The Bills won their first game of the preseason in a low-scoring game against the Pittsburgh Steelers 9-3.
Even though the offense didn’t score any touchdowns, head coach Sean McDermott seemed much happier with the energy the team played with and said they played closer to their level.
“I understand it’s preparation, but it’s always good to win,” head coach Sean McDermott said at the start of his postgame press conference. “I thought the guys played extremely hard. They had fun out there, were physical… I thought the defense really stepped up. The special teams did some good things. It’s good that some of those young guys got some good playing time, and I think we could have found a better rhythm with the one offense. But there’s still a lot of work to do moving forward here.”
The level was much more evident in this game, as the Bills entered the game with much more energy despite the shorter warm-up period due to rain and thunderstorms in Pittsburgh.
The difference in the amount of energy between Week 1 and Week 2 was evident from the opening kickoff, as the Bills started the game on defense and EDGE Greg Rousseau forced an early three-and-out on the Steelers offense by sacking Russell Wilson on a third-and-long.
“Coach McDermott always talks about the line of scrimmage. For him to be able to go out there and get sacks, three sacks in his first two possessions and two sacks in his first two third downs, I think was huge,” Rousseau said.
Rousseau continued his dominant first quarter, recording 1.5 more sacks and ending another drive with another sack of Wilson.
“That’s the standard though,” LB Dorian Williams said. “You know, I mean, three and out, down the field, and that’s, that’s what we all, you know, that’s what we all want to do because we all want to do it. We want to take the ball away a little bit more, but, you know, we’re going to get it done.”
Although QB Josh Allen was not used, the offense seemed to get back on track. QB Mitchell Trubisky was able to start an attack shortly before the two-minute warning in the second quarter and scored a field goal.
