Kelvin Benjamin looked like a bonafide number one receiver last night. (Photo credit: Associated Press)
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Friday, August 10, 2018 | BataviasBest.org
Football returned to One Bills Drive last night, as the Buffalo Bills fell to the Carolina Panthers in the preseason opener by a final score of 28-23. Despite the loss things went extremely well for the Bills, especially on the offensive side of the ball where all three of their quarterbacks performed well.
Nathan Peterman was the starter on Thursday night and led the Bills on their first touchdown drive of the season, which finished with a 28-yard strike to Kelvin Benjamin. Benjamin was equally as impressive as the quarterbacks yesterday, and appeared in every way a bonafide number one target vs his former team.
As Peterman’s fellow co-starter, AJ McCarron was next in line for snaps on Thursday, and also led the team along a touchdown drive which was capped off by a touchdown run from Marcus Murphy – who is trying to work his way in as the team’s number three running back.
The two Bills’ co-starters combined to go 16/20 passing for 235 passing yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT during the first half.
“It’s just one game,” said McCarron near the end of his comments following the loss. “Next week it’s totally different. I just play when I’m asked to play and have fun doing it.”
Peterman echoed his teammate’s sentiment.
“Every time you’re out there you want to play your best and complete every ball,” he remarked. “It wasn’t perfect and there’re definitely things to get better at. Its just one step.”
To begin the second half the fans finally got what they all were waiting for.
Josh Allen.
Allen’s performance on Thursday didn’t match the massive hype surrounding his debut, but it was by no means a disappointing day for the Bills’ rookie. Despite a slow start he finished with respectable numbers and even completed his first NFL touchdown – a bullet pass to the pylon which found Ray Ray McCloud for six.
Allen finished 9/19 passing for 116 passing yards and 1 TD – including a bomb on his first play from scrimmage which traveled about fifty yards down the sideline but wound up incomplete.
“(Coach Daboll) just wanted to do what the defense was giving us, and I felt comfortable with who we had outside,” said Allen about the big throw which got the crowd at New Era Field to it’s feet. “I (just) threw it a little bit outside and didn’t give (Robert Foster) a chance to make the play.”
“It was really cool,” Allen continued to say about his first NFL experience. “Bills Mafia came out in full-force for a preseason game, so to see that I’m excited to see what game one is going to look like.”
I am too, Josh.
I am too.
Bills preseason action continues next week when Buffalo takes on their former QB Tyrod Taylor and the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland. Stay tuned for continued Buffalo Bills coverage moving into next week.
