ORCHARD PARK - Actions speak louder than words and that was the case Thursday night for the Buffalo Bills.
On Tuesday, coach Joe Brady said that he would play both Kyle Allen and Shane Buechele at quarterback in the preseason finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers, at least positing the belief that the backup job to Josh Allen was still to be determined.
Well, it turned out that wasn’t true because according to Buechele, the coaching staff told him he was getting the whole game and he certainly took full advantage as he turned out to be the hero by rallying the Bills to a 28-27 victory at Highmark Stadium.
“At the beginning of the week they told me, so it was good to have,” Buechele said. “I mean it was a short week, but to have a week of preparation,
didn't really practice but got some good reps in with some of the guys and just got ready for the game.”
Both backup quarterbacks had performed well in the first two preseason games, but Allen was clearly the superior performer as he completed 24 of 28 passes for 236 yards and led four scoring drives. Clearly, Brady’s mind was made up that Allen was the backup so it made sense to sit him out and let Buechele play the entire game, but it’s odd that he would be cagey about what the plan was for the game.
“I wanted them all to start,” Brady said of the three quarterbacks. “But Shane's the one quarterback that hasn't gotten as much preseason time through the years, right? He got hurt a couple years ago and played all at Tampa last year and it was like the way that the game was kind of flowing, I was like, ‘I kind of want to just keep him rolling with it.’”
While both Allens will be on the 53-man roster, Buechele is likely headed to the waiver wire as he’ll be cut when teams must make their final cuts. However, unless another team signs him to its 53-man roster to be a backup, Buechele will almost certainly re-sign with the Bills’ practice squad on Monday.
Working with the bottom of the roster, Buechele completed 26 of 38 passes for 196 yards and directed five scoring drives of 59, 49, 79, 41 and 59 yards, the last resulting in Ian Wheeler’s touchdown run and Buechele’s game-winning two-point conversion pass to Dante Pettis with 1:06 remaining.
“It felt good to come back, down 10 in the fourth quarter and coming back winning, it was a good way to end the preseason,” Buechele said.
Here are a few of my observations:
CB2 job belongs to Max Hairston
One thing Brady wasn’t cagey about was his proclaiming Max Hairston as the starter opposite Christian Benford.
“He's our starting corner,” Brady said when asked point blank about the competition with Davison Igbinosun. “Maxwell's got exactly what we look for in a corner and I was excited to have him be back out there playing football. I know he had the missed tackle, and that's why we're practicing, that's why you go through the preseason to feel that, to be able to clean that stuff up. He's our guy, and we're fortunate of who we got.”
Hairston and Igbinosun both started this game and in the first half, Igbinosun certainly had the better of it. On Pittsburgh’s first touchdown, Steelers QB Will Howard threw a harmless pass to the right flat to receiver Germie Bernard and Hairston was alone on that side. He came up to make the tackle, completely whiffed, and Bernard scooted into the end zone.
A few minutes later, Howard threw a pass to the other side to receiver Brandon Smith and Igbinosun came racing in and dropped Smith for no gain with a beautiful open-field tackle.
Michael Hoecht gets first game action
The Bills have been ramping up the outside linebacker’s workload as he completes his return from a torn Achilles suffered last November, and this was the final step: Playing in a game.
“He was just so excited to be able to play football, and it was important to him to get some playing time before he was going (to Houston),” Brady said. “And I'd be lying if I'd be able to say exactly how he played, but I know he was excited to be able to kind of knock off some of that rust and just get back on the football field.”
Hoecht has been a full go since the start of training camp on the practice field, and while he sat out the first two games, he got a huge amount of work in the joint practice in Cleveland. Still, he needed to play in a game and he did that Thursday as he was on the field for the first three defensive series.
“I would certainly like to play, and my thing is I want to go play tackle football before Week 1,” Hoecht said following practice Tuesday. “If they'll let me go do that, awesome. If not, then the first person I tackle will be somebody on Houston.”
That will still be the case because Hoecht was not credited with a tackle against the Steelers.
Ray Davis muffed a punt
\The Bills would really love it if Davis could lock down the punt return job because that would alleviate having to carry someone like Mecole Hardman on the roster for essentially that sole purpose. Davis winning the job would free up a spot to be used at another position.
But Davis did not acquit himself on his first attempt of the game as he let the ball go right through his hands for a muff and the Steelers recovered at the Buffalo 13. One play later, Pittsburgh scored a touchdown to take a 7-3 lead. That’s a mistake that simply can’t happen, a point Brady hammered home earlier in the week.
“The No. 1 thing is I want the ball back, right?” he said. “I know that sounds like that's not a big deal, but that's a huge component. We have to be able to win fourth down. In order to win fourth down, we gotta get the ball to the offense and so that's such an easy thing, but that’s a really hard thing to do.
“I'm not necessarily saying we need a guy that's going to score a touchdown every time he touches the ball, but is he going to consistently make sound decisions and be able to get the ball back to the offense? I think we have a group of guys that are still kind of competing for that.”
Davis’ second attempt worked out better as he made the catch and gained 11 yards. Hardman got two opportunities and he managed 21 yards in total. However, Hardman also dropped a pass when he was wide open, so his chances of being the sixth receiver have dwindled badly.
Skyler Bell makes a nice debut
The fourth-round pick missed the first two games with an injury but he started this game and played most of the way, catching up on some of the reps he missed.
Bell’s biggest play was a 28-yard touchdown run on a third-quarter jet sweep where he turned the corner and showed some speed to get it to the house. He was also targeted 10 times and caught seven for 49 yards. Given his inexperience and his limited role on special teams, he’s probably not going to get a game day jersey early in the season, but this was a good performance that should give him some confidence moving forward.
“I was trying to get him involved and get the ball in his hands and allow him to go play some football,” Brady said. “It wasn't too big for him and I thought that was a huge takeaway. There's gonna be a lot of things that he's gonna naturally want to clean up.
“I called the little sweep to him and the play before we threw him a ball and he was last getting back to the huddle and I was like, ‘I don't know if this is a great call, seeing him barely make it back to the huddle.’ But once the ball got in his hands, you felt the speed, he made the most of it, great block by Pettis. But yeah, it was good to get him back out there, that's for sure.”
Tommy Doman is probably the punter
The rookie seventh-round pick has been the favorite to win the competition against veteran Mitch Wishnowsky because when a team spends a draft pick on a punter, he’s most likely getting the job. The Bills will also save a little money on the salary cap keeping Doman over Wishnowsky.
Wishnowsky didn’t help himself when he shanked a 19-yarder in the first quarter that gave the Steelers a drive start at the Bills 28 and led to a touchdown. He did rebound with a nice 49-yarder that was returned for no gain so a net of 49.
Doman punted four times for an average of 52 yards including a 59-yarder and two being downed inside the 20. On his fourth punt, the Bills were backed up at the 1 so he had to get the snap and kick quickly which he did. He got off a 44-yarder which wasn’t great, and then a missed tackle allowed Pittsburgh’s Kaden Wetjen to return it 45 yards for a touchdown, which really wasn’t great.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: 5 things stand out in Bills thrilling comeback against Steelers
