Here's the Bills news of note for Aug. 11th.
1 – Peterman impresses in debut!In his first action in the NFL, Nathan Peterman looked calm and polished as he led the third team offense on Thursday. The 2017 fifth-round pick used both his arm and legs as he engineered a touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter. Peterman stated that he couldn't have been happier with his NFL debut.
"It was fun to just get out there and play again," said Peterman. "It's been a few months since I've seen live action. So, it was good to get out there and play a game I love."
Peterman stated that it was nice to get out there in a real situation and play with teammates that he's been practicing with for a couple weeks at training camp. One of Peterman's targets, Dez Lewis, was impressed with the rookie quarterback."I felt like Nate did a tremendous job with his leadership out there," said Lewis. "I've never seen a rookie QB that calm and confident in the pocket back there."
Peterman's poise was also noticed by Buffalo's head coach.
"Nate in his first experience and first chance to get out there in an NFL game, I thought he handled himself well," Sean McDermott said. "He was poised and showed great composure. He did face some pressure which was expected and he did a nice job."
Peterman also showed that he could use his legs if needed. On his scoring drive, Peterman ran twice for 22 yards. On several occasions, he also used his mobility to avoid pressure from the Viking's defense. Peterman stated that he doesn't consider himself a runner, but he said he's willing to do whatever helps the team.
Peterman capped off his touchdown drive with a nice touch pass to the corner of the end zone, which was caught by Lewis. The drive went 13 plays for 79 yards. He completed six of eight passes for 44 yards on the drive. He ended the night 13 of 25 for 112 yards passing.
2 – Special teams has turbulent night
The unit that saw flags flying against them early for the Bills on Thursday was special teams. With unforced errors, and several penalties, special teams put their offense in a hole at times. Heading into the second preseason game, kick coverage will certainly be scrutinized in practice.
Taking three penalties in the first half, the special teams unit had unforced errors. An unnecessary roughness and facemask call, highlighted the penalties taken by the unit in the first half. In the second half, special teams improved slightly, only taking one penalty, which was committed on a punt return.
"I can deal with at times, aggressive penalties," said head coach Sean McDermott. "The pre-snap and the post whistle penalties I can't handle. Those are not a part of a winning formula for a football team. So all the penalties obviously limited us offensively and sometimes defensively and special teams wise to what we tried to get done. Penalties are not a part of the process in terms of winning football. You don't beat yourselves."
Despite a tough night for the unit overall, the kicking of Stephen Hauschka and Colton Schmidt was strong. Hauschka made a 42-yard field goal in the first half to cap off a nice drive by the first team offense. Schmidt had an average net yardage of 44.5 yards on his punts.
With three more preseason games, and a couple more weeks of practices, the unit should be improved by the start of the season.
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Check out photos from Buffalo's 2017 preseason opener against Minnesota at New Era Field.
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