Bears and Bills In-Game Blog

Fourth Quarter

Kindle Vildor on the field with 1:10 left in the last preseason game not a good sign for his Chicago longevity. First down rushing finishes it. Bills 24, Bears 21 Final
A 5-yard run on second down by Darrynton Evans and Bills have third-and-5 at their 26 with 1:44 left. Huge completion on a slant to Marcell Ateman for 7 yards. Might be the game. Kyle Allen now 18 of 34 for 162 yards.
Both teams with all their timeouts and Bills at their own 21.
Stephen Carlson with a huge catch of 23 yards to the 5 and then Robert Burns with a 5-yard TD catch with 1:58 to play. The Bears go for two so they can get within a field goal and Burns vaults into the end zone. TWO-MINUTE WARNING!!! Bills 24, Bears 21
Said attendance is 61,001. Most were wearing their cloaks of invisibility to the game.
Isaiah Ford with the big punt block sets the Bears up in business at the Bills 28. They still have a shot. But more importantly, that type of play communicates something about Ford to coaches. Would be tough to make the roster for him but he could be a practice squad player.
The big runs up the middle continue as Ty Johnson rolls for 9 but the Bills must punt with 2:45 left.
The short passing game from Walker got the Bears as far as Buffalo's 34 but an incompletion killed their drive on fourth down. Tough for Walker to stand out with the third-team players on the field.
Bass with a 43-yard field goal try but it's wide right with 7:19 to play. Still, the drive killed off a big chunk of the fourth quarter and the Bears run defense continued to struggle. Pushed off the ball a few yards every run.
Seeing Kendall Williamson out on the field in the fourth quarter with the Bears down 24-13 doesn't say much for the rookie seventh-rounder's bid to make the roster.
P.J. Walker in at QB but the drive dies after a first down. Bagent went 7 of 14 for 43 yards with an interception in his stint.

Former Bears running back Darrynton Evans broke three tackles on a 35-yard TD run to finish a 75-yard drive. Really poor tackling and run defense on that march. Bills 24, Bears 13

Third Quarter

Bills running game working on the third-team Bears defense with 21 yards rushing on the last three plays to put it at the Bears 46. Travis Bell and Andrew Brown are in at defensive tackle for the Bears. Quarter ends with Bills at the Bears 35 after another rushing first down. Bills 17, Bears 13
A 51-yard field goal by Cairo Santos into the wind ended a 12-play drive and the Bears pulled closer. Bills 17, Bears 13
Bears guard Gabe Houy left on a cart after a leg injury while blocking on a running play.
Travis Homer in and caught a screen of 3 yards but ran into his own blocker and the Bears had to settle for a Santos 51-yard field goal into the wind with 4:14 left in the third quarter to get the Bears within 17-13.
Undrafted rookie guard Gabe Houy taken from the field on a cart after a leg injury of some type.
An end-round by Nsimba Webster of 17 yards and reverse by Isaiah Ford for 9 get the Bears out of a big hole and Bagent finally gets some time to throw and completes a 5-yarder for a first down. The pass blocking has been shaky since early in the game.
Bagent has to run it twice, once on a fumbled snap, and then got sacked on third down. He struggling now.
Bagent getting a long look is continuing at QB.
Bears force a punt and Tyler Scott bobbled the fair catch but maintained it at his own 18. The 53 yards rushing on 13 carries by Bills backs hasn't been an impressive Bears effort but the 164 yards passing hasn't helped, either.

