Week 2 of the preseason continues the razor’s edge of the roster for many players. Now is the time for outstanding work to gain recognition. Or, in some cases, for mistakes to push you down the depth chart. Let’s check in on the latter as we review the penalties committed by the Buffalo Bills against the Carolina Panthers.
The chart is much like last week’s except for the addition of cumulative/team numbers at the bottom. As a reminder, we’ll only be looking at Buffalo Bills penalties.
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This week was a little more interesting—which is of course a bad thing. The 18.7 harm was more than twice the total of last week and firmly in the category of “bad.” In addition to an overall higher volume, the Bills also impacted more yards and downs than they did against the Indianapolis Colts.
Four different players committed offensive holding, including three linemen. Most of these were from depth players looking to get noticed but going about it the wrong way. Quinton Spain looks to be the starting left guard. His holding call this week adds to last week’s flag and suggests a pattern we’d rather not see.
Shaq Lawson doesn’t have an alarming history of penalties and the roughing the passer shouldn’t be a concern in the long run. This flag and the one on Mike Love during the field goal try helped extend a drive leading to points for the Panthers. It’s officially listed as “unsportsmanlike conduct” for Love. If you recall, this is the leverage penalty.
Like most of the holding calls, the remaining flags were mainly from back-end guys where this kind of attention is an issue. For Jarron Jones and Nick Easley this is amplified as both were flagged twice despite limited snaps.
To add one final note, the flag on Denzel Rice would officially be logged as a special-teams snap during the regular season recaps. Occurring on a two-point attempt, I liked the hybrid listing to show that.
We’re already halfway done with the preseason and soon the roster will be set. As most players attempt to garner attention, we’ll continue to bring you one article fringe players would rather not appear in.