Buffalo Rumblings
The 7-4 Buffalo Bills travel to take on the 6-5 Pittsburgh Steelers in a game that could have playoff implications down the line. Should both teams find themselves in the Wild Card race, the head-to-head matchup could be huge. Also, Buffalo just needs to keep winning for their own sake.
Rather than dive into the typical stats, I’d like to focus on one where the two teams have a massive disparity that the Bills could take advantage of; Time of possession.
The Steelers hold the ball on average for 27 minutes and 51 seconds this season. I’m a big fan of where things rank in the league, and for the Steelers that’s third-worst in the league. Only the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings hold the ball less than Pittsburgh.
The Bills on the other hand have an average time of possession of 32 minutes and 22 seconds. That’s second-best in the league. It’s also 4 minutes and 31 seconds greater than the Steelers are averaging in 2025.
The average NFL drive this season lasts 2:52. Pittsburgh averages 15 seconds less than that, and Buffalo is 10 seconds greater on average. On average the Bills hold the ball 25 seconds longer than the Steelers.
A large part of this is likely due to play choice. Buffalo has had 686 plays on offense this season, 325 of them rushing plays or 47.3% of the time. Pittsburgh has had 624 plays, 265 of them running plays or 42.5% of the time.
There’s good reason for this disparity as well. The Bills have the third-best rate of rushing yards per play with 4.98 yards per rush. The Steelers average 4.03 yards per rush, 23rd in the league. Which brings me to how Buffalo can leverage this information to help secure a victory.
The Bills will be without both starting offensive tackles with Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown already ruled out for the game. This will impact both the passing and rushing offense for Buffalo but if you can believe it, Buffalo has the best yards per rush up the middle in the league, averaging 5.95 yards per carry. This should be the area of the line least impacted by the loss of Dawkins and Brown.
Incidentally, Pittsburgh has a fairly average run defense, and allows 4.35 yards on average up the middle. That may not seem so bad, but it ranks 22nd in the NFL with this direction typically being dragged down on average gain thanks to short yardage plays like quarterback sneaks, etc.
Now obviously it’s all easier said than done, but the Bills should still be able to have some success in the run game. That can help limit the Steelers’ chances to score, protect quarterback Josh Allen, and hopefully set up chances in the passing game. Winning the time-of-possession battle often favors the team by wearing down the opponent’s defense as well.
