Plethora of Penalties Gives Bills 'A Lot to Learn From'

The Buffalo Bills were charged with 13 penalties that cost them 93 yards in Saturday's preseason loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Even the city of Pittsburgh ... home of the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates ... might've thought there was a little too much yellow involved in Saturday's NFL preseason game at Acrisure Stadium. 

The Buffalo Bills racked up 13 charges in Saturday's exhibition, losing 93 yards via yellow beanie during a 27-15 loss to the aforementioned Steelers. A plethora of preseason penalties can often be blamed on the disorientation of the inexperienced. That excuse rings hollow in Western New York: starters played the whole first quarter, which featured the only form of six flags that aren't fun. Buffalo lost 46 yards alone on those penalties, which paved the path for a 14-0 deficit after the first 15 minutes. 

It also certainly doesn't help that a nearly-full field's worth of penalties came exactly a week after the Bills racked up eight charges for 59 yards in the summer exhibition opener against Indianapolis.

“Absolutely unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said of the large laundry list. "I thought we addressed it last week by pulling guys out of the play when you're out there at training camp practice, but obviously that didn't get the job done, so we go back to the drawing board. 

"Then guys got to do it. They've got to take ownership of it and responsibility. It's not like we don't talk about discipline. That's a part of our environment, but obviously, we've got more work to do there."

Buffalo's starters were mostly stagnant in three Saturday possessions but any momentum they were hoping to generate was wiped out by the referee's handkerchief. On their second drive, deep balls from Josh Allen to Gabe Davis placed the Bills (1-1) at the cusp of scoring position. But a 10-yard second down from the Pittsburgh 38 got pushed back nine yards due to Spencer Brown's illegal block below the waist on what would've been a six-yard pass to Deonte Harty. 

A further five-yard pushback came when guard Connor McGovern jumped the snap and Brown found himself with the worst kind of box score entry with a 10-yard holding call. The last call in that three-penalty stretch wiped out a 35-yard hook-up between Allen and Davis that put the Bills in the red zone.

Instead, they faced 2nd and 34. 

“I don't think that there's any excuse. I don't want to put the words ‘it’s preseason’ in the air,” guard Dion Dawkins said, per the Buffalo News. “We have a standard and at times, it wasn't up to our standard. That's a good thing with having something like the preseason, but I don't want to say ‘Oh, preseason, who cares?’"

Dawkins was one of four Bills called for a false start on Saturday, joining McGovern, Quinton Morris, and Dalton Kincaid. 

Allen and his premier cohorts lasted only four more plays after that second down that conjured memories of the "NFL Blitz" franchise's stand  30-yard down and distances. The quarterback tried to pass off the flags as a learning opportunity in the immediate aftermath.

"Pre-snap penalties, some post-snap penalties, those are going to happen, but you can't have the pre-snap ones. So a lot to learn from," Allen said. "We're just going to get into our film room and get back to working against our defense for the time being. The start of the season is a couple weeks away, so we've got to be prepared and focused on that and get ready for the (New York) Jets on Monday night,"

Before that marquee Monday matchup with the Jets, the Bills have one more preseason game as they'll face the Chicago Bears on Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field (1 p.m. ET, WIVB).

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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