ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Here are my five takes from the Buffalo Bills’ 31-17 wild-card playoff victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers Monday at Highmark Stadium:
1. You could change the day, you could change the time, but you couldn’t change the fact the Bills were the far superior team.
They demonstrated as much from the start, dominating on both sides of the ball on the way to a three-touchdown first-half lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Poor opponent or not, the Bills shook off the disruption of the winter blast that forced the game to move from Sunday at 1 p.m. to Monday at 4:30 p.m., and had the look of a team more than capable of a deep postseason run. Snow fell on the stadium until 4 a.m. Monday, forcing a massive effort by team personnel and shovlers hired overnight to allow the game to be played in front of more than 70,000 fans.
“I thought it was an admirable effort by everyone involved to get this game ready to be played and the streets, sidewalks, roads getting here cleared off,” Sean McDermott said in giving shout-outs to Bills staffers and Gov. Hochul. “I looked out my window a few times (Sunday) and it was hard to see.”
A county wide travel ban prevented the Bills from having player meetings at their facility over the weekend. In an effort to make sure the players weren’t just sitting around watching the snow fall and stuffing themselves, McDermott said, the Bills held a team stretch via Zoom, requiring all the players to keep their cameras on “so we could see them actually moving.”
The Bills’ offense was mostly sharp, with Josh Allen operating an efficient and explosive passing attack complemented by solid rushing. Their defense matched the Steelers’ intention to be physical and lean on a run-heavy approach to minimize the passing of Mason Rudolph and his suspect arm.
For a team that won its last five games to enter the playoffs with a fourth straight division championship, the Bills look to have plenty more left in the tank to handle the Kansas City Chiefs in next Sunday’s divisional round and beyond.
“I think we’re playing at a comfortable level because of the uncomfortable situations that we’ve been in this last six, seven weeks,” Allen said. “You know, it’s almost a sense of a breath of fresh air knowing that everybody’s in the same position that we have been, you know, win or go home. And to be in that situation, the dividends that it’s going to pay off, I think you kind of saw that tonight. We were cool, calm and collected and nobody blinked and we just kind of went out there and did our job, and we’re gonna need to continue to do that.”
2. Josh Allen wasn’t great, but once again did what was necessary to give the Bills all the offensive production they needed.
He threw for three touchdowns and had a 52-yard scoring run that was the longest in Bills playoff history. It surpassed Joe Cribbs’ 45-yarder against the New York Jets in 1981.
Allen also had a big 13-yard run early in the fourth quarter that led to his game-sealing 17-yard touchdown connection with Kahlil Shakir on a shallow cross. Shakir’s incredibly nifty running after the catch allowed him to go low to escape a neck tackle and other would-be tacklers to reach the end zone and give the Bills a 31-17 lead.
“My job is to get across field and show eyes if they do bring any sort of blitz, and Josh put it right on me,” Shakir said. “And I don’t know, the dude hit me and I was able to just stay up and make a play from there. And everyone else continued the play as well, everyone else finishing, down blocks, and I was able to get in the end zone.”
He cited a weekly ball-security drill called “Stumble Bump,” where ball-carriers hold the ball in one hand while putting another on the ground while someone tries to punch the ball out, as a factor in helping him make the play.
Allen set the tone early by taking the Bills’ first possession 80 yards in 10 plays for a nine-yard TD throw to Dawson Knox. On the next possession, Sean McDermott won a challenge that reversed an incomplete pass to a Steeler fumble. Five seconds later, Allen then threw a 29-yard touchdown dart to Dalton Kincaid.
Allen and the rest of the Bills’ offense came up big when, after the Steelers cut the margin to 21-10 on a 40-yard Chris Boswell field goal with 8:50 left in the third quarter, they drove to a 45-yard Tyler Bass field goal to make it 24-10. The highlight of the march was when Allen rolled to his right and flung a 13-yard pass across his body to Stefon Diggs on third-and-nine from the Pittsburgh 42.
