CincyBillsFan

Given that he missed almost his whole rookie training camp IMO Bishop grew as a safety last year. Nothing splashy but the Bills had the tape to expect him to develop further and become a decent starter. That he has struggled again this pre-season with injuries is an issue that has frozen him in place. But he appears healthy now and if he can be a full go at practice the next 3 weeks I think we will all be pleasantly surprised with his play week 1. All the safety's, including Johnson, struggled against the pass late last season and in the playoffs. A contributing factor IMO was the lack of a reliable 4 man pass rush. Hopefully that has been addressed in the off season with all the additions. I would expect much better safety play against the pass when the QB is feeling the heat.

I am an Ohio State fan and I like Hancock. But right now Bishop is the better option with a higher upside. And I don't understand all the hate directed at Bishop. Sure he's had to many injuries which limited his development last season and this season. And it may turn out he's injury prone which would be a shame as the Bills would have to move on from him. But I thought he was solid and AVAILABLE late last season & during the playoffs. It's not easy playing safety on a team with a poor pass rush.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't recall McD declaring Bishop the starter at safety. We all thought that he had the inside angle for the job but did McD ever make it official? So to me there is nothing unusual for him to remind EVERYONE that the competition for that safety spot is still open. Basic football coaching 101. As for Bishop the situation is actually simple: if he stays healthy and is able to fully practice over the next 3 weeks he's got the job.

As for Bishop let's see how the next 3 weeks of practice go. If he's able to practice fully he will be fine for opening day and I suspect you will see that jump in performance the Bills are expecting. If he can't practice fully and misses multiple practices then we have a big problem on our hands. No point in worrying about what might happen until it does happen.

The Bears had multiple reasons to play well. They obviously scripted their opening TD drive after taking the ball on winning the coin flip. There's been a lot of negative noise coming out of the Bears training camp about the QB & new coach not being on the same page. Bottom line is when one team needs to win the game in preseaon it almost always turns into a head scratching blowout of the better team. The best way to describe last nights game was that it looked like how the Bills have played their final preseason game over the last few years. A lot of marginal and likely to be cut players right from the get go. The difference was that unlike previous years Chicago did not reciprocate and played their starters and key back ups the entire first half.

And 2 years ago we were down to the Steelers 27 - 0 going into the 4th quarter of that preseason game. Are the people panicking over this loss thinking that the Patriots are Super Bowl bound with their 2 - 0 PS start? After all they beat a good Washington team 48 - 14 and led 27 - 0 at half. The most interesting thing about last nights game was that since McD became head coach the Bills have always used the 2nd to last preseason game to get the starters 1 - 2 quarters of playing time. Yesterday they completely abandoned that.

He wasn't in long enough to look bad. IMP the TD pass was on Andressan as he didn't drop into coverage leaving the inside move wide open to the Chicago WR. Not sure very many safeties could have stuck with him on that play. Bishop had two decent tackles once jumping a short pass. Given that it was the Bears 1st team O running a regular season scripted opening drive offense against the Bills 2nd & 3rd string D playing pure vanilla coverage I can't see that we learned much about Bishop's play in that one series.

Actually it isn't given how the two teams have approached the game. The Bills have played this game like they typically play their last preseason game. I assume it's a choice and related to changes in how they approach this preseason versus previous preseasons.

Don't forget that when your 2's go against their 1's in the 1st quarter then you get a lot of your 3's going against their 2's in the 2nd quarter. A recipe for 28 - 0 half.

Putting on my tin foil hat seems like the Bills have one of these games each preseason. Maybe McD sets it up so they flounder allowing him to get after guys,

EVERYONE in the Bills secondary has played poorly. So either every Bill in the secondary not named White, Benford, Johnson & Rapp suck,which is not likely, or what we are seeing is meaningless preseason play. Also, Bishop still has a lot to learn as a pass defender but he's light years (IMO) ahead of the other safety's not named Johson & Rapp in run support.

The Pittsburgh game 2 years ago. The Bills were down 21 - 0 at half and 27 - 0 after 3. And they played their starters including Allen for a quarter.

At the end of this season. We have no clue today how Bishop will turn out.

To me the problem wasn't Bishop but Buffalo Joe who didn't drop into coverage. On the TD play I'm not sure any safety would be able to cover a guy that was given that much free space on the inside immediately after he snap.