Top 3 Things We Learned

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Top 3 things we learned from Bills vs. Bears | 2024 Preseason

Aug 10, 2024 at 09:00 PM

Alec White

Content Coordinator

The Bills opened their preseason slate with a 33-6 loss to the Bears. It was an uneven performance overall from the team, but there are still positives to takeaway as several new faces got a chance to play in front of the home crowd.

Here are the top three things we learned:

1 — Allen & the starters keep it simple

Josh Allen played just the first quarter but it was an efficient showing from the Bills QB, nonetheless. Allen went 2 of 3 passing for 22 yards and one rush attempt for 7 yards. He was subbed out for Mitch Trubisky at the end of the first quarter.

Allen came away from his outing with mixed opinions on what the team put on tape.

"It felt good with what we did early on. And you know, every game is something that we want to win. And today, we didn't do that, a lot to learn from again, it's preseason. I know we're not game planning for these games, but we got to be ready to go," he said.

The Bills started the game with 12 personnel with WR Keon Coleman, WR Khalil Shakir, TE Dalton Kincaid, TE Dawson Knox and RB James Cook all on the field. WRs Curtis Samuel and Marquez Valdez-Scantling rotated in on the second series.

Shakir caught Allen's first pass of the afternoon picking up a seven-yard gain. On the second series, Allen connected with Samuel on a screen pass and picked up 15 yards.

"You only got a couple passes in there, but felt good with what we were doing," Allen added.

The rest of the starting unit (minus Allen) remained in the game through the beginning of the second quarter with Trubisky under center. The veteran backup completed his first four pass attempts, including a 19-yard gain to Shakir and a quick curl route to Coleman for eight yards on a third-and-six play. The drive ended with a Tyler Bass field goal from 24 yards.

Buffalo's defense saw the pro debut of QB Caleb Williams. The No. 1 overall pick flashed his big-play potential with two passes that went for over 30-yard gains but the Bills D held strong in the red zone to force two field goals.

After two drives with both team's starting units on the field, the Bears led 6-3.

"Red zone defense kept us in the game early," head coach Sean McDermott said.

DT Ed Oliver got shaken up on the first play of the game with a knee issue but was cleared to return.

With DT DaQuan Jones, LB Von Miller and LB Matt Milano not available to play today, DT Austin Johnson, AJ Epenesa and LB Dorian Williams all got the starting nod. Williams had a team-high six tackles and a sack of Bears backup QB Tyson Bagent. Damar Hamlin started at safety alongside Taylor Rapp.

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2 — Rookie class sees lots of action

The Bills had three of their rookies from the 2024 NFL Draft sit out due to injury: S Cole Bishop, LB Edefuan Ulofoshio and OL Travis Clayton. That meant seven players from the rookie class suited up and many of them contributed in meaningful ways during the game.

WR Keon Coleman was on the field for every snap of the Bills first two drives, earning three targets and catching one pass that resulted in a first down. The other two were passes in the end zone, but both passes from Trubisky were off target.

"I thought he looked comfortable," McDermott said of Coleman. "I thought he looked like it wasn't too big for him and that's part of being a young player and adjusting and that didn't surprise."

RB Ray Davis was the second back in after James Cook. While Davis didn't have many holes to run through, he was utilized often in the passing game. He had three catches for 19 runs and shook off the initial tackler multiple times.

Third-round pick DT DeWayne Carter rotated in with the starting defensive line and finished the day with two tackles. He shared his thoughts on his performance, complimenting the defensive line's communication.

"We put a huge emphasis on (communication) in practice. I think we got there today. I think it went pretty smooth. We're on the same page. The chemistry and continuing to come together. But as far as that goes, I felt very comfortable," he said.

OT Tylan Grable saw snaps with the second unit on the offensive line and DE Javon Solomon played with both the second and third team.

One player to continue to watch this preseason is CB Deaquan Hardy. The speedy sixth-round pick rotated in with the backups in the secondary, lining up as both an outside and inside corner. More notably, he was one of two returners on the field to open the game and lined up at punt returner. Though he did have a 17-yard punt return, McDermott noticed the rookie having some difficulty tracking the ball in the air with the wind gusts.

"That wind gusts pretty hard there and so that's something that we have to get them over here to do more to start to understand the wind and how it works here," McDermott said.

Playing in his first @NFL game for his hometown team.

Dream come true for Buffalo native @JoeAndreessen. 😍 #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/QuqC2J6i7W
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) August 10, 2024

3 — Offense unable reach the end zone

Outside of a few splash plays, it was a quiet day for the Bills offense all around. The Bills had just 200 total yards and averaged 3.1 yards per play, compared to 340 yards and 6.5 yards per play by the Bears.

"A ton to work on and our standard was not out there today. That's not how we play. So there's a lot that we need to do to get ourselves ready to go here," McDermott said about the overall performance.

The run game in particular plagued the Bills as the team's four running backs totaled just 36 yards. McDermott explained what he noticed that led to the struggles.

"There's not much more to say other than we didn't control the line of scrimmage from the jump," McDermott said. "We'll look at the film obviously and it'll hit us right in his face in terms of what we didn't do well."

Allen had a different perspective of the run game, noting that they had very few concepts in.

"We only had three or four runs in and again, we didn't game plan at all for what they were going to do on defense," Allen said. "I know we got a lot of different stunts, a lot of different pressures into those. So it's all good work."

QB Mitch Trubisky helped lead both of Buffalo's scoring drives, finishing the day 10 of 18 for 82 yards passing. QB Shane Buechele came in half way through the third quarter, going 6 of 10 passing for 53 yards and an interception that was returned for a touchdown.

The Bills will be on the road next week in Pittsburgh to face the Steelers. The two teams will have a closed joint practice Thursday before Saturday's game.