The Denver Broncos fell in lopsided fashion to the Buffalo Bills in the second preseason game.
For the second week in a row, the Broncos left a good portion of their starters on the sideline as they continue to prepare for the season opener against the Seattle Seahawks. But the backups left much to be desired in a 42-15 loss to the Bills.
While the Bills are a Super Bowl favorite and played their starters for a bit in this game, the Broncos were completely dominated from start to finish.
Denver took the opening drive down the field and put a field goal on the board. But Josh Allen and the Bills came out with their first possession and went 70 yards on six plays before Allen found Gabriel Davis for a 28-yard touchdown.
It was all downhill from there.
The Broncos have one more preseason game next Saturday against the Minnesota Vikings and before Tuesday, they must cut five more players from the roster.
But first, here are the main takeaways from the defeat in Buffalo.
The Broncos’ defense looked absolutely awful
It was painful to watch this defense in this game, as it could not stop a single thing that Buffalo did. The Bills were getting big chunks of yardage through the air and the ground and it was the run defense of Denver that was particularly bad.
The Bills ran for 208 yards in the game and averaged 7.7 yards per carry. In addition, they scored four touchdowns on the ground with Zack Moss and Duke Johnson each finding the end zone twice.
The Broncos were getting pushed backward at the point of attack regularly and the linebackers at the next level were missing tackles and trailing the play. No matter which running back carried the ball for Buffalo, they were finding huge lanes to run through.
It should not be hard to evaluate which players deserve to be on this roster on the defensive side of the ball when the film of this game is reviewed. It was bad.