LONDON - Sunday afternoon’s bloodbath at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was certainly not for the upper crust tea and crumpets crowd in old London towne.

The Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars traded haymakers for 60 minutes and the Bills came out the far more battered and bruised team, both on the scoreboard and in the medical tent.

We know the New York Jets always seem to give the Bills problems, but so too do these Jaguars who have been a perpetual thorn in Buffalo’s side for several years. At least this time, Buffalo’s disappointing 25-20 loss came to a clear playoff contender who will most likely go on to win the mediocre AFC South.

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Still, the Bills have no one to blame but themselves for a sloppy performance during which Josh Allen and the Buffalo offense could not have played much worse for the better part of three quarters before waking up, and the defense could not overcome some brutal injuries which helped the Jaguars move the ball and dominate time of possession, eventually wearing the Bills out.

The Bills were done in by 11 penalties for 109 yards, poor play on third down by both the offense and defense, a ridiculous amount of dropped passes, and zero running game. In the end the Bills looked like a dysfunctional mess one week after they looked like the best team in the NFL.

It’s hard to fathom how a team could be so impressive one week, so utterly discombobulated the next, but here we are in the NFL, 2023, the ultimate week to week exercise of madness where just when you think you know something, you know nothing.

Bills report card: Buffalo defense gets battered, offense sleep-walks in loss to Jaguars

And no, according to the players, this had nothing to do with arriving in London jet-lagged on Friday. They weren’t making excuses, nor should they. It’s on them to be ready, and they weren’t.

And so the Bills fall to 3-2 on the season, and 0-2 against these Jaguars in games played in London.

Here are Sal’s Six Points:

1. Matt Milano’s injury is a crushing blow

The day could not have started any worse for the Bills as they endured a nightmarish first quarter in which they fell behind 11-0 and never really recovered. But even more damaging, it might have cost them two of their best defensive players, possibly for quite a while, and maybe the rest of the season.

Linebacker Matt Milano, who is without question the best player on Buffalo’s defense, suffered what is believed to be a serious knee injury. He was carted into the locker room, had a cast put on his leg, and was taken immediately to a London-area hospital for X-rays.

“I know it’s not looking good right now, but I don’t know any details beyond that at this point,” McDermott said glumly.

Milano is an All-Pro player and while no one is as important as Allen, Milano is about as irreplaceable as wide receiver Stefon Diggs. This is a massive blow for the Bills, one week after they lost star cornerback Tre’Davious White to a season-ending torn Achilles.

Dorian Williams and Tyrel Dodson were both used as outside linebackers alongside Terrel Bernard and the difference was noticeable, as it naturally would be. As A.J. Epenesa said when asked if losing Milano was a gut punch, “Yeah, a big one.”

2. If only the Milano injury was an outlier

Yeah, that still would have been bad given how important he is. But oh, that was only the start of a gruesome day for the Bills.

We already knew edge rusher Greg Rousseau was out, but then edge rusher Shaq Lawson (toe) and cornerback Christian Benford (shoulder) were also announced inactive. With White out for the season, Benford’s injury meant the Bills had to start Dane Jackson and Kaiir Elam at the cornerback spots. As you might imagine, that didn’t go great as Trevor Lawrence threw for 315 yards.

Before the Milano injury, the Bills suffered another huge blow as defensive tackle DaQuan Jones went out with a pectoral injury and he was unable to return. That created a problem in the middle because the Bills lost an excellent run stuffer and had to rely heavily on Ed Oliver, Jordan Phillips and Tim Settle to pick up his snaps and by game’s end, they were gassed.

“On DaQuan Jones, it’s a pec injury and it’s also not looking good at this point. I’ll know more in a little bit here,” McDermott said.

I’ve covered McDermott long enough to know that when he says it’s not good, it’s not good. The Bills could be without Milano and Jones for the rest of the year.

