Preseason football made its debut in Western New York as the Buffalo Bills were set to host the Chicago Bears for their first game. Head coach Sean McDermott had announced that Josh Allen and all of the starters would play for atleast a quarter so fans were going to get a Caleb Williams vs. Josh Allen treat for atleast 15 minutes.
The Bears started the game on offense and took the Bills defense down the field before they had to settle for a field goal. Then behold, Allen ran out onto the field and received an ovation from the fans in the stands. However, the energy went down quickly as the Bills went three-and-out quickly where they only gained six yards before punting it away.
Sam Martin punted the ball all the way down inside the Bears’ five-yard line. However, Williams once again led the Bears down the field into field goal range where they would go up 6-0 after Buffalo stopped them once again. There was time for one more drive for Allen who came back out onto the field and managed to pick up two first downs for the Bills before the end of the quarter.
At the start of the second quarter, Allen was pulled from the game for Mitch Trubisky. The Bills kept driving down the field and created an 18-play drive for 78 yards. Trubisky was looking to get the ball to tight end Quintin Morris (who was wide open in the endzone) but Trubisky overthrew him. Later on, Trubisky targeted Keon Coleman twice in the endzone but was not able to connect. Therefore, the Bills first points of the preseason came from kicker Tyler Bass.
The Bills' slow offensive start is concerning
Sure, it is the very first preseason game where the main goal is to stay healthy and evaluate the players. However, it was also important to see how the starting offense would click in a real game situation. They did not show the best preview. Even though the Bills’ defense has been the ones saving Buffalo from falling into a big deficit, the offense was unable to make any magic happen which just puts more pressure on the defense.
These two drives with Allen under center may have been the only ones that Bills fans will see for the rest of the preseason. If that is indeed true, then Joe Brady has a lot of work to do with the offense to display a better outing as the regular season approaches.