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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