Bills inch closer to East title
Impressive showing against sloppy Steelers gets Buffalo 10 wins
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes and safety Taron Johnson returned an interception 51 yards for a score in the Buffalo Bills’ 26-15 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night.
The Bills won for the sixth time in seven outings, and inched closer to claiming their first AFC East title since 1995 and third playoff berth in four seasons. Buffalo can clinch both as early as Monday night if Baltimore loses to Cleveland.
In four years under coach Sean Mcdermott, Buffalo has gone from being a team that endured a 17-year playoff drought, which ended in 2017, to an AFC contender.
“I think the biggest difference I guess you can say from 2017 to now is we just know we’re a good football team,” safety Jordan Poyer said. We know what type of offense we have. We know what type of defense we have.”
Sitting next to Poyer, Wallace interjected by saying: “Resilient football team.”
The Steelers provided Buffalo even more incentive when a Tiktok video filmed before the game of Pittsburgh receiver Juju Smith-schuster dancing on the Bills logo during pre-game warmups.
“I ain’t going to lie,” Poyer said. “Seeing them dancing on our logo pregame and seeing all that, that turns you up a little. You come to play with a little extra fire.”
The AFC North-leading
Steelers (11-2) have lost consecutive games in six days following a 23-17 loss to Washington, and dropped a game behind the Afc-leading Kansas City Chiefs (12-1). Pittsburgh was still able to clinch its first playoff berth in three years before kickoff by virtue of the Miami Dolphins’ 33-27 loss to Kansas City earlier in the day.
“We’ve lost two. We’re facing some adversity. But we’re not hitting the panic button,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said.
“Offensively we’re not very good. We’re not playing good football and it starts with me,”
he added. “I think this is a team that has got a lot of resilience and understands what it takes to win football games and understands what time of year it is and right now it’s unacceptable.”
The Bills have won at least 10 of their first 13 games of a season for the first time since 1991.
Allen upped his season total to 35 combined touchdowns (28 passing, six rushing and one receiving) to break the team’s single-season record of 34 set by Hall of Famer
Jim Kelly in 1991. His 28 TDS passing rank second most on the team list, and five behind
the single-season record set by Kelly in ‘91.
Allen finished 24 of 43 for 238 yards and an interception. Stefon Diggs had 10 catches for 130 yards. Acquired in a trade with Minnesota in March, Diggs now has 100 catches to match the Bills’ single-season record set by Eric Moulds in 2002.
Roethlisberger finished 21 of 37 for 187 yards with touchdown passes to Washington and Juju Smith-schuster and two interceptions.
NEXT: Bills at Broncos, 1:25 p.m. Sunday. Steelers at Bengals, 5:15 p.m. Dec. 21.