With two preseason games in the book, the Bills are 1-1 and there were some impressive showings from a select few players during that duration. However, very few of those showing were from offensive players.
It's no secret to Bills fans that Josh Allen being on the field is the most important aspect of seeing success. However, with Allen only playing two total drives in this preseason, it shows how bad this Bills offense is without him.
The offense has yet to score a touchdown in these games, and it could very well be because some players, especially the starters, are shaking off rust or trying to avoid injury. However, even with the starting offense on the field, they haven't shown up to their full potential.
Some improvements were made from this past game against Pittsburgh, as the offensive line looked 10 times better than it did against the Bears. Every back who carried the ball looked good in the running game, and the snap exchanges from the centers were much better.
However, one part of the offense that was missing was the passing game. Josh Allen didn't play in the preseason game against the Steelers, and the starting offense with Mitch Trubisky didn't look impressive. Trubisky took some unwanted sacks made some questionable decisions, and had an errant throw that resulted in a bad interception.
Trubisky was out there for the entire half, so he was even facing backups and was still struggling, and scored a measly three points. Things got a little better when newly acquired quarterback Ben Dinucci came in, as he led his offense to six points (off of field goals), mainly thanks to the Bills' running game.
The severe lack of success is also likely due to the quality of the backups that were playing and due to it just being preseason, but the offense looks completely different when #17 is on the field. Last year, many backups around the league were pretty successful when the starters went down. For example, Bengals' quarterback Jake Browning and Vikings/Cardinals' quarterback Joshua Dobbs both stepped up at times in replacement of the starters.
However, given the circumstances, there's little chance that any other backup can be successful within the Bills offense, which proves how valuable Allen is to the Bills.