The Buffalo Bills have spent the last few weeks – no, Months– are preparing for their season opener on August 10 against the Chicago Bears. The game would be the team’s first official game of the 2024 season and the first opportunity to showcase its revamped roster to Buffalo fans against a real opponent.

Now you want to forget the game as quickly as possible.

Buffalo was significantly outmatched in the first preseason game and looked disinterested overall as Chicago took an early lead and continued to add to it as the game went on. The game ended 33-6 with few Bills players putting in overwhelmingly impressive performances as the entire team looked apathetic.

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The offensive line had constant problems creating time for the quarterbacks and space for the running backs. The defensive line was unable to generate consistent pressure. The defense as a whole seemed disinterested in tackling late in the game. It was an overall disappointing and uneventful game, with even the Bills looking bored; head coach Sean McDermott was not at all happy with the performance and criticized his team after the ugly loss.

“Maybe the red zone defense kept us in the game a little bit early in the game, but other than that, there’s a lot of work to do,” McDermott said in his postgame press conference. “A lot of work to do. Our level wasn’t out there today, that’s not how we play. There’s a lot we have to do to prepare here.”

A reporter then asked McDermott if it was safe to assume he was unhappy with much of what happened on the Highmark Field turf on Saturday, to which the head coach replied curtly from the sidelines: “You’re right.”

Chicago managed 140 more total net yards than Buffalo on 13 fewer plays, an indication of the energy and enthusiasm with which both teams played. The Bills also incurred a total of 11 penalties during the game, which McDermott said had a significant impact on the outcome.

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“We have to learn from this,” McDermott said. “We have to be honest with what we saw out there, and actually it started with us inflicting a fair amount on ourselves with pre-snap penalties. I think eight of the 11, I think we had 11 penalties total, eight of them were in some form pre-snap or post-snap, in this case pre-snap. Let’s just start with that, shall we? Self-inflicted wounds are hard to overcome, and then you have to play against an opponent on the other side.

“To their credit, they played well. We can learn a lot from this and I’m confident we can do that. I’m excited to see a lot of guys, too. I hope the goal is at least to have everyone there in some capacity. So I’m happy for the players who have never played in an NFL game before that they were there and got to go out and see some work.”

This preseason loss, thankfully, has no lasting impact on Buffalo’s 2024 season; in fact, the ugly result could actually benefit the team if it learns the right lessons. The Bills will have their next opportunity to film better reps when they face the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium next weekend in Week 2 of the preseason.

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