bills‘ faithful, Bradford was able to find wide receiver, Brandon Gibson on the final play of a 14 play, 84 yard drive to take the lead 15-12 with just :48 seconds left on the clock. Buffalo could not muster a drive as the Rams pushed hard with a sack and an interception to kill the Bills’ chances.

Buffalo lost four players to injury last week and this week a very big loss in the backfield as Fred Jackson was carted off to the locker room in the fourth quarter with an apparent knee injury.