Buffalo Bills Face Chicago Bears and the Sorry Turf at Soldier Field

The Buffalo Bills open up their exhibition game schedule for 2011 when they travel to face the Chicago Bears this coming Saturday, August 13th. The game is being played at Soldier Field, and unless some overhaul has happened this week, there is major reason for the Bills to be concerned about the condition of the turf at Soldier Field in Chicago.

To illustrate how bad it is, here is a quote from an article run last week, August 5th, from Pro Football Talk: "Only days after Bears chairman George McCaskey explained that the team’s uses grass at Soldier Field because it’s safer than artificial turf, the Bears were forced to abruptly cancel an annual Family Fest practice at Soldier Field, because the grass was deemed unfit."

Bears safety Chris Harris announced via Twitter: “Sorry to inform u fans but Family Fest has just been canceled due to inadequate playing surface to practice on.” That development was just six short days ago. Now it is going to suddenly be safe enough for an NFL game to be played on it?

The situation was so bad that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel had to intervene in this mess, according to an article by the Chicago Tribune that ran yesterday. 

It is thought that the Bills starters, the ones that have been able to avoid injury so far that is, will only play about one quarter in this contest. That allows Chan Gailey and his coaching staff three quarters of the game to get a good look at the rest of the 90-man roster.

However, it may be wise to limit the starters to two drives and then yank them off the Soldier Field turf. After all, there still are three more preseason games to go, and while the Bills have improved their depth, they really can't afford any major injuries to starters now.

Regarding the current state of health for the Bills, there are a number of players that are already banged up. Roscoe Parrish and Torrell Troup are probably going to sit this game out. You may recall that Parrish broke his wrist playing against the Bears last season in the Toronto game.

Some of the Bills will only see sporadic play due to limited practice time after missing practices because of injuries like those suffered by Kelvin Sheppard and Marcus Easley. But this game against the Bears will be special for a number of reasons. It will mark the debut of Marcell Dareus and the rest of the 2011 draft class. 

In addition, it will mark the official debut in a Bills uniform for players like Shawne Merriman, Danny Batten and Marcus Easley, who never played a snap with the Bills in 2010.

Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey have been very non-committal regarding the Lee Evans trade rumors, so Bills fans will want to tune in to see if Evans is looking like he is ready to have a bounce-back year.

Other features of the game will be how Ryan Fitzpatrick looks in the second year of this offense, and if C.J. Spiller is coming around as he hoped in his sophomore year. The Bills run defense should be better and Bills fans will be looking to see if Marcell Dareus, Shawne Merriman and Michael Jasper are able to make some big plays that result in lost yardage for the Bears.

For Chicago, this is the first game back for quarterback Jay Cutler, and the welcome reception he gets from the Bears fans following the NFC Championship game jeers should prove to be noteworthy as well.

Look for our observations after the game this Saturday evening.