Bills HC Sean McDermott concerned, but realistic about preseason scoring woes

Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott both is and isn't concerned with his team's noticeable lack of a touchdown through two preseason games.

Anthony Miller | Aug 20, 2024

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

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The Buffalo Bills have played eight quarters of preseason football thus far this year, and while the contests are ultimately meaningless in terms of the standings, there's been a concerning constant: the team's offense, through two games, has yet to find the end zone.

The Bills scored two field goals in their 33-6 preseason Week 1 loss to the Chicago Bears before scoring three field goals in their 9-3 defensive battle triumph over the Pittsburgh Steelers the next week. Head coach Sean McDermott addressed those issues in his press conference on Monday, stating that he both is and isn't concerned by the lack of touchdowns.

“Yes and no," McDermott said. "When you are not scoring points on offense, is it a concern? Yeah, because that’s what we are looking to do on offense. That said, I think if you dive into it and you’re looking at why, I think there’s been some times where we have moved the chains enough to get into a rhythm and then we shoot ourselves in the foot as I mentioned.“

The offense struggled to get much of anything going in Buffalo's Week 1 loss against the Bears due to poor offensive line play; the unit allowed eight sacks and rarely created any ground in the run game. Last week, the offense threw for less than 100 net yards between Mitch Trubisky and Ben DiNucci but got nice production from the running attack as they rushed for 167 yards in the win.

For McDermott, it’s all about the offense sustaining long drives and finishing them with touchdowns.

“I’ll start there with the pre-snap discipline," McDermott said. "Any more in this league, you have to drive the length of the field or you have to have potentially eight, nine, ten, 11, 12-play drives to score a touchdown, that’s where the league is of late, at least. In order to do that, you gotta stack one good play after another and that’s what we at this point have failed to do enough to light up the scoreboard the way we want to. Some of that is detail that leads to execution and again, it takes all 11 guys to be on their details and discipline to get that level of play that we are looking for.”

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Buffalo holds a 1-1 record in the preseason but has only scored 15 points through two games thanks to Tyler Bass converting on his five field goals. A significant portion of the scoring woes can perhaps be attributed to the lack of star quarterback Josh Allen, who has played in only one of eight preseason quarters; the starters are not expected to play against the Carolina Panthers on Saturday.

There are injury concerns with the Bills that could further damper the performance of the offense this weekend. Trubisky is dealing with a knee injury that will result in him missing time. That will leave DiNucci and the (reportedly) recently signed Anthony Brown to help the offense get some momentum before their regular season debut against the Arizona Cardinals next month.

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