PITTSBURGH — What would the narrative be if Joey Bosa hadn’t planted Aaron Rodgers face-first into the turf? Or if the ball didn’t take a helpful bounce into Christian Benford’s hands?
Would the Buffalo Bills have blown out the Pittsburgh Steelers? Would they have won at all?
The Steelers were ripe to be pounded, there’s no question. Despite entering the game atop the AFC North, the Steelers are falling apart. The Bills claimed after the fact that the Steelers defense was quitting in the second quarter.
And yet the Bills still struggled to score until Benford’s scoop-and-score and his interception, all within five plays to start the second half. In a blink, Buffalo turned a 7-3 halftime deficit into a 16-7 lead.
Winning masks a lot of problems and Sunday’s 26-7 win may do that for some, especially since the Bills are not only two games behind the New England Patriots for the AFC East championship, but the best record in the NFL.
The box score indicates the Bills dominated the game, and in parts, they did. Buffalo outgained Pittsburgh 372-166 and held the ball for an absurd 41:59, thanks to a season-high 249 yards rushing.
But the passing game looked horrific for the second consecutive game.
Josh Allen threw for just 123 yards and he didn’t surpass 100 until 10 minutes remained in the game. Certainly Buffalo’s plan was to run the ball because they were missing starting offensive tackles Spencer Brown and Dion Dawkins, but the few times Allen did get to throw, it was rough.
It’s understandable to be wary of offering former NFL Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt too many opportunities against backups Alec Anderson and Ryan Van Demark. But this is the NFL.
The Bills kept Allen clean after giving up eight sacks 10 days earlier against the Houston Texans, but they only called 27 passes and Allen threw on 23 of them. It was obvious the Bills were worried about their protection, but they also didn’t seem confident in Allen either.
“Can our special teams and our defense set up our offense in scoring position throughout the game, knowing they were going to have an uphill battle?” Bills coach Sean McDermott said.
Buffalo’s first drive of the game started well, with Allen hitting newly-acquired wide receiver Brandin Cooks for a 13-yard gain on third and 8. That drive ended on a third-down interception on a pass intended for Gabriel Davis and it foreshadowed the dreariness that clouded them the remainder of the game.
Allen made a poor read and a bad throw, but it was a strange call on third and 9 because no one ran a route that carried them beyond the first down marker. And a group of receivers that didn’t show much urgency in running the routes they were assigned compounded it.
Until Keon Coleman caught an 8-yard slant in the fourth quarter — the same one that put Allen over 100 — Cooks’ 13-yard catch gained more yards than the rest of the receivers combined to that point. It was also the only completed pass that traveled more than 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
“With this D-line, you don’t want to sit there and take a seven-step drop and pat the ball because they’re coming to get you,” Allen said. “… Understanding what type of game this was — a little bit of wind, a little bit of cold. Personnel-wise of who they got and who we got. This is a typical AFC North-type team.”
Yes, the Steelers ranked fourth in the NFL in blitz percentage and fifth in sacks. Teams also try to get the ball out quickly, also holding the fifth-lowest average depth per target (7 yards).
But they also have the fifth-worst pass defense in the league, allowing over 250 yards in six of 11 games this season.
The Bills have struggled mightily with pressure this season, whether it’s Allen not seeing where the rush is coming from or offensive coordinator Joe Brady not giving him the necessary tools to get the ball out quickly. But it was obvious the Bills didn’t trust their passing game on a goal-to-go sequence following Benford’s interception.
After James Cook reeled off a 31-yard run to the Pittsburgh 7-yard line, Brady called three consecutive runs. It’s hard to recall a three-play goal line sequence from that distance that didn’t include an Allen throw.
He eventually threw a 1-yard touchdown to Keon Coleman on fourth down, pump-faking and avoiding a free rusher before turning it loose. That was the highlight of the passing game as receivers and tight ends were asked to be key pieces in the blocking game, attacking Pittsburgh’s cornerbacks against the run.
“Coming into the game, we leaning on them,” Cook said. “They’re one of the worst tackling corners in the NFL. Just try to get the ball on the edge. We did a pretty good job today.”
Brady gets his share of the praise for designing a running game that beat up with the Steelers defense, feeding Cook a career-high 32 times. But he didn’t shed any accusations of being too predictable.
The Bills entered the game running the ball on 60% of first downs and ran it on 29 of 34 first downs against the Steelers. Brady also reused at least two passing plays in the game, including the one on the interception that resulted in an incompletion in the end zone during the second quarter the next time around.
Brady’s never backed away from his willingness to repeat plays consecutively. Sometimes he’s proven right. He might be frequently proven right, with Bills repeatedly running their favorite play — duo — with Steelers offering little resistance.
“I’ve never seen a team run the same play that much and have that kind of success,” Watt said.
But there’s also not always a feel on which attempt is one too many.
Through the first three quarters, the Bills had four instances of running the same play three times in a row. The first two averaged 12.5 yards, but the third averaged ½ yard.
But those struggles that have persisted all season will be silenced for at least a few days because the Bills won. Perhaps Brown and Dawkins — or at least one of them — will return against the Cincinnati Bengals, who are allowing 410 yards of total offense per game.
Not only is that on pace to be the 15th-worst mark in NFL history, but the Bengals are giving up a league-worst 256.8 yards per game through the air. And it’s a win the Bills need to have an outside shot of catching the New England Patriots atop the AFC East.
“We’ve got to continue to find ways to win football games,” Allen said. “The four losses that we’ve had, we feel a big part of that has been turnovers. … Just making sure we’re better in that and understanding that when we can protect the ball and move the ball and not hurt ourselves, we can be a really good team.”