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Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy, left, and Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady, right, greet each other after their team’s preseason NFL football game in Orchard Park, NY., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gene J. Puskar\/AP Photo\/Gene J. Puskar<\/p>\n
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Ian Wheeler scored on a 2-yard run with 1:06 left, Steve Buechele completed an off-balance pass to Dante Pettis for a 2-point conversion and the Buffalo Bills beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 28-27 in the preseason finale for each team Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The Steelers\u2019 last chance to pull ahead ended with Drew Allar\u2019s pass sailing behind tight end Lake McRee on fourth-and-7 with 44 seconds remaining. It was a disappointing finish for Allar in an outing the rookie was attempting to separate himself from Will Howard in the competition for the Steelers\u2019 third-string job.<\/p>\n
In squandering a 10-point lead over the final seven minutes, the Steelers closed the preseason 1-2. Buffalo was 3-0.<\/p>\n
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With Kyle Allen appearing to have locked up the primary backup job behind Josh Allen, Buechele handled the quarterback duties in finishing 26 for 38 for 196 yards. The go-ahead score was set up by a 42-yard pass interference penalty against Tamon Lymum on Pettis that gave the Bills the ball at the 7.<\/p>\n
After Wheeler scored on third down, the Bills elected for the 2-point conversion. Buechele was back-pedaling in the face of pressure before getting off a pass to Pettis, who was open along the left side of the goal line.<\/p>\n
Frank Gore Jr. scored on a 1-yard run for Buffalo, and receiver Skyler Bell also found the end zone on a 28-yard scamper off a reverse. Bell, a rookie fourth-round draft pick, also had seven catches for 49 yards.<\/p>\n
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CLEVELAND (AP) \u2014 Dillon Gabriel threw three touchdown passes \u2014 two to Luke Floriea \u2014 and Taylen Green directed a 98-yard touchdown drive to help Cleveland beat New England in the final preseason game for both teams.<\/p>\n
Gabriel and Green got extended looks as they vie for the Browns\u2019 third quarterback spot. Gabriel got the start and played the first half while Green saw the second-half snaps.<\/p>\n
Gabriel, in his second year after being a third-round pick in the 2025 draft, completed 12 of 15 passes for 186 yards and a 157.9 passer rating as he led the Browns (1-2) to points on the first five drives.<\/p>\n
Green showed off his dual-threat ability during his four possessions. He was 5 of 7 passing for 27 yards along with eight rushing attempts for 66 yards.<\/p>\n
Tommy DeVito started for New England (1-1-1) and was in for two drives and was 2 of 4 for 55 yards. He led the Patriots to their only touchdown on their opening possession, connecting with Kyle Williams for a 45-yard score in the first quarter to tie it at 7.<\/p>\n
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LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 Las Vegas rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza saw what it was like to face a strong NFL pass rush, even against a San Francisco defense comprised of reserves, and he was sacked twice and threw an interception in the 49ers\u2019 preseason victory over the Raiders.<\/p>\n
Eddy Pi\u00f1eiro made all six field goal attempts, including 51- and 54-yarders in the final 1:51 for the 49ers (2-1). Las Vegas\u2019 Matt Gay, who played briefly for San Francisco last season, made 4 of 5 field goals, his miss coming from 54 yards in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Mendoza completed 7 of 14 passes for 57 yards, making him 25 of 40 for 240 yards with a touchdown, two interceptions and four sacks for the three preseason games. He led five drives against the 49ers, one ending in a field goal and another in the missed attempt.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t quite the exclamation point the top overall draft pick wanted to put on the preseason, and now he will have to search for practice repetitions with Kirk Cousins expected to be the starter when the season begins. Cousins took the vast majority of snaps in training camp, and his workload figures to go only increase as the Raiders (1-2) go full time into game planning.<\/p>\n
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INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Ty Simpson threw a go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter, Harrison Mevis kicked two 27-yard field goals and the Los Angeles Rams beat the Los Angeles Chargers in the teams\u2019 preseason finale.<\/p>\n
The Rams didn\u2019t play any starters in keeping with coach Sean McVay\u2019s approach to games that don\u2019t count in the standings. Even backup quarterback Stetson Bennett was held out.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone stay healthy, please,\u201d referee Shawn Hochuli urged the captains after the coin flip.<\/p>\n
The Rams won all three of their preseason games and head to Australia in two weeks to open the season. They\u2019re the clear early favorites to win the Super Bowl, which will be played at SoFi Stadium on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n
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Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert played just two series. His fumble led to Mevis\u2019 first 27-yard field goal early in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Herbert bounced right back, throwing a 65-yard TD pass to Quentin Johnston \u2014 the second-longest catch of the receiver\u2019s career \u2014 on the second play of a drive that lasted 14 seconds and gave the Chargers a 7-3 lead.<\/p>\n
New defensive coordinator Chris O\u2019Leary chest-bumped safety Tony Jefferson after the Chargers forced the Rams to turn the ball over on downs inside the 1-yard line on a drive that lasted 9:41.<\/p>\n
Trey Lance took over for Herbert in the second quarter, with his first series ending on a shanked 20-yard punt by JK Scott. The Rams quickly took the lead for good on third-stringer Simpson\u2019s 11-yard TD pass to fourth-string receiver Brennan Presley for a 10-7 lead.<\/p>\n
Simpson finished 18 of 23 for 119 yards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy, left, and Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady, right, greet each other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":985374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,7225,214,53,2086,103399,9270,1033,1800,10124,3619,7,36005,32433,45888,10729,872,1159,294,5857,1056,62750,15562,6434,6,56611,27878,27876,9277,3307,20405,60721,129458,20703,3349,15079,2721,20708,2183],"class_list":["post-985373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-buffalo-bills","tag-bills","tag-brennan-presley","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-buffalobills","tag-chris-oleary","tag-dante-pettis","tag-dillon-gabriel","tag-drew-allar","tag-eddy-pineiro","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-football","tag-frank-gore-jr","tag-harrison-mevis","tag-ian-wheeler","tag-jk-scott","tag-josh-allen","tag-justin-herbert","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-kyle-allen","tag-kyle-williams","tag-lake-mcree","tag-luke-floriea","tag-matt-gay","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-preseason-capsules","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-quentin-johnston","tag-sean-mcvay","tag-shawn-hochuli","tag-skyler-bell","tag-steve-buechele","tag-taylen-green","tag-tommy-devito","tag-tony-jefferson","tag-trey-lance","tag-ty-simpson","tag-will-howard"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/985374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}