Buffalo Bills End The Preseason With A Sloppy Loss

Training camp and the preseason schedule is finally over.  Now just one more chore before the season opener.  The Buffalo Bills will have to trim the roster to its opening day limit by 4 pm on Saturday.

One of the biggest question marks for the Bills is which quarterbacks they'll keep.  We already know Tyrod Taylor will be the starter against the Indianapolis Colts.  E J Manual was much improved this summer over last year.  Veteran Matt Cassell showed he can manage the ball and can be trusted not to give it away on turnovers.

The forgotten quarterback this summer has been Matt Simms.  Simms played the entire preseason finale Thursday night against the Detroit Lions.  Simms finished 22 of 38 passing for 238 yards but failed to get the Bills into the end zone. The Bills lost the ball three times and Simms was involved in all three turnovers; twice on center-quarterback snaps and the third was just a dumb attempt to avoid a sack when he ended up throwing a backward pass, technically a fumble, and the Lions recovered.  The Lions then went on to score what turned out to be the winning touchdown to hand the Bills a 17-10 loss.

The Bills only touchdown of the night came on an 81-yard interception return by Ron Brooks.  Later, the Bills added a 43-yard Dan Carpenter field goal, but Carpenter missed on a 40-yarder and it appeared coach Rex Ryan was less than thrilled.  It's possible the Bills could decide to make a change with their kickers because with Jordan Gay handling kickoffs and Carpenter handling field goal tries, it ties up two roster spots while other teams use just one kicker.

The Bills were sloppy against the Lions on both sides of the ball.  They were flagged 10 times for 88 yards in penalties.  The Bills end up 2-2 in the preseason.  They open the regular season at home against the Indianapolis Colts a week from Sunday.