Same Old Story With the Buffalo Bills, Another Preseason Loss

Penalties, ineffective offense, an injury to a key player, player insubordination and even a contract extension.  Plenty of news from the Buffalo Bills on Saturday.  But in the end the Bills lost their third straight preseason game, 13-9 to the Baltimore Ravens.

Before the game even began the Bills announced that nose tackle Marcel Dareus, their highest-paid player had been sent home for violating a team rule.  The Bills wouldn't officially reveal what rule he violated, but coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane said they would further deal with the issue when they returned to Buffalo.

Dareus has had his troubles with every coaching staff during his career with the Bills and he continues to demonstrate that he's selfish and immature.  And because of the size of his contract there's not a whole lot the team can do other than try to reason with a guy who clearly has other things on his mind than the progress of the team.  From smoking marijuana to drag racing to being late for meetings to whatever his latest transgression may be, he just refuses to be a team player.

On a positive note the Bills rewarded a guy who continues to demonstrate he IS a team player by extending the contract of center Eric Wood another two years.  It means that Wood will remain a Bill thru the 2019 season.

All that was before the game, then early in the first quarter starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor left the game with what was diagnosed as a concussion after hitting his head on the turf during a sack.  The Bills didn't have any further update on his condition other than to say he's going thru concussion protocol, but it'll be safe to say he won't play in Thursday night's preseason finale against the Detroit Lions.

Before the injury the Bills offense again looked ineffective with Taylor at the controls.  He completed only one of three passes for just one yard before the injury.

Rookie quarterback Nathan Peterman got the bulk of playing time after the injury to Taylor and after initially showing signs that the Bills might be able to move the ball with Peterman at the helm, an avalanche of penalties killed drives over and over.  The Bills finished with 9 penalties for 64 yards, an improvement over the first two games, but still many of them came at the worst time.  Peterman finished 11 of 23 for 93 yards.

On the positive side the Bills defense again looked solid limiting the Ravens to 209 yards in total offense and despite all the problems with ineffective offense and penalties the Bills still were in position to win the game in the final minutes.  Brandon Reilly's fumble at the 11-yard line in the final two minutes effectively killed the Bills chances for the win.

The Bills fall to 0-3 and close out the season Thursday night at New Era Field against the Lions.