Trouble In The Secondary
While much of the success for the Bills came in the middle of the field, the Panthers backups in the secondary had a rough day at the office as well. Although Lorenzo Doss had a fourth-quarter interception in the end zone that was a deep pass into double coverage by UDFA quarterback Tyree Jackson, Doss – and the rest of the defense – allowed running back Christian Wade to rumble his way to the two-yard line with a 48-yard catch-and-run that saw the player from the International Pathways Program break four poorly-attempted tackles as he went downfield.
The big plays were on display for the Bills – wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie took a tunnel screen 37 yards and was only knocked out of bounds by a trailing Rashaan Gaulden who came screaming across the field – Ross Cockrell took what looked to be the wrong angle on the play and allowed McKenzie to break into the second level untouched. Corn Elder – who got the first nickel reps tonight – couldn’t contain Beasley, who had five catches on five targets for 44 yards. When Javien Elliott – who got the first-team reps at nickelback last week – was matched up with 6-2 Duke Williams, Elliott got turned around and Williams had an easy touchdown to put the Bills up 24-3.
Trouble In The Pocket
Last week, both Kyle Allen and Will Grier shook off early jitters to lead nice drives before exiting the field – that wasn’t the case tonight as neither established a leg up in the competition to become the backup quarterback. Both quarterbacks looked inaccurate – Grier overthrew multiple receivers and made a poor decision throwing into double coverage for a 71-yard pick-six by Kevin Johnson. Allen finished 4-of-11 for 32 yards and Grier finished 10-of-19 for 75 yards.
Grier led the team to points on two drives – the first being a drive that consisted of 23 yards of offense and 30 yards of penalties on the Bills and the second a four-play, 25 second drive that covered 31 yards and got them into field goal range at the end of the first half.
“I think that it was a combination of a lot of things,” said Allen. “I think when I was in, it’s starts with me obviously, you want to get that offense going and just execution in general was the issue. It’s disappointing to see because I think we had a good gameplan and I really think we matched up well against them.”
“We kept stubbing our own toes.”
Rivera may have put it more simply when asked how his quarterbacks could have played better.
“Not throw the ball high.”
The best of the three quarterbacks was probably Taylor Heinicke, who played the fourth quarter in mop-up duty and finished 8-of-12 for 78 yards and led the Panthers on their only touchdown drive and has been the forgotten man in this quarterback competition – likely because of the draft capital associated with Grier and the performance of Allen in Week 17 last season.
Troubling Mistakes
The Panthers had fewer penalties than the Bills, only seven for 62 yards – but they came from unexpected places. Four holding penalties to members of the offensive line – Turner, Moton, Little and Daley all were flagged in the first half – although Rivera didn’t agree with some of them, it’s less the penalties that bother him than do the mistakes.
“Those [holding calls] are subjective penalties. I didn’t necessarily agree with all of them,” said Rivera, highlighting the call against Daley that wiped out a Reggie Bonnafon draw play for a first down on third-and-long.
“The biggest thing, moreso than anything else, is you can’t just show up – you’ve got to show up and play and play well. There were too many little mistakes that were really maddening to a coach. You watch guys line up improperly. You watch guys do the wrong thing. That’s what was really probably the most disappointing thing was the mental mistakes.”
“That’s something that just can’t happen.”
Mistakes like using a timeout on the first play of the drive or giving up a touchdown even though you have 12 men on the field. Those are the kinds of plays that happen in the preseason – but this is the time to work out the kinks and get better.
“It’s preseason,” said the always pragmatic Gerald McCoy. “Part of being the preseason is finding out where we look great and where we look terrible. I’ve been a part of preseasons where we’ve blow people out [and] where we got blown out; where we looked like we’d been unstoppable in the preseason, then we get to the regular season and we’re like ‘what happened?’ It’s preseason, you get a good gauge of where you’re at – really, it’s a glorified practice. You want to come out and play well, but you you don’t panic. It’s early, it doesn’t count until the Rams come here.”
“It’s nothing to panic about – it can be fixed.”
