In their first Sunday Night Football game since 2007, the Buffalo Bills secured their biggest win of the season, beating the Steelers 17-10. Buffalo had waited a long time for this moment -- the team's most recent Sunday night win came all the way back in 2000 -- and while it wasn't pretty, it counts just the same as if it had been.
The Bills started off slowly, and even once they got into what could loosely be described as a rhythm on offense, they still didn't move the ball all that well against Pittsburgh's stifling defense.
But the Buffalo defense locked down Devlin Hodges and company just as well, allowing only two scoring drives all evenin, a field goal in the first half and a touchdown early in the second. The Steelers' other nine drives ended like this: interception, punt, punt, fumble, punt, interception, punt, interception, interception. It's pretty much impossible for a team to win when the opposing defense holds them to results like that.
The Bills offense was held to a similarly poor performance (261 total yards on 64 plays), but they achieved their yards at more opportune times. Buffalo's first scoring drive began on the Pittsburgh 40-yard line, and finished with Allen plowing into the end zone nine plays later. The game-winning drive began on Buffalo's 30-yard line, but the first play was a 40-yard dart from Josh Allen to John Brown down the sideline, and the Bills only needed five more plays to find their way into the end zone again.
Week 15 is almost in the books and there's a lot to go over. Fortunately Will Brinson, John Breech, Ryan Wilson and Sean Wagner-McGough are here to break everything down on the Pick Six Podcast. Listen below and be sure to subscribe right here for daily NFL goodness fired into your eardrums.
The Bills ran their record to 10-4 with the win, racking up another victory over a playoff contender, their second in the past three weeks. Buffalo is now headed to the playoffs for certain, and depending on how next week's game against the Patriots shakes out, the Bills could even win the AFC East. That's pretty damn impressive.
Why the Bills won
Their defense was absolutely suffocating all game, Tre'Davious White played out of his mind, and Josh Allen made just enough plays. Buffalo held the Steelers to just 229 total yards on 57 plays, an average of 4.0 yards per play. Duck Hodges was sacked four times and picked off four more, and was made to feel generally uncomfortable in the pocket all evening. Almost all of his production came on plays where he simply threw the ball up the sideline and let his receiver (Diontae Johnson or James Washington) try to beat the defensive back one-on-one: 63 of his 202 passing yards came on just two plays, and his other 21 completions went for just 139 yards. Josh Allen did not have his best stuff on this night, but he made one monster throw to John Brown and another to Tyler Kroft, and he also scored a rushing touchdown after he hustled the Bills up to the line of scrimmage following a nifty Devin Singletary run that was stopped just short of the goal line.
Why the Steelers lost
They just could not do anything on offense, and they gave the Bills a few too many short fields to work with. Punter Jordan Berry had his worst night of the season, with a 22-yard shanked punt leading to the Bills' first score of the game. Buffalo only had to go 40 yards in order to take a 7-3 lead in the second quarter. Hodges' second pick left the Bills with only 18 yards to go to the end zone, and though the drive stalled, that meant they were still able to kick the game-tying field goal. The Steelers defense forced multiple turnovers, but the offense was unable to capitalize on the one truly short field it was granted. A drive that began on the Buffalo 20-yard line ended in a James Conner fumble on the second play.
Turning point
Late in the third quarter, the Steelers were leading 10-7. They had the ball just over midfield and had just picked up a new set of downs on a strong run by James Conner. And that's when Devlin Hodges made his biggest mistake of the night. Hodges had already been intercepted by Tre'Davious White on what essentially amounted to an arm-punt earlier in the game, and he tried to test White again with a 10-yard out to Diontae Johnson. Hodges left the throw way too far inside and White jumped the route, returning the ball all the way back to the Steelers' 18-yard line.
Buffalo only turned the ensuing drive into a field goal, but that field goal tied the game, and the interception that led to it prevented the Steelers from potentially stretching their lead to two scores. The Bills outscored Pittsburgh 10-0 from this point on, and that was all they really needed.
Play of the game
We have to go with the first play of what ended up being Buffalo's game-winning drive. Josh Allen was averaging only 4.0 yards per attempt when he dropped back, faked a hand-off to Devin Singletary, and under heavy duress, launched the ball down the left sideline to John Brown. Brown did the rest.
Brown hauled in that 40-yarder over the top of Steven Nelson, who also interfered with Brown on the play. Brown was the only player that really made any plays through the air for the Bills during this game (seven catches for 99 yards compared to six catches for 40 yards for all other pass-catchers), and this was by far the most important one.
Five plays later, Allen found tight end Tyler Kroft on a corner route to give the Bills a lead.
What's next?
The Bills improve their record to 10-4 with this win. They maintain control of the No. 5 seed in the AFC, and still sit one game behind the Patriots in the AFC East. Buffalo actually plays at New England next week, and they have an outside shot at coming away with a division title if they win that game and their regular-season finale against the Jets. If the Patriots win, however, they clinch the AFC East and relegate Buffalo to only a wild card spot.
The Steelers' record drops to 8-6, but they maintain control of the No. 6 seed in the AFC, thanks to the Titans' loss to the Texans earlier in the day. Pittsburgh gets a road date with the Jets next week before finishing the season with a game at the Ravens. It's possible Baltimore could have clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC by then, and that would obviously help the Steelers' playoff hopes.
