Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills needed a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the worst way this past weekend. After one half of football, the Bills looked to be in big trouble. Trailing 7-3 and playing generally uninspired football on offense, Buffalo needed a jolt. Joey Bosa provided that jolt, sacking Aaron Rodgers and causing a fumble that Christian Benford returned for a touchdown. From that point on, Buffalo dominated the contest en route to a 26-7 win.
While it wasn’t a perfect game by any means, the Bills did exactly what they had to do in order to come out on top. I didn’t expect them to run the same play 30 times in the game, and I certainly didn’t expect that they’d have as much success running that same play repeatedly as they did; however, that’s exactly what happened. Buffalo may be the seven seed in the AFC at the moment, but at 8-4, they are in prime position to make the postseason for a franchise-record seventh straight season.
Our Bills to watch came up aces in this one — at least, most of them did. Here’s how our players to watch performed in the blowout over the Steelers.
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QB Josh Allen
If you’re box-score scouting, Allen’s line from this game wasn’t very impressive. He completed 15-of-23 passes for 123 yards and one touchdown against a Pittsburgh secondary that allowed an average of 259 passing yards per game coming into the contest. He also added 38 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Given that the Bills only passed 23 times, it’s not terribly surprising that Allen threw for fewer yards in a game than any other quarterback has so far this year against Pittsburgh. That will happen when an offense runs for 249 yards, which is a record-high total for the Steelers in a home game (at least since 1975, when the O.J. Simpson-led Bills ran for 310 yards in a victory over the Super Bowl-bound Steel Curtain).
When asked about the lack of a downfield passing game after the win, Allen noted that the team has to “play the game that’s in front of them,” adding that long-developing routes require deeper dropbacks, and against a pass rush as fierce as Pittsburgh’s Buffalo wasn’t about to try that on Sunday. They instead relied on a steady diet of running back James Cook, who carried a career-high 32 times for 144 yards while leading the team in receiving with three catches for 33 yards.
Allen managed to complete passes to eight different receivers, including a fourth-down touchdown pass to second-year man Keon Coleman where Allen eluded near-instant pressure to make magic out of what looked like a disaster. Allen also ran for his 11th touchdown of the season, and more impressively, the 76th of his illustrious career. That set an NFL record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback, surpassing Cam Newton’s career total.
It wasn’t exactly pretty, but it was an effective day on the road for a Buffalo...
