Category: 2020 Steelers vs. Bills NFL Week 14

4 things the Steelers must do to beat the Bills

Steelers Wire looks at some changes Pittsburgh must make this week to beat the Bills.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. But if we are being honest, these things were going wrong for weeks but Pittsburgh found a way to keep winning so no one seemed to care.

This week all that changes. The Steelers have their first loss of the season and are going against a Buffalo Bills team in a battle for the division title sitting at 9-4. If the Steelers want to beat the Bills and get things back on track, here’s what they must do.

Steelers remain 2.5-point underdogs this week vs the Bills

Steelers Wire takes a look at the betting line for Steelers vs Bills.

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Last week we saw the Pittsburgh Steelers became the final team to fall from the ranks of the unbeaten. Their 23-17 loss to the Washington Football Team was tough to watch and certainly raises some doubt about where this team sits among the elite in the NFL.

But this, combined with the fact that the Buffalo Bills are really playing well doesn’t seem to have a problem with the Steelers stumble last week as they only have the Bills listed as 2.5-point home favorites according to BetMGM.

This is somewhat surprising given the performance of these two teams in recent weeks. Pittsburgh has been spiraling on offense, struggling to find an identity and the defense is decimated by injuries.

But I want to pass the question off to you, Steeler Nation. What do you make of this line and if you were betting, do you feel confident taking the Steelers and 2.5 points? Let us know int he comments below.

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One significant advantage Steelers have over Bills that they didn’t in 2019

Heading into Buffalo for the second time in as many seasons, Ben Roethlisberger looks to vastly improve his 2016 performance.

The Pittsburgh Steelers put up a mediocre fight in their matchup versus the 9-4 Buffalo Bills last December.

The one missing piece on offense? Ben Roethlisberger.

Devlin “Duck” Hodges, in his fourth game of the season, tossed four interceptions — one in each quarter. It’s a tall task vying for a win when your quarterback is turnover happy, but the Steelers defense kept them in it thanks to two forced fumbles and four recoveries.

Fast forward a year, and it’s the 11-1 Steelers taking on the 9-3 Bills, once again, in Buffalo. This time with a healthy Big Ben.

In his 17 seasons, Sunday will be only the fourth time Roethlisberger has faced the Bills. In 2005, the 15-1 Steelers were playoff-bound, so Roethlisberger sat while Tommy Maddox took care of business, 29-24.

At 4-0, Roethlisberger is undefeated versus the Bills, but it hasn’t come easy. With 912 yards passing on 128 attempts and 76 completions, and a 2:5 touchdown to interception ratio, Ben’s average quarterback rating is 69.9. The rating was decimated by the zero-touchdown, three-interception game he produced the last time he faced them in 2016.

Roethlisberger and the Steelers hope to leave Buffalo with a much different result than in 2019. The gravity of the situation is daunting, though.

“They are a really good football team. They are playing with a lot of confidence,” said Roethlisberger in a press conference on Wednesday. “They have an MVP-caliber quarterback who is playing at that level. They’ve got some defenders that are just taking the ball away every single time the ball is thrown their ways, and they are just a really good football team. I think confidence has a lot to do with that.”

Not only are the Steelers going up against a quarterback in Josh Allen — coming off a 375-yard, four-touchdown performance versus the San Fransisco 49ers — they are the away team for just the second time in five games.

“We are going to their place, looks like crappy weather, night game, cold,” said Roethlisberger. “All the perfect elements that come with playing playoff-caliber football teams and playoff-caliber situations this time of the year. It is a great test and challenge for us.”

Ben’s not wrong. The Bills Stadium forecast for Sunday night is a chilly 31 degrees with a feels-like temp of 22. It’ll be mostly cloudy with wind gusts of 20 miles per hour. The chance of precipitation is 25 percent.

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Steelers vs Bills: Wednesday practice report

The Steelers got Steven Nelson back to practice on Wednesday.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers got back to work on Wednesday and the practice report was a mixed bag of good and bad news. Here’s how practice participants broke down for the Steelers:

FULL: Steve Nelson (knee)

DNP: Chris Boswell (hip), Joe Haden (concussion), Robert Spillane (knee), Chris Wormley (illness)

DNP (not injury related): Ben Roethlisberger, Dave DeCastro, Al Villanueva

Getting Nelson back to practice is great news, especially with Haden in the concussion protocol. You hate seeing Haden and kicker Chris Boswell both DNP and Wormley on there with illness could be a problem if he turns up on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Spillane’s knee injury looked pretty nasty so I don’t look for him to be back anytime soon.

As usual, the Steelers gave their top offensive vets a day off and seeing Roethlisberger not having his knee listed at all is a positive sign. He missed practice last week with tightness in his knee but this doesn’t seem to be a concern this week ahead of their game with the Buffalo Bills.

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Steelers announce multiple roster moves

The Pittsburgh Steelers are keeping busy with the roster Moves on Tuesday.

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On Tuesday the Pittsburgh Steelers announced several positive roster moves ahead of their game with the Buffalo Bills. The marquee name among the moves is starting running back James Conner. The team hopes to have Conner back for this week’s game after activating him from the Reserve/COVID-19 list.

The Steelers also announced linebacker Ulysees Gilbert III has returned to practice and the team has 21 days to activate him after putting him on short-term IR. Gilbert would be a welcome addition to a decimated linebacking unit.

Pittsburgh also announced they signed defensive lineman Cassius Marsh from the Indianapolis Colts practice squad. We will have to see if this is foreshadowing to an injury concern on the defensive line we haven’t heard about yet.

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