1. What makes the chemistry in the quarterbacks' room so special?
Quarterback Matt Barkley joined One Bills Live to discuss his preseason and the quarterback's room. Barkley says it's his best preseason he has had through three games—going 29 of 38 for 378 yards and three touchdowns with a quarterback rating of 133.4. Barkley loves what he's seeing out of the new talent on offense.
"We transformed the style of receivers, just added more speed and quickness," Barkley said. "We love to go fast and move the ball. Added a lot of talent this year to be able to do that and already, even though Bease [Cole Beasley] couldn't do much in OTAs, he and Josh have great chemistry so far and Smoke [John Brown] and everyone else."
Barkley says in his second year with the Bills he is looking forward to the season with the chemistry of the group
"Just the comfortability that we all have together, including Tyree [Jackson] and obviously Dabs [Brian Daboll], Dorse [Ken Dorsey] and even Shea Tierney who's in our room," Barkley said. "There's no trying to one up each other. Even the coaches aren't my way or the highway. We are all learning together. We bring plays to them at the beginning of the week to say this is a way we think we can attack this team. We all kind of collaborate together and it's very conducive to becoming a better group."
2. McDermott: Gore and McCoy have been truly consummate pros
Against the Lions, the Bills racked up 147 yards on the ground. LeSean McCoy and Frank Gore led the group in rushing attempts. Gore had eight carries for 57 yards with his longest run being 27 yards. McCoy had six carries for 37 yards with his longest run being 21 yards. In the first two preseason games the Bills put a pass-heavy offense on display, but against Detroit it was all about the run game. On One Bills Live, quarterback Matt Barkley said he thought the team's rushing attack looked good on Friday night.
"We wanted to establish the line of scrimmage," Barkley said. "See what we had up front, let our backs work. I thought we did a fairly good job of that."
Having two vets in Gore and McCoy who have combined for 25,354 career rush yards, head coach Sean McDermott said the two have been great in handling the situation of sharing touches.
"These are unique situations where you're able to have two running backs like we do with their ability and the amount of football that they've seen," McDermott said. "I don't know that there's a lot of people out there that have had that opportunity in their experience. I think it's been something that we've worked and had a lot of conversations about and I tell you the two of those guys, Gore and McCoy, have been truly consummate pros as they've handled it. I think you saw some of the results of it the other night. We were able to run the ball effectively."
3. Two Bills make PFF's top-25 rookie rankings list
Two rookies on the Bills were named to Pro Football Focus' top-25 rookie rankings through the third week of preseason play. Safety Jaquan Johnson is No. 2 on the list and defensive end Darryl Johnson is No. 13.
Jaquan Johnson's grade was 92.1. The safety had his first career interception against the Lions.
The performance of the preseason may have come from Jaquan Johnson in Week 3 where he finished with a 97.7 overall grade and a 96.6 coverage grade. When he's been aligned at free safety, Johnson has seen three targets in coverage and forced an incompletion on all three of those passes.
Darryl Johnson's grade was 82.7.
North Carolina A&T product Darryl Johnson has lit up opposing tackles on occasion this preseason. Johnson has five pressures overall, and his 46.7% pass-rush win rate on third down is unmatched.
Combining the three preseason games so far, Jaquan Johnson has 13 tackles, three pass breakups, one tackle for loss and one forced fumble that he recovered. Darryl Johnson has four tackles, two sacks, one pass breakup and one forced fumble.