3. The Kaiir Elam issue is problematic

The 2022 first-round pick couldn’t get on the field in the first four games but he was pressed into duty with both White and Benford out. Without re-watching the game and knowing for sure, it felt like he had a brutal day.

Elam has athleticism and speed, but his coverage techniques simply aren’t good enough, particularly in Buffalo’s defense. There are too many times when he seems to get lost in his zone area and allows receivers to run free and make plays. And his tackling Sunday was not great.

Late in the game, McDermott replaced Elam and inserted Ja’Marcus Ingram.

“I felt prepared, I definitely did feel prepared,” Elam said. “I was ready, I was excited. I’ve just got to make more plays to help the team win. Frustrated? I mean, God has a plan, honestly. I know how I prepare and I trust and havefaith that I can help this team win, so my number not being called, all I can do is have a great practice to give coaches great confidence in me.”

I’m guessing that confidence is waning, but the Bills are up against it due to their injury situation and Elam has to pick it up. I’m not calling him a bust yet, but he’s not making a very good case to avoid that moniker.

“When you’re playing, you’re expected to play and perform well, regardless of whether you’ve played or been active or inactive the week before,” McDermott said.

4. A.J. Epenesa had his best game as a pro

The defensive end has really turned a corner in his fourth season and he is becoming a terrific player on the edge. He drove Lawrence crazy as he sacked him twice and on one of those, he forced a fumble and made the recovery, a football hat trick. He also batted down three passes.

“He showed up,” McDermott said. “We were getting low on numbers there on the D-line, but I noticed A.J. I thought he performed well and gave great effort. I think he’s playing confident football. I think he’s mentioned that before. His confidence is at a different level this year and that’s showing.”

The shame of it for Epenesa is that his great effort went to waste. With Rousseau and Lawson out, and Von Miller on what McDermott called “a pitch count” Epenesa and Leonard Floyd had to step up and they did. Floyd, however, was in and out of the game because of what looked like an ankle injury that he suffered early, so Epenesa took on an even bigger role.

The Bills desperately need to get Rousseau back, especially now that Milano and Jones are going to be out. The pass rush has been the best level of the defense this season and it racked up another five sacks for 37 yards, but missing Rousseau, Jones and Lawson is something to be concerned about.

5. James Cook was a non-factor

Cook had gotten off to a good start in his second season, first as the primary running back. But this was a mess for him. He finished with minus-four yards on five carries and he didn’t contribute much in the passing game either with just three catches for 25 yards plus a bad drop which killed the Bills’ first possession of the game.

The Bills can obviously win games when they don’t run the ball well - they’ve done it countless times in the Allen era. But they are looking for Cook to be a more productive player and constant threat than Devin Singletary was, but this is two stinkers in a row (he had 12 carries for 29 yards last week against Miami).

6. Deonte Harty finally made a play

When the Bills signed the speedy wide receiver, the thought was that he could provide some dynamic plays both from the slot and on the outside, plus as a return man once Nyheim Hines suffered his season-ending knee injury.

But through four games, Harty’s snap counts were low - just 58 on offense mainly because the Bills have used so many two-tight end formations - and he hasn’t been able to get anything going. He had nine catches for a mere 38 yards and two yards on three jet sweeps before Sunday. Yeah, 40 yards on 12 touches for a guy the Bills gave a two-year contract to.

However, he got open deep in the fourth quarter and hauled in a 43-yard pass right after the Jaguars had gone up 25-13. It set up Gabe Davis’ TD.

The Bills offense lacks speed. Neither Diggs nor Davis are true pull away speed guys and obviously neither tight end is. It’s a problem for the Bills when teams can take away the intermediate routes that Buffalo prefers and Jacksonville was on point with that for much of the day.

Harty needs to be a player who can take the top off the defense, and maybe that one play will give Ken Dorsey more of a reason to get him more involved.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills worn out in lethargic loss to Jaguars in London: 6 takeaways