As they find in some autopsies, the patient was dead before they hit the ground. The Buffalo Bills went to Chicago and somewhere between the scrimmage and the game on Sunday night, the Bills fell off a cliff and left a stinking corpse on Soldier Field, losing to the Bears 38-0. I can only imagine Bobby Babich and Joe Brady’s state of mind when they boarded a very late flight back to Buffalo after that thrashing.
However… and you knew this was coming if you know me as a Bills fan. My vocation in life these days is to talk Buffalo sports fans off the cliff. Yes, it was just a preseason game. But, it was in fact was a horrible one for Bills fans to watch. It was ‘Murphy’s Law’ from start to finish and left most of us feeling like we ate waaaay too much cotton candy at the Erie County Fair.
As our good friend and mentor Bruce Nolan (@BruceExclusive) might suggest, times like these call for dog pictures. Many, many dog pictures. But Bruce would also ask us to put on our logic goggles and take a peak at what really happened on Soldier Field Sunday night.
First, consider for your thinking pleasure about the divergent goals both head coaches likely had as they entered this preseason contest. Ben Johnson is a rookie head coach coming over from Detroit to lead the Bears out of the basement of the NFC North division. Sean McDermott has a Super Bowl worthy roster trying to keep as many players healthy as he can before the season opener against the Baltimore Ravens.
Make no mistake, Ben Johnson needed to set the tone for his young team. Supporting evidence is the fact that he played many of his first string players against the Bills’ backups for a good portion of the first half (which seemed to last almost as long as a full game).
Buffalo on the other hand only played a handful of veterans like WRs Joshua Palmer and Elijah Moore because they needed the extra reps in Joe Brady’s system. Rookie DTs TJ Sandler and Deone Walker saw extended work to get ready to play more while Larry Ogunjobi and Michael Hoecht sit out the first six games for using performance enhancing drugs.
Both head coaches wanted to win the game, of course. But only Ben Johnson needed a statement win in an otherwise meaningless preseason game.
However, execution by the backup players for the Buffalo Bills was abysmal to say the least. Mike White solidified the end of the QB2 battle by the end of the first quarter. You could almost feel the ‘helter skelter’ dissipate out of the air when Mitch Trubisky entered the game. White overthrew, underthrew and bobbled passes all over the field. Ray Davis couldn’t get anything going because White was not exactly a threat in the passing game.
Plus, let’s remember this… please.
There is no game planning. There were specific things the coaches were looking at in evaluating the bottom half of the roster. But that also can’t excuse odiferous execution to the point of near absurdity by the time the game mercifully ended.
In these types of situations, I always rely upon my trusted optimistic nature to find some pearls of wisdom or a beacon of light, no matter how small.
So, here are mine:
Jordan Hancock had himself a game before leaving with a shoulder injury, despite Damar Hamlin showing again that he takes bad angles and is definitely a roster bubble candidate no matter how much we may love him. Hancock is showing the steady improvement you hope to see from a later round draft pick in his rookie season.
Michael Hoecht was all over the field having fans in Buffalo thinking he could become a better version and second coming of Lorenzo Alexander. The Bills will certainly miss his veteran savvy against the Ravens in the season opener.
Mitch Trubisky clearly ended any QB controversy with a definable difference in how the backups played with him behind center. The Bills would be wise to let Shane Buechele play the entire last preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers except for any plays Josh Allen might wish to make to tune up. That being said, I’d be perfectly fine if Josh did not see the field at all in the preseason. It’s a risk worth taking IMO.
Which brings me to my final thought… there is a very good chance Buffalo may lose their season opener against Baltimore on Sunday Night Football. The preseason game against the Bears did nothing to quell my concern about just how deep this Bills team really is.. or not. The Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen have been known to start out slow in their performances early in the season. The Ravens have a very good team feeling mighty butt hurt after losing to Buffalo in the playoffs.
Don’t panic if that happens. We’ve seen the Bills rip off winning streaks after losing a big game. I still see a 13-4 team if they stay relatively healthy. But the ramp up to this season has certainly not been pretty. That’s why at my age, I’ve learned there’s a good reason to live day to day.
Editor’s babble: More of my blabber can be found on Xwitter @RobynMundyWYO.
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