Four Disappointments from Bills' Lopsided Win over Browns

In a game where a team wins by 24 points, it can be hard to find any flaws.

But, if fans looked hard enough, there were still some noticeable warts that slightly marred the mostly sensational day from all three phases of the game.

Here are four disappointments in spite of the Bills remaining undefeated for the preseason.

Backup offensive line play, specifically rookie OT Jude Bowry

For a second straight week, Buffalo’s rookie offensive tackle Jude Bowry struggled quite mightily during his time on the field. 

The Bills only surrendered one sack during the game against the Browns on Saturday, but—just like last week against Carolina—it was Bowry who found himself on the losing end of the play. 

The 2026 fourth-round pick out of Boston College is seemingly being counted on to be the swing tackle this upcoming regular season for Buffalo, so the fact that he’s had back-to-back preseason outings with notable struggles is quite concerning.

Maybe fellow offensive tackle Tylan Grable ends up stealing the job from the rookie before the preseason is over.

Defense starts out slow, especially with mostly backups in

At first, the afternoon didn’t start out so hot for the Bills, particularly on defense.

In addition to the soggy conditions that mucked things up at the beginning, new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s unit had a bit of a slow start to the game as Buffalo surrendered a touchdown on Cleveland’s opening series with second-year quarterback Shadeur Sanders leading the way for the AFC North squad.

The Browns easily took the ball down the field 65 yards and capped off the drive with a passing touchdown from Sanders to wide receiver Luke Floriea, who found himself wide open at the back of the end zone on a 3rd-and-7 play from inside the red zone.

Overall, the defense did well to turn things around, especially when fellow Browns’ quarterback Deshaun Watson was in the game later on, but the early returns from that side of the ball weren’t pretty on Saturday.

It gave shades of Sean McDermott’s old “bend but don’t break” defense.

Of course, it was mostly backups on the field for the Bills, so it should be taken with a grain of salt, so to speak.

But, it was still disappointing to see, nonetheless.

Cleveland also matriculated the ball deep into Buffalo territory later on in the first half with Sanders, as well, but a bad pass from the young gunslinger bailed the defense out as the ball tipped up into the air and landed in the waiting arms of safety Damar Hamlin, who—in spite of the takeaway—mostly struggled in coverage for the duration of the day. 

Misdirection on bootlegs seemed to be a big key for the Browns, so being disciplined and not overly aggressive will have to be a point of emphasis for Leonhard moving forward.

“Controlled chaos” needs to be the name of the game for this Bills’ defensive unit.

Untimely penalties creep up again in Cleveland . . . and Brady must fix it fast for Buffalo

It wasn’t as many as last week, but once again the Bills found themselves snake bitten by penalties throughout the game, especially at inopportune times.

Whether it be an offsides penalty from rookie outside linebacker T.J. Parker on a third-and-long play that helped bail Cleveland’s offense out on one drive, or another silly offsides penalty at the end of the first quarter from fellow EDGE rusher Javon Solomon—when everyone on defense should've been aware of an incoming hard count—there were just too many undisciplined penalties from Buffalo once again on Saturday.

Last week versus the Panthers, the Bills had nine penalties for a total of 78 yards. Against the Browns? Buffalo committed six fouls for a total of 40 yards.

So, while the yardage may have gone down significantly, the number of infractions committed by the team this Saturday didn’t . . . at least not by much.

It’s not time to call Brady’s group undisciplined just yet, but it might be heading that way if this trend continues.

The goal should be less than five penalties from the team next week.

Critical competitions for Bills still undecided 

This final disappointment might seem a little strange to some fans, but it makes sense if you think about it from a big-picture perspective.

Buffalo still has several positional battles ongoing at the moment, and Saturday’s preseason outing against Cleveland didn’t really provide much clarity on any of them.

Rookie punter Tommy Doman Jr. and veteran Mitch Wishnowsky both were able to get punts off in the game, and Wishnowsky received the call for holding duties like Doman Jr. did last week against Carolina. Neither player did anything too overly positive or negative against the Browns to separate themselves further, which made the day a bit of a moot point.

Meanwhile, the competition along the starting defensive line between Landon Jackson and T.J. Sanders continues, as well as at left guard between Alec Anderson and Austin Corbett as each player saw time on the field against the Browns despite several other defensive and offensive starters sitting out for the matchup.

Jackson had a tackle for loss early in the game that was impressive, so maybe he slightly pulled away from Sanders, but the second-year player from South Carolina didn’t play too badly, either.

As for left guard, Anderson got the “start” amongst a bunch of backups.

Lastly, the battle between rookie linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr and Dorian Williams doesn’t appear to be any closer to having a winner than it did before the game, either.

Overall, I guess that’s not totally a bad thing. 

However, with roughly just a week remaining until final roster cuts have to be made on August 30, I’m sure general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Joe Brady would like a bit more clarity on some of the current competitions than they seem to have right now.

For that reason, it’s listed as a disappointment.