Well the preseason is finally over, and the Buffalo Bills will move on to the regular season. (Well, most of them.) As the team contemplates the roster cutdowns, practice squad spots, and more here are our takeaways from the game against the Chicago Bears.
0.0 to hero
AJ McCarron was auditioning for his next job tonight and he was pretty terrible in the first half. Instead of upping his trade value, he reinforced why he languished on the free agent market for so long. His QB rating was 0.0 for a time in the second half after his two interceptions (one returned for a touchdown) and multiple incompletions, but he scampered in for a five-yard fourth quarter touchdown run, and threw three touchdown passes to cap a 25-point final frame.
Some roster battles decided
The Bills sat a lot of players due to the short turnaround from Sunday’s game. Running back Marcus Murphy, tight end Jason Croom, and the entire starting offensive line (including both Ryan Groy and Russell Bodine) were among those that didn’t play on offense while the top four cornerbacks were among those sidelined on defense.
Young wide receivers not getting a ton of playing time
It was deep into the game before Malachi Dupre and Robert Foster even saw the field. McCarron threw to them. Austin Proehl got in and didn’t see a target. Brandon Reilly was in on the final drive.
Brandon Beane shares on TV
During the fourth quarter, general manager Brandon Beane joined the television broadcast to answer a lot of questions. While they weren’t hard-hitting with the interviewers wearing Bills logos on their shirts, he did share a lot of information. He said the following:
- Nathan Peterman helped Brian Daboll unpack his office.
- He’ll know the final 53-man roster by the time he goes to bed Friday and he will be joined by coach Sean McDermott when they tell guys they are cut.
- Saturday is the longest day of his year. They get the list of cuts from around the league at 8 p.m. and go through the nearly 1000 names. They’ll leave at 2 a.m., get back at 6:30 a.m. in order to notify the league office by noon on Sunday.
- He spent a lot of time talking about how things have slowed down for Josh Allen since his rookie minicamp.
Quick outs
- Ray-Ray McCloud left the game with four minutes left in the game with a knee injury.
- Siran Neal had ten tackles.
- Logan Thomas was in the game deep into the fourth quarter while Nick O’Leary started at tight end.
- Oh, the Bills beat the Bears, 28-27, and both teams kept calling timeouts and challenging plays late into the fourth quarter of the final preseason game. McCarron’s touchdown pass with 13 seconds left capped a feverish comeback by Buffalo.