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Bills Taking Old School Approach to Cut Down on Penalties

Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott is working to clean up penalties by making players run laps after drawing flags.

Jon Alfano

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Coming out of the Buffalo Bills' blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Saturday's preseason game, one of the biggest takeaways was the Bills' struggles with penalties.

The Bills took 13 penalties, including 12 in the first half, that set them back a collective 93 yards. By comparison, the Steelers only had four penalties for a total of 26 yards. No matter how talented a team is, taking that many penalties is absolutely back-breaking.

Naturally, Bills coach Sean McDermott is now making eliminating penalties one of his top priorities in practice, doing whatever it takes to drill the message into players' heads. Reportedly, McDermott made any player who committed a penalty in Tuesday's practice come out and run laps.

This isn't the first time this offseason that McDermott has cracked down on penalties. Last week, he reportedly pulled players out of practice for committing certain infractions.

The Bills' struggles with flags on Saturday came as a surprise as they haven't been a highly-penalized team. Buffalo took 92 penalties last season, which ranked around the middle of the league. The fact that the Bills took eight penalties for 59 yards in their previous game against the Indianapolis Colts was slightly concerning, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

The good news is that this is just the preseason, so the Bills have plenty of time to correct these mistakes. However, Saturday's game serves as a warning for how much penalties can derail a game.

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Jon Alfano
JON ALFANO

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