It doesn’t really matter which way you slice it, the Buffalo Bills were ready to play against the Chicago Bears. Much more so than their most recent game prior to it.
In the second week of the exhibition season, the Pittsburgh Steelers made Buffalo’s starters look bad. Bills head coach Sean McDermott then announced the first-stringers would see playing time in the preseason finale–A surprise move. In the past, McDermott typically sits them.
The coach never attributed the poor outing prior to the reason why, but the writing was on the wall.
The starters then aced their exam.
Both on offense and defense, the starting players for the Bills were miles better in their 24-21 win over the Bears.
Sometimes it’s not as cut and dry–But it kind of was in the end according to quarterback Josh Allen. He said he thought Buffalo had a lot more drive and determination in Chicago as opposed to Pittsburgh. It looked that way to observers, too.
“I think just in terms of energy and juice in this game compared to last game guys were ready to go, you can notice the difference,” Allen said via video conference.
“As we ramp up going into the season making sure that we’re getting that feeling and understanding that on game day we gotta be ready to go,” Allen added. “I think guys having that mindset of ‘we’re here let’s get some work’ I think that was important for us.”
Allen made sure to point out the efforts were not one sided. He tipped his cap to the Bills defense for their start to the game: A three-and-out against the Bears offense.
All-in-all, both sides started the contest so well that they were quickly pulled. Allen admitted he thought they’d play longer.
As for why they No. 1s were pulled, McDermott noted a similar answer as Allen.
“They were ready to play and had the right amount of energy going into the game and sustained it.” McDermott said via video conference. “Just wanted to see them come out ready to play and see certain things. For the most part I saw that early and then we started getting some guys out.”
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