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Bills Today: In wake of injuries Wright steps up

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1 - In wake of injuries Wright steps up
With E.J. Gaines ruled inactive Sunday with an injury; Shareece Wright was called on to make his first start with the Buffalo Bills. He played well, tallying a team-high in tackles (11).

Wright said tackling has been his forte. In fact, he racked up 11 tackles last season against the Bills as a member of the Baltimore Ravens. [internal-link-placeholder-0]

"That's one thing I have done a lot is tackle. I think the first game last year against Buffalo I had like 10 or 11 tackles. That's the second time I've had that many tackles," Wright said.

The seven-year veteran played 100 percent of the snaps on Sunday. That's a significant increase from what he's played in prior weeks this season. His highest defensive snap total before Sunday was just 35 percent. That came in Week Four against the Atlanta Falcons.

Wright talked about taking on a full-time role in the lineup with all the injuries at cornerback.

"It's hard. For me it's my first game that I've like played since I want to say December of last season. It's the first game that I've played every snap on defense," he said. "It's just catching up and getting in that rhythm of playing in a full game.

"It felt good just to get some playing time and get out there and be a part of the defense that's been playing so well all season. You hate to see guys go down, but we preach the next guy up and the opportunity was there for me to step up."

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2 - Run game set back by penalties**The Buffalo Bills running game had flashes of success on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. LeSean McCoy racked up big yardage on some carries. Untimely penalties brought some of those carries back.

McCoy finished the game with 19 carries for 63 yards. His stat line could've surpassed 100-yards rushing, if it weren't for holding penalties. The running back popped off a 44-yard carry deep into Cincinnati's territory late in the game. Shortly after being pushed out of bounds the play was called back for offensive holding.

"Definitely, for sure, it's frustrating to see that," McCoy said. "Just the time of possession and the situation we're in, and we need a big play.

You can't deny the struggles the Bills have had running the ball. Especially for a team who led the league in rushing the past two seasons. Head coach, Sean McDermott, won't pinpoint one area for these struggles.

"Well I saw him have success last year and I've seen him have similar success at times this year. The important part here is we've had untimely penalties that have cost us critical first downs, as recently as Sunday in the game," he said. "It's not just one position, its multiple positions and all of us doing our job better."

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3 - Brown looking for more defensively besides turnovers**
Buffalo's defense was opportunistic again in Week Five. The unit forced three turnovers, two interceptions and a fumble. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough in Sunday's 20-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Bills linebacker, Preston Brown, is a true team player. He won't blame the offense's inability to find the end zone for Sunday's loss. He'll look at ways his unit can improve to help the team.

"We have to make plays. No matter how long we're out there and no matter what happens, we have to find a way to get off the field and we couldn't do that in the second half," Brown said.

It was an uncharacteristic performance for the defense. They allowed A.J. Green to go for 189-yards receiving and Andy Dalton 328-yards passing. It dates back to Week Eight and Nine of last season that players have put up numbers like that against the Bills defense.

"Yeah, he had too many big plays. He did a great job, and Andy [Dalton] did a great job finding him downfield. We have to find a way to take him away," Brown said. "They did a great gob game-planning against us."

The Bills are on their bye week. The coaches will have plenty of time to watch film and fix the deficiencies in Sunday's performance.

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