The Bills won their first game of the preseason in a low scoring affair against the Pittsburgh Steelers 9-3.
Even without the offense scoring any touchdowns, head coach Sean McDermott seemed much more satisfied with the energy that the team played with, saying that they played closer to their standard.
"I understand it's preseason, but it's always good to win," head coach Sean McDermott said to start his post-game press conference. "I thought the guys played extremely hard. They were having fun out there, physical... Thought defense really showed up. Special teams did some good things. Good to get some of those young guys some good playing time and thought we could have gotten in a better rhythm with the one offense. But plenty to work on as we move forward here."
The standard was much more evident this game with the Bills starting the game with much more energy, despite the shorter warmup period due to rain and lightning in Pittsburgh.
The difference in the amount of energy from week 1 to week 2 was evident from the opening kickoff as the Bills started the game on defense and EDGE Greg Rousseau forced an early three-and-out on the Steelers offense by sacking Russel Wilson on a third-and-long.
"Coach McDermott always talks about the line of scrimmage, so being able to go out there and get sacks on, get three sacks in the first two possessions and two sacks on the first two 3rd downs, was, I feel like, I feel like it was huge," Rousseau said.
Rousseau continued his dominant first quarter, adding on 1.5 more sacks and ending another drive with another sack of Wilson.
"That's the standard, though," LB Dorian Williams said. "You know, I mean, three and out, get off the field, and that's, that's what we all, you know, that's we all in for, as we all want to do. We want to take the ball away a little bit more, but, you know, we'll get there."
Although QB Josh Allen did not play, the offense seemed to find a little bit of their stride. QB Mitchell Trubisky was able to dial up a scoring drive right before the two-minute warning in the second quarter and produced a field goal.
The offense picked it up even more in the second half when QB Ben DiNucci subbed in the game. RB Ray Davis saw six straight carries that brought the offense into the red zone and set the tempo for their smash mouth approach in the second half.
"Yeah, I think for us, it's just going out there and getting playing Bills football and understanding the standard and expectations that that coach put forth on us to just go out there, just play our game and understand last week is last week... That's behind us…," Davis said. "Our line stepped up. They did what they had to do, and it was about just going to get those hidden yards."
The run game looked different than it did in their first preseason game against the Bears, in which the offense struggled to find any running room. This time, rookies RB Ray Davis and RB Frank Gore Jr. led the way with eight carries each, with the former rushing for 58 yards and the latter adding an additional 41 yards on the ground. This included a stretch early in the third quarter where Davis carried the ball six times in a row.
"Yeah, you got to show up," Davis said. "That's the reason why you get drafted to a place like this, and having a good guy in front of you, James [Cook]. Got to go out there and be able to set the pace just like him. And I was proud to be able to go out there and take that pace and keep the ball churning. Really wanted to get in the end zone towards that last run, but at the end of the day, as long as I was able to do my job and help the O line get positive gains and positive yards, I think it went well."
Among the top performers, rookie LB Joe Andreessen put on a great performance, starting at MLB and calling the defense in place of LB Terrel Bernard who was inactive.
"Yeah, I think two days ago maybe they told me," Andreessen said. "It was definitely a sense of nervousness coming over me when they told me. But, kind of like I said, I'm an undrafted guy, and I kind of looked at it as an opportunity, kind of like nothing to lose… I'm a rookie tryout guy, so it was just something to take full advantage of, and hopefully I showed it to people out there."
Andreessen led all defensive players with 12 tackles on the night and showed his teammates, friends and family that were in attendance, and coaches what he was capable of.
"Yeah, no, he's that guy, you know, he went out there," Rousseau said of Andreessen. "You couldn't sense any fear with Joe. Stepped up to the plate, called it with the ones, and it was great seeing him fly around there and making open field tackles and doing his thing."
The Bills have one more preseason game against the Panthers on Aug. 24 before the regular season begins and will look to perform to their standard one more time as they did against the Steelers.
"I mean, really what I just said, it was, you come out with the proper amount of energy, you're flying around, you understand the game plan, you understand what your job is," McDermott said. "You can play fast when you do that. And they were pulling for one another out there, also, playing for one another and I felt that. So, that's really where it started."
