Steelers shut up the naysayers, which was pretty much everybody, but are the Bills vastly overrated — or the Steelers that good?

Steelers D captures the day

… September is not December

I was able to watch just the first half of the Steelers-Bills game on Sunday, the period in which the Pittsburgh offense racked up just 34 yards on total offense. 

Pretty much what I and the other prognosticators had figured. Good defense, woeful offense. 

However, what I definitely noticed was that the Bills were not that impressive in the first 30 minutes either. 

They have no running game, and until the final drive of the first half, the Bills had nothing to hang their hats on except for a great kickoff return to open the game. 

They had some good defense, too, but that disappeared in the second half as the Steelers and their woeful offense suddenly found some rhythm. The running game is still non-existent — just 75 yards as their heralded rookie running back averaged just 2.8 yards per carry. 

They do, however, have some talented receivers, and that may carry them through the 2021 season — or at least until December when Mike Tomlin’s teams have been collapsing the last four or five years. 

Nevertheless, for one week at least, the Steelers, despite their QB having a QB rating of 28.6, 84 overall, were able to prance around like they are better than everyone thought. 

Just ask Gene Collier

Everyone had the Steelers losing to the Bills, and some, like Collier even thought that the Buffalo team might make it to the Super Bowl for the first time since the Jim Kelly days. 

If they do, the improvement will have to be more than incremental,

It wasn’t so much that I was one of eight people in your Sunday Post-Gazette to pick the Buffalo Bills to dismiss the Steelers without much difficulty — you’ll note there were no dissenters — it’s more that I picked this particular herd of Buffalo not only to migrate all the way to the Super Bowl, but to bring back the organ-I-zation’s first Lombardi Trophy.

What a moron.

That could still happen, but not based on any of the evidence presented yesterday. The chuckly notion that the Bills could end up playing February football was all but blown apart in the pre-autumn winds of Western New York.

Gene Collier, “ Is it too late (or early) to rescind a Super Bowl pick?” Post-Gazette, September 13, 2021

And if Josh Allen is to persuade the Buffalo fans that he is better than he showed on Sunday, and worthy of the big contract that he has been given, he has a long way to go. 

Quite simply: It was not just the Pittsburgh defense. Allen consistently in the first half missed some wide open receivers, one for a TD early in the game. He is being paid to make those throws. 

And it was not because of the Steelers pass rush. He had time, but he did not deliver. 

Steelers D drew raves in the second half

Again, I did not see the second half, but obviously, the Steelers D rose to the occasion, including a pick-6 that ultimately was the difference in the 23-17 win. 

If Pittsburgh is to do better in its division than every has said — who picked them behind the Browns and Ravens, and what about those Bengals — it will need the D. Their offense is still very iffy. 

Nevertheless, the O must have looked pretty good too in the second half. That was the surprise for many. 

How good is Allen?

The Bills had high hopes for Allen and are paying him some big bucks, all based on last year. However, yesterday, he looked like he had in 2019,

Allen earned enough respect from Bills management that they agreed to furnish him with $258 million over the next six years, based largely on his outsized production a year ago, when he became the only human in history to pass for more than 4,500 yards, throw more than 35 touchdown passes, and run for five or more touchdowns as well.

As a highly viable MVP candidate and the name that appears on more retail NFL jerseys than other player, Allen thus appeared to be in the opposite situation of 86-year-old Ben Roethlisberger, whose forecast for the revamped Steelers offense No. 7 was summarized in two words: Growing Pains.

For all of the first half and most of the afternoon in Buffalo, the primary offensive innovation seemed to be that the Steelers planned to punt at every opportunity. New offensive coordinator Matt Canada’s design, based on first impressions, seemed to go shift, shift, motion, motion, stack, bunch, shift, motion — 2 yards.

Gene Collier, Post-Gazette, Sept. 12, 2021

Growing pains

The first half, Collier notes, was a period of “Growing Pains” for the Steeler offense. In the first half, it looked pretty pathetic,

If these were the growing pains, it reminded me for some reason of the “Growing Pains” episode where Mike and Carol don’t want their parents chaperoning a dance, so they’re glad when the PTA tells their parents it isn’t necessary — until Carol finds out what the PTA’s real objection is. And yes, I mean the “Growing Pains” episode guest-starring Annette Funicello as Mrs. Hinkley.

That’s how bad Sunday was, meaning so bad I originally thought Pittsburgh started scoring mostly because they’d worn out rookie punter Pressley Harvin III, one of six Steelers rookies to start at Buffalo.

All of which meant it should have been a perfectly manageable afternoon for the Bills, who averaged more than 31 points per game in 2020 and played in the AFC title game not eight months ago.

Allen somehow coaxed the home team to a 10-0 lead at halftime, after which it started building a mountain of mistakes, many of them unforced, including one of the stupidest football plays I’ve ever seen. 

Gene Collier, Post-Gazette, Sept. 12, 2021

No doubt. Essentially, the Bills stunk up their place. 

And no doubt, regardless of the rationale, it was a big win for the Steelers. 

And with the toughest schedule in the NFL, albeit with a respite with the Raiders on Sunday, they needed this win big-time.