Brady loved the comeback preseason win but now the cuts come

Orchard Park, NY (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Bills trailed the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-17 in the fourth quarter. Shane Buechele played the whole game at quarterback and led them down field to set up Tyler Bass for a 41-yd field goal. Buechele got the ball back and led his team down field again aided by a pass interference call on Tamon Lynum that went for 40 yards down to the Steelers seven yard line. Ian Wheeler ran the ball in from two yards out to make it 27-26 with 1:09 left. Joe Brady went for the two-point conversion and Buechele was under intense pressure, but found an open Dante Pettis to give Buffalo a 28-27 lead and a 3-0 preseason. Joe Brady was pleased with what he saw,

"There was a lot out there tonight that wasn't good enough, but we're down by two scores, the guys don't blink, go down score, go for two and we want our defense on the field in a two-minute situation and they didn't blink and made the opportunities, so there was so much to be proud of for those guys and some of those guys might never play football again and I wanted to be sure they did everything they can to play good football."

Buechele ended up 26-of-38 for 196 yards. He didn't have any touchdowns, but also didn't have any interceptions and completed the two-point conversion to win the game. Earlier in the week Brady said that both Buechele and Kyle Allen would play, but obviously he changed his mind,

"I wanted them all to start (Josh Allen started against the Carolina Panthers and Kyle Allen started against the Cleveland Browns), but it was kind of the flow of the game, Shane was the one quarterback that hasn't gotten a lot of preseason time through the years and with how the game was flowing, I wanted to keep him rolling with it."

Buechele finished the preseason 37-for-57 (64.9%) for 357 yards. Kyle Allen went 24-of-28 (85.7%) for 236 yards and Josh Allen went 6-of-8 (75%) for 111 yards. All three QBs had one touchdown and no interceptions.

I don't know what was said on the TV broadcast, but Brady was asked if Josh Allen called any of the plays. Brady said kiddingly,

"He called the whole fourth quarter."

He then went on to say,

"There was a lot going on in that game and he's on the head set and I'm communicating with him and we're talking the whole game and we had some two-minute drills or and some of the situations I'd be asking him what he was thinking there, but we had a lot of moving parts and I said, 'You know what Josh, let me take this.'"

Even though Allen is going into his ninth season, he's still learning and this experience is very helpful to him. Brady said,

"It's huge, and we've been together for awhile so you hope that he finishes my sentences or understands once we get to certain areas of the field, what I'm thinking and there's so much power that you get into a game, you get into a certain situation and the quarterback's already walking into the huddle because we're thinking the same thing and I don't have to, 'I wonder what Josh would want right here,'

"In the two-minute drill asking him, 'What would be your thoughts right now?' So it's been good for him to be on the headsets."

Fourth-round pick Skyler Bell is finally healthy and showed what he can bring to the table. He was targeted 10 times and had seven catches for 49 yards and showed his speed on a 28-yard touchdown run. The head coach thought the youngster showed his stuff,

"I tried to get him involved, get the ball in his hands and have him go play some football and it's been awhile. You go from not getting a lot of reps to getting one full speed practice to playing a lot of plays and it wasn't too big for him.

"There's going to be a lot of things he's going to want to clean up, but I called that little sweep to him and I didn't know if it was a great call thinking he could barely make it back to the huddle, but once he got the ball in his hands you could feel the speed and he made the most of it after a great block by Pettis."

Brady named Max Hairston his starting cornerback for the season opposite Christian Benford. Hairston was one of the few starters that played in this game and there was a method to Brady's madness with a players that has missed the better part of two training camps,

"You talk about the impact of guys playing in preseason games in terms of what that looks like from a medical standpoint and some of that is how many games he's played in his career and I thought it was important for Maxwell coming off a rookie year where he didn't get to play a preseason game, missed some time last year and I thought it was just good for him to be able to come out, go through it, get a feel of the environment."

Brady said this weekend is not fun for him, because he has to cut the roster down. He often talks about the work these players put in and he hates destroying some of their dreams, but understands it's part of the job.

With the preseason over, now the team gets back to work with the sole focus on Sept. 13 against the Houston Texans.