3. The Bills’ defense took more big hits with the losses of linebackers Terrel Bernard (ankle) and Baylon Spector (back), and cornerbacks Christian Benford (knee) and Taron Johnson (head).
The unit overcame them Monday, thanks so some impressive work by backups, though it could be harder to do against the Chiefs.
Perhaps no one stepped up more than veteran A.J. Klein, who the Bills re-signed earlier in the week after losing Tyrel Dodson to a shoulder injury in the regular-season finale against Miami. Klein was on the verge of departing for a vacation this past weekend.
Klein, in fact, was running scout team in practice and then was forced into Monday’s game after Bernard’s injury. Klein had to become the on-field relay of defensive signals called by McDermott.
“It’s like the Griswolds, he’s going on vacation, and we stopped him, I think, just short of Wally World,” McDermott said. “And he came back and he put the uniform on and to go out there and play, I think that’s pretty special right there. So, I applaud A.J. for that. Pretty remarkable. I should applaud his family as well for letting him come back, too.”
The Bills’ D, which also was without cornerback Rasul Douglas, gradually allowed the Steelers to climb out of a 21-0 hole and gave Rudolph time to gain some confidence on the way to throwing for two touchdowns. Still, it made the stops when it had to.
Kaiir Elam, who has mostly been a disappointment since the Bills made him a first-round draft pick in 2022, came in the game as a reserve and came up with an end-zone interception that set up the drive ending with Allen’s TD run. The pick allowed Elam to make amends for a pass-interference penalty he drew two plays earlier.
4. On a day when No. 2 receiver Gabe Davis was out with a knee injury, nine different players caught passes from Allen, providing the kind of balance that usually is a formula for success.
Stefon Diggs was targeted a team-high nine times for seven receptions for 52 yards. However, as has been the case since Joe Brady became offensive coordinator, Diggs was more of a complementary piece rather than a star of the passing game.
Kincaid continues to show that he’s an extremely dangerous weapon, doing his part, along with Shakir, to pick up the slack created by Davis’ absence.
“He’s been fantastic,” Allen said of Shakir. “It’s not a secret anymore. Teams are starting to game plan for him. But the kid just works hard. He doesn’t ever complain about anything. He’s always where he’s supposed to be. You watch him when he’s not getting the ball, he’s following the ball, he’s getting downfield, he’s trying to make a block. He plays football the right way.
“And when you combine that with his physical talents – he’s very shifty, he’s very quick, his hands are fantastic – you put yourself in good positions to have success and he’s been making the most out of it. It’s been fun to see him grow as a young player.”
Beyond Allen, the Bills’ run game got solid production from James Cook, who gained 79 yards on 18 carries, an average of 4.4 yards per rush.
“I thought James ran with purpose tonight,” McDermott said. “You could tell by the tilt of his pads he was ready to go. So, we’ll need more of that.”
5. The challenge gets much greater next Sunday night when, for a change, the Bills face the Chiefs at home in the postseason.
The possibility of doing so with a lengthy injury list, especially on defense, figures to make things much tougher against Patrick Mahomes and the rest of a Chiefs offense that’s capable of being explosive even if it has been highly inconsistent. The Bills also could be forced to get a new punter, after Sam Martin suffered a hamstring injury while chasing down a blocked field goal.
“We’ll just have to sit down with (athletic trainer) Nate (Breske Tuesday) and just try and see who’s healthy, when they’ll be healthy if they’re not healthy and see what jersey numbers we have and kind of go from there,” McDermott said.
With a short week of preparation, the Bills will be under additional pressure to get ready for the game. That includes trying to make repairs to the kicking game that, besides Martin’s injury, has a struggling kicker in Tyler Bass after having one field goal blocked and another sail wide left against Pittsburgh.
“That’s a heck of an opponent,” McDermott said of the Chiefs. “We’ll have to regroup (Tuesday) as a staff. I know some of our staff has already been working on the Chiefs. That’s kind of what you do as a position coach. You’re able to look ahead a little bit.”