Second Quarter

Bills manage a Tyler Bass field goal of 37 yards just before the half. Bills 17, Bears 10
Smith breaks up a third-down pass for Shorter and the Bills went for it on fourth down from the Bears 39 and got it on a pass to Deonte Harty.
Bagent has Stephen Carlson wide open for the touchdown from 26 yards and Carlson drops it as he hits the ground. Then Ja'Marcus Ingram picks off Bagent on the next play and returns it 26 yards. The rookie had it in the end zone if Carlson just holds the ball. His pick was a pass to Daurice Fountain and he threw it right to Ingram, so it had to be some kind of miscommunication.
Strip-sack on third down by Trevis Gipson and Noah Sewell recovers at the Bills 26. Gipson better not be cut. He makes plays.
Bagent's legs do it. His 8-yard TD scramble with the Bills oblivious to his running in man-to-man coverage led ended a 42-yard drive with 1:53 left in the half. Bills 14, Bears 10.
Bagent makes like Justin Fields and scrambles 12 yards for a first down on third down to get the Bears to the 10. TWO-MINUTE WARNING!!!
A 55-yard kick return by Scott and a beautifully executed third-down screen pass to Roschon Johnson for a first down got the Bears into scoring position.
Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson beaten on a 29-yard Allen TD pass to tight end Quintin Morris to end a 50-yard drive in four plays with 5:39 left. Bills 14, Bears 3
A 19-yard pass to Justin Shorter put the Bills in scoring position. Neither Elijah Hicks nor Terell Smith got close enough to Shorter in zone coverage to do anything about it.
The Bills get it back at the 50.
First sack of the rookie. Starter A.J. Epenesa got him from behind.
Bears backup offensive line is on to block for Bagent. Roschon Johnson in the game, as well.
Stroman gets revenge with a tackle for a 3-yard loss on a desperation throw by Allen on third down. Rasheem Green had the sack if Allen hadn't thrown it quickly to a receiver who wasn't open. Bills had to punt.
Greg Stroman flagged for pass interference on a 19-yard pass that was so far out of reach the catch couldn't have been made with a ladder and a net. Just an atrocious call by line judge Maia Chaka, who wasn't near the ball.
Terell Smith in with the backup defense but they have a few starters out there like Steenson and Sanborn.
Receivers failing the kid with the first team offense. First Tyler Scott gets called for offensive pass interference on a throw to Cole Kmet at the 1 and then Robert Tonyan Jr. drops a wide-open throw. Drive dies with Bagent flushed out of the pocket and throwing incomplete to Mooney at the goal line. They were just lucky it wasn't picked. Cairo Santos bailed them out with a 34-yard field goal to end a 68-yard drive. Bills 7, Bears 3

Foreman takes a screen and bulls to the 9 for an 11-yard gain and first down, then the Bears pulled Fields and in came Tyson Bagent. Kind of an unusual time to pull Fields if he wasn't hurt.Facing third-and-10 at the Bills 15. A good test for their pass blocking here.

