The Buffalo Bills’ blowout loss against the Chicago Bears was “certainly not up to our standard,” according to coach Sean McDermott, who said he was “concerned” by his team’s overall performance in its second preseason game.

The Bills, who played their backups against Caleb Williams and the Bears’ starters early in Sunday’s game, were outgained 528-180 in the 38-0 loss.

“Certainly not up to our standard, what we expect,” McDermott said. “Got a lot of work to do, that’s very clear. Doesn’t matter who’s out there — ones, twos, threes, fours — whoever it is, we expect them to perform and we expect our level of performance to be much better than that.”

McDermott did not mention any specific players and acknowledged that Josh Allen and the rest of the team’s starters rested because the Bills wanted to prioritize keeping them healthy, adding that he had seen enough from the first unit during last week’s joint practices with the Bears.

But McDermott emphasized that he wanted to see more from Buffalo’s second stringers, especially the defense, which struggled against Williams and Chicago’s first-string offense.

“Get out there and playing against their ones, I expect — we expect — to compete with them, and that wasn’t the case early,” McDermott said. “And then our twos, who were out there against their twos, and our threes against their threes — it didn’t get much better.

“So we’ve got to look at it, figure some things out and evaluate some of the guys as well and see where we stand there. A lot of work to get done this week as we move forward.”

Williams played two series in his preseason debut under new Bears coach Ben Johnson, completing 6 of 10 passes for 107 yards and a 130 quarterback rating. The 2024 No. 1 draft pick orchestrated a seven-play, 92-yard opening drive that he punctuated with a 36-yard touchdown pass to Olamide Zaccheaus.

McDermott said Williams was “unaffected” and “was in a rhythm right away.”

“Now you’re dealing with him,” McDermott said. “His QB rating at the end of the game says it all.”

The five-time defending AFC East champions have allowed 72 points and 924 yards of total offense combined over their first two preseason games. Although he said he doesn’t want to overreact to preseason performances from second- and third-string players, McDermott also acknowledged that he wants to see improvement before the start of the regular season.

“I’m concerned about a lot of things coming off tonight. … There’s a lot that needs to get cleaned up,” he said.

The Bills open the regular season at home against the Baltimore Ravens in a Sunday night matchup on Sept. 7.