By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist
How bad was the Bills’ 38-0 preseason loss to the Bears Sunday night at Chicago’s Soldier Field?
Well, all you need know is that it was Buffalo’s worst exhibition defeat in the franchise’s 66-year history.
Yeah, it was meaningless with the regular season just under three weeks away, but the thrashing was disquieting to coach Sean McDermott.
“I’m concerned about a lot of things coming off of tonight,” he said after the debacle. “(I’ve) gotta look at the film and really just see who we have, who can help us, what we may need and also things we can be better (at) execution-wise and fundamentally. There’s a lot that needs to be cleaned up.”
Buffalo (0-2) went into its second preseason game with optimism after having a successful joint practice against the Bears on Friday.
But Sunday was a fiasco … start to finish.
THE STATISTICS were galling:
First Downs: Chicago 31, Buffalo 12
Plays: Bears 83, Bills 43
Yards: Chicago 528, Buffalo 180
Passing Yards: Bears 357, Bills 103
Rushing Yards: Chicago 171, Buffalo 77
Penalties: Bears 5-for-63, Bills 10-for-96
Time of Possession: Chicago just over 39 minutes, Buffalo just under 21.
IN HIS post-game press conference McDermott understated, “That was not up to our standard … what we expect.
“We certainly have a lot of work to do, that’s very clear.”
He added, “We felt we could compete with their ones (starters) but against their twos, threes and fours (stringers), it didn’t get much better.
“We have to evaluate some of the guys and see where we stand. We had some momentum coming off the (joint) practice which I thought was good for us. However, tonight we were not even close.”
OF IMMEDIATE concern was the poor performance by the injury-riddled safety corps. Starters Taylor Rapp (knee) didn’t play and Cole Bishop, the only starter who saw action, struggled. Top reserve Cam Lewis (calf) was inactive and Damar Hamlin seemed over-matched.
The best of the group was fifth-round draft choice Jordan Hancock who had a game-high eight tackles (five solos) and a stop for a loss.
ALSO having a tough game was backup middle linebacker Joe Andreessen, the walk-on free agent from UB who quickly earned the iconic nickname “Buffalo Joe.”
Against the Bears he had trouble in pass coverage and was late tracking plays.
But he was hardly the only Bill who had a tough night.
Reserve offensive tackle Ryan Van Demark managed to be called for false starts on consecutive snaps and running back Frank Gore Jr., who rushed for 51 yards and caught four balls for 30 more had a lapse in ball security with a careless lost fumble.
Elijah Moore, one of the wide receiver hopefuls, dropped two balls.
And Mike White did absolutely nothing to tighten the competition between him and Mitchell Trubisky to be Josh Allen’s backup quarterback.
It was a bad night all around.
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
