Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The Bills could be short-handed on Sunday against the Steelers.
The Buffalo Bills were minus several key players from Thursday’s practice. Buffalo and the Pittsburgh Steelers square off this weekend in the Wild Card Round of the AFC playoffs. These are all either starters, co-starters or part of a defensive rotation. Here’s the rundown of guys who missed practice.
On the latest episode of @TheChiefsWire podcast: @EdEastonJr’s chats w/ Mike Tannenbaum and @TheDolphinsWire contributor Jason Sarney #MIAvsKC
We’re back with an all-new episode of the Chiefs Wire podcast! This week, we’re previewing the Kansas City Chiefs Wild Card matchup with the Miami Dolphins.
We check in with this week’s press conferences featuring comments from quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid as they look ahead to the rematch with the Dolphins. The Chiefs were victorious in the teams’ first meeting in Germany and know they are facing a much different team than the group they saw back in November.
Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. recently sat down with former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum to get his thoughts on the Kansas City Chiefs’ offseason free agency plans. Tannenbaum spoke on behalf of The 33rd Team while providing insight on Kansas City’s needs, including negotiations with Chris Jones. The Dolphins Wire’s Jason Sarney detailed the strengths of Miami leading into Arrowhead Stadium.
Listeners can look forward to being well-informed about the Chiefs’ mindset as the team officially begins their postseason journey back to the Super Bowl, with the first obstacle being a returning Tyreek Hill and a hungry Dolphins squad charged up after missing out on the AFC East division title.
Check out the link below to get your fill of Chiefs talk ahead of Saturday’s kickoff:
The Steelers will need big games from Pat Freiermuth and Mason Cole this week.
No one is giving the Pittsburgh Steelers a shot this weekend against the Buffalo Bills. The weather is going to be miserable and could end up the great equalizer between a team with one of the top quarterbacks in the league and a former third-stringer pushed into the starting lineup.
Putting aside the quarterbacks, here are the five players for the Steelers who must step up this week.
Could the winner of this week’s game punch their ticket to the Super Bowl?
History says the winner of this week’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills is in for big things in the playoffs. The Steelers and Bills have met three times in the playoffs, and in each case, the winning team went on to play in the Super Bowl.
The first time was in 1974 when the Steelers beat the Bills 32-14 as they were building the greatest dynasty in NFL history. Buffalo beat Pittsburgh 24-3 in 1993 on the way to one of their many Super Bowl losses. Finally, the Steelers and Bills squared off in 1996 with the Steelers coming out on top 40-21 and then went on to lose to the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl thanks to Neil O’Donnell.
WILD: The #Steelers and #Bills have faced each other three times in the playoffs.
Each time the winning team ended up making the Superbowl. pic.twitter.com/sLKoZvn7Up
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 10, 2024
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The Steelers released Trace MCSorley on Tuesday.
With Kenny Pickett fully healthy and Mason Rudolph named the starter, the Pittsburgh Steelers had one quarterback too many. So on Tuesday, the team released former Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley from the practice squad.
This leaves Pickett and Rudolph along with Mitch Trubisky on the roster for this week’s playoff game against the Buffalo Bills. The Steelers added McSorley after Pickett suffered his high ankle sprain.
Pittsburgh will likely use Trubisky this week to play Josh Allen on the scout team. Trubisky has a strong familiarity with the Bills offense after his time there and is the guy who can most closely mimick Allen’s athleticism.
The Steelers and Bills square off in Buffalo at 1 PM ET on Sunday, January 14 in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
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The Steelers hope to get Minkah Fitzpatrick back this week.
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin addressed the media on Tuesday ahead of this week’s playoff game against the Buffalo Bills. In his press conference, it was a mix of good and bad news. Tomlin ruled out outside linebacker T.J. Watt this week with a knee injury but also indicated he’s optimistic that safety Minkah Fitzpatrick will be back after recovering from a knee injury of his own.
The Steelers have had a long list of issues at safety this season. Aside from Fitzpatrick’s injury, Keanu Neal is on IR and Damontae Kazee was suspended. This week it looks like Pittsburgh could get Fitzpatrick and Kazee back and not a moment too soon.
During their absences, the Steelers have gotten some solid production from Patrick Peterson and Eric Rowe. Rowe in particular has been great and could keep Kazee out of the starting lineup this week. The return of Fitzpatrick could also allow Peterson to go back to cornerback.
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Steelers center Mason Cole sounds like it didn’t matter who the Steelers were playing as long as they made the playoffs.
All of Steeler Nation including all of the Pittsburgh Steelers were glued to the television on Sunday to see if they would get help from the Tennessee Titans and make the playoffs. And thanks to the Titans, we all knew Pittsburgh was going to the playoffs before dinner.
The Steelers seeding wasn’t set yet and we didn’t know until the end of the Sunday night game but this wasn’t enough to keep center Mason Cole awake. He wasn’t worried about who the Steelers opponent would be so long as the Steelers were in.
“Once I knew we were in, I slept like a baby,” Cole said. “I had no trouble sleeping. Maybe the best sleep I’ve had in a while. I knew by that time we knew we either go Buffalo or KC. We knew the weather was going to be crappy either way, so I slept just fine.”
Now Cole and his fellow offensive linemen need to be ready to come out and keep the momentum going of the past three games and the run game. With bad weather a certainty, it will be incumbent on the Steelers rushing attack to give the Steelers a chance to win.
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Who will the Steelers start at quarterback this week?
The Pittsburgh Steelers fought and clawed their way into the playoffs and their prize is a road trip to Orchard Park to take on the red-hot Buffalo Bills. Here are our early storylines for this week.
Pittsburgh has a tall task ahead of them against Josh Allen and the Bills.
It came down literally to the final moments of the NFL regular season for the Pittsburgh Steelers to know their playoff fate but now we know the Steelers will travel and take on the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
The oddsmakers at BetMGM aren’t giving the Steelers much of a shot as they open as 9.5-point underdogs to the Bills, which is easily the largest spread of the weekend.
Pittsburgh made it to the playoffs after winning their last three games including a tough road game in nasty weather against the Baltimore Ravens. Meanwhile, the Bills are the No. 2 seed in the AFC after winning their final five games.
The Steelers and Bills have played 29 times and Pittsburgh holds a 17-12 edge in the series. The two squared off most recently in 2022 with the Bills blowing out the Steelers 38-3.
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Here are the Steelers opponents for the 2024 season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers snuck into the playoffs on the final weekend of the regular season and as positions are set, so are the opponents for next season. Here are the Steelers home and away foes for 2024.