First Quarter

A designed run by Fields that acts like a QB draw fails to gain and the quarter ends. Fields 1 of 5 for 40 yards passing. Bills 7, Bears 0
Fields had Moone one-on-one in the end zone and it looked like interference. No call on the incompletion. Not a good throw by Fields as he threw it to the inside of the defender instead of out over Mooney to the right shoulder.
Bears get a first down on two D'Onta Foreman runs between tackles at the 20 of Buffalo.
A receiver got open. DJ Moore in the zone, then made a spectacular spin out of trouble and gained 41 to the Bills 31.
Fields scrambles for 13 on first down. So far no receivers getting open and it looks like lsat year.
Bears finally had Bills in third-and-long and Allen got picked off by Stevenson at the 16 on a pass to Gabe Davis. Kept his feet in nicely like a wide receiver does. Excellent bounce back by the Bears second-round rookie after his two penalties to start the game.
Big Gervon Dexter Jr. should be able to knock down passes at 6-foot-6 and he did. Swatted down an Allen pass.
David Edwards with an illegal block in the back. He's replacing injured Bills starter Connor McGovern in the game today.
Second holding penalty on CB Tyrique Stevenson for first down at Bears 37. Maybe they need to get Terell Smith back out there because Stevenson has struggled at times the last two preseason games.
Poorly defended swing pass by the Bears and the Bills get a second first down on the drive. No linebackers near the play.
They took Ngakoue and Edmunds out for this series. Kyle Allen is on at QB now for Josh Allen.
Two series for the Bears first team and 2 yards.
A second straight three-and-out after Fields had to scramble and gained 3 yards.
Fields threw a bit high and manageble, testing Khalil Herbert's receiving skills on second down and he dropped it. This is a real question heading into the season.
Tyrique Stevenson had a defensive holding penalty in the end zone that made the short TD run possible and wiped out Jack Sanborn's sack of Allen.
Allen rolled right, threw back across the grain to Gabe Davis for 15 yards on a key conversion, setting up a Damien Harris 2-yard TD plunge. Way too much room in the middle to run for Harris considering it was a goal line play. The Bills went 12 plays, 72 yards, in 6:35. Bills 7, Bears 0
Good test on second-and-8 from the 20 for Terrell Lewis and Dominique Robinson. The didn't get any pressure but Jaylon Johnson bailed them out by breaking up a throw.
Kyler Gordon attempted a diving breakup by cutting off the slant to Diggs but just missed it and a second 10-yard completion to Diggs.
Another second-down pass short to Harty and Bills face a third-and-3 at the Bears 47. Edmunds had to test his injury in open field on the tackle.
Bears with no pass rush on Allen on third-and-2 and he threw it to Stefon Diggs for 10. Late push from Gervon Dexter wasn't enough.
Bills start at 28.
Christian Benford had perfect coverage one-on-one with DJ Moore and nearly picked off a pass down the sidelines but incompletion and the Bears punted.
Bears face third-and-10 after Khalil Herbert got stuffed off tackle and Fields threw low in a crowd to Cole Kmet.
Tyler Scott back deep for the Bears on the kickoff gets to the 20 after being hit two or three times. No Velus Jones Jr. today.
Bears will receive.

Pregame

Surprisingly, Tremaine Edmunds was announced with starters today. Has been practicing only lightly and has been injured since early August. Maybe playing his old team matters? Doubtful he'll play much.
Yannick Ngakoue will be in the lineup today on defense.
The gametime temp is 72 degrees but it's windy today, SW at 16 mph.
Justin Fields expected to play two or three series.
No Teven Jenkins, Lucas Patrick, Nate Davis in warmups means a line of left tackle Braxton Jones, left guard Cody Whitehair, center Doug Kramer, right guard Ja'Tyre Carter and right tackle Larry Borom blocking for Justin Fields. That's one player at the position he was supposed to play when OTAs opened in the offseason and when training camp began.
Matt Eberflus was quite certain both safeties Jaquan Brisker and Eddie Jackson would be back for the opener even though both have been sidelined for the past few weeks' games. Tremaine Edmunds returned to practice, although he's not playing today. So the full defense should be able to play in the opener should DE DeMarcus Walker be ready to go. They haven't had the full defense on the field yet. Not even on opening day of training camp did they have everyone practicing because they hadn't acquired Yannick Ngakoue yet.
The Bears are not the only team worried about whether their backup offensive linemen can protect their starting QB today. Buffalo has both Spencer Brown and Connor McGovern as injury concerns on the line lost Tommy Doyle to a season-ending injury already and had reserve Brandon Shell abruptly retire.
The two real points of interest today will be who lines up where on the offensive line in front of Justin Fields to start the game, and also which of the backup QBs play when. Matt Eberflus wouldn't say who will come in after Fields. Could it be Tyson Bagent? We'll have to wait until sometime in the first half to know that. However, the line situation might be apparent during the later part of pregame warmups after players put on their uniforms. The reason this is of importance is first, for Fields' health, and also who ranks where and who's healthy. There really have been no injury reports in preseason so it's all been very vague and will be until the Sept. 6 injury report comes out. All we know is guard Teven Jenkins is "week to week" with an injury which has been reported as a leg issue. At Friday's practice there were 15 Bears absent for health reasons.
The turf looks as good as it ever has at Soldier Field today. No seams, no big ditches in it visible from above. It almost looks like it's artificial.

Good morning pic.twitter.com/vZiQtigsH6
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) August 26, 2023

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