Bears vs Bills: 6 things I saw

Last week I wrote about six things I would be looking for in the Chicago Bears preseason contest against the Buffalo Bills, so today I wanted to go back to revisit those things to see if I saw what I wanted to see.

Here are the bullet points of those six things...

1. Andy Dalton and the number 1 offense
2. Cody Whitehair, Sam Mustipher, and James Daniels
3. Justin Fields building off last week
4. Larry Borom’s feet
5. Cornerback/nickelback
6. Mitch Trubisky

Considering the Bears got their butts kicked, my re-watch of the game was even less exciting as checking it out live, but I soldiered on to analyze the practice game anyway. Here’s what I saw.

1) At one point in the first half play by play announcer Adam Amin commented about how bad the Bears offense was, just like it was early in their first game against the Dolphins, and that he expected it to pick up later in the contest, just like it did in the Miami game. Dalton and the first string O stumbled a bit, then again Dalton was missing several starters. It’s still hard to get a read on how effective Dalton can be in Matt Nagy’s offense with so many players sitting out.

2) James Daniels was back at practice, but the Bears held him out of the Bills game. Whitehair was solid and Mustipher was decent, but I want to see the threesome work together.

3) I wasn’t overjoyed with Fields’ second preseason game at first glance, but the re-watch made me feel better. You can check out Robert Schmitz’s breakdown of his play here, because my sentiments on Justin’s game are the same that Robert had.

4) I graded every snap from Borom’s day at left tackle [+30/-7 (81.1%)] and I though the rookie showed some promise. He still has a ways to go, but the potential is there and I do think he has the feet to play tackle in the NFL.

5) I don’t think the Bears are comfortable to name a starter at CB2 or nickel yet. Desmond Trufant hasn’t played in either preseason game, and Kindle Vildor, Duke Shelley, Artie Burns, Marqui Christian, or anyone else for that matter, hasn’t put their stamp on either position. Vildor (CB2) and Shelley (NB) seem to be the odds on favorite, but I want to see someone flash.

6) Considering he won’t play this season unless there’s an injury to Josh Allen, this game was Mitch's Super Bowl. He and the Bills offense put it on the Bears’ D, and they took advantage of everything Chicago gave them. I really thought Sean Desai’s defense would try to force Trubisky into dong the things he struggled at, but I suppose with it being preseason they didn’t care to game plan at all.