Game-Planning for the Buffalo Bills

Having squirreled Justin Fields and DJ Moore away last week, the Bears are ready to pull them back out of their weekend hibernation for a week of practice at Halas Hall.

Beyond that?

Whether they actually use those two and their other starters against Buffalo Saturday is uncertain, but the sound of it seems good at this point anyway.

After the game, coach Matt Eberflus revealed he planned to turn the final week of practice into a "dress rehearsal" for the regular season.

Of note, he didn't say he was making the game into a dress rehearsal, only the week.

"I haven't decided that yet," Eberflus said about who plays Saturday. "I'll decide that as how the week goes. We are getting a lot of good competition against each other."

It's been the stance of coaches that the practice sessions, like against the Colts last week, were like a game or even better because of the matchups they could create to study players. It's easy to see how that could help in knowing what players to keep for a roster, but as far as how it assists starters in preparing to play in the regular season it's somewhat of a "trust-us" mentality.

"So it's a good practice dress rehearsal for us to be able to get that done -- an in-season Wednesday," Eberflus said. "We got a bonus day on Monday but we'll do it in-season Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but obviously bumped up today because the game's on Saturday so we're looking forward to that and the guys are are, too.

"And we'll take a good look at what we're going to bring into the game in terms of scheme. But we will treat this week as a game-plan week and we will run the stuff in practice that we would run in the game."

There is normally no game-planning or almost none for earlier preseason games. It's calling plays off a menu sheet on game day. It's an elevated form of practice. Or coaches might say it's not elevated but an obstacle because they can't stop and address issues they might see occurring like they can actually do in a practice.

With a game plan they're working on this week, it would see unusual if they'd take that and then go to game day and not let the starters at least dip their toe in the water, so to speak.

"So excited to see how they learn, how they execute with the (play) menu that it's going to be like in a game so we kind of pare it down like we're game-planning it for somebody," Eberflus said. "And we don't have to have, really, the situation where we have in training camp where we have all these different things coming at you. So, you can hone in."

Defensively, they'll use cards with Buffalo plays on them in practice, much as they might during game week.

Early in the week, the practices will be lighter, Eberflus said.

After the game will come the tough announcements. The NFL changed its roster cutdown procedure this year and there is one cut from 90 to 53 but it's by Aug. 29. Then they'll have more than a week and a half before the start of regular season.

"And then we'll end up cutting down the roster at that point and then we'll have a couple good practices before the guys have that last (Labor Day) weekend off," Eberflus said. "So you know, we're getting down to the nitty-gritty here."

Among starters, only Jack Sanborn and Tyrique Stevenson played in Saturday night's loss to the Colts. Sanborn is a strongside linebacker so he is on the field only about half the snaps or less as the Bears pull him when they shift into a nickel defensive package. Stevenson is competing for the starting job with Terell Lewis.

The big question is Fields and offensive players. Would the Bears actually prepare everyone all week like it's a game coming up, then not play the starters at all?

It seems unlikely on the face of it.

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