Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Bills opened their preseason on Saturday with a 33-6 shellacking at the hands of the Chicago Bears at Highmark Stadium.
Related
While it was the first ramp up to the upcoming 2024 season of football, Bills head coach Sean McDermott expressed frustration after the loss, feeling his team did not meet the standard they set for themselves.
"The standard is the standard. It's the standard even in a preseason game, preseason Week 1," said McDermott following Saturday's loss with the media. "I don't care who it is, where we're playing, what time of day we play, or, in this case, preseason game No. 1, there is a standard and an expectation when you put the colors on of the Buffalo Bills, to come out and play a lot better than we did, and coach a lot better than we did."
Among the areas of concern for McDermott included cleaning up the penalties, particularly pre-snap penalties, and controlling the line of scrimmage. Overall, the Bills were penalized 11 times in Saturday's contest, while the team's running backs combined for less than two yards per-carry, accumulating 36 rushing yards on 19 attempts.
"Self-inflicted wounds are hard to overcome, and then you've got to play an opponent on the other side," McDermott said of the penalties. "When you don't control the line of scrimmage, it makes it hard to win."
McDermott did cite a few positives from Saturday's loss.
The first, and maybe most important note, was the Bills came out of the game relatively unscathed on the injury front.
McDermott was also happy with Tyler Bass making two fields goals in each direction, while also getting certain players their first NFL action. In addition, McDermott was able to see some good things from each of his quarterbacks who saw the field.
"I thought Josh [Allen] was really solid, and then Mitch [Trubisky] moved the team, I thought. And the same with Shane [Buechele]. Some plays obviously they're going to want back, and some decisions perhaps, but they'll learn from it," McDermott said.
Overall, McDermott acknowledged there are plenty of things for his group to clean up ahead of their second preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers next Saturday.
"A ton to work on. Our standard was not out there today. That's not how we play, so there's a lot that we need to do to get ourselves ready to go," he said.
Hear more from McDermott's entire postgame press conference available in the player below:
