Steelers vs. Bills Preview | Steelers Live The Match Up | Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers vs. Bills Preview | Steelers Live The Match Up | Pittsburgh Steelers

[Music] The Steelers entered week 13 of the NFL season not in first place in the AFC North. They’re going to try to reverse a trend that’s seen them lose four their last six against a Buffalo Bills team equally hungry for a victory as they try to chase down the Patriots in the AFC East. Thanks very much for being with us for the matchup presented by Michelle Polymers alongside Missy Matthews and Matt Williamson. I’m Rob King. Missy all is not lost for the Steelers. They’ve just made their path to the playoffs a little more difficult. Yes, unfortunately. And it did feel like things were going right uh at the beginning of the game in Chicago for the Steelers. But unfortunately, another lead at halftime that quickly evaporated, but again, as you said, the Bills team, they also want to win. And for the Steelers, this would be a huge way to get back into the win column and keep pace in the AFC playoff picture. Matt, this will not be one of our keys, but a better third quarter would be nice because they had halftime leads against Seattle, Chicago, and Green Bay, and got the ball first and couldn’t add to those leads and ultimately wound up losing all three games. Yeah, and last year they were phenomenal in the third quarter. They great point differential, made a lot of halftime adjustments that really paid off for them. This year it hasn’t gone the same way, but I mean, you look at the AFC, the playoff picture is pretty murky right now. There’s a lot of big-time teams that on the outside looking in, including the Bills, including the Chiefs as we speak. So, still a lot of uh story to be written and technically right now, the Steelers as well, but hopefully they can get back into that playoff picture with a victory over the Bills. Time for our key matchups. And for me, I’ll lead off. Run the football. Love the formula with what they did against the Chicago Bears for the first time all year. They ran more plays than their opponents. They ran for 186 yards in this game. They won the time of possession handily. Of course, they still w didn’t win the game, but I would love to see this again. I think this is a formula for success. Run the ball, control the clock, keep Allen and that Bills offense off the field. Thousand%. And everyone harps on the negatives after a loss, but I think the offensive line’s in the best place it’s been all year. I thought they had an exceptional game, especially in the run game. Turned into a two-headed backfield. Gainwell’s demanding the football. He makes big plays left and right and they’re coming off a game where they’ve had the most rush attempts of the season. So stay dedicated to it. Felt like they could have run for 250 yards. It was just that effective against the Bears and we’ve seen it be effective at times, but this is the best it’s been all year. But oh by the way, the Bills rush defense is highly questionable. Right. Exactly. It will be a tall task this week. And I do think, you know, it was funny last week Arthur Smith joked with the media, what do you guys want me to run the ball like 40 times? Um and it felt like that’s where they were going in terms of using both of those guys. But I think if you know just a few of the plays in the air hit, we would probably be talking about a balanced offense. This week, unfortunately, that was not the case. Uh especially when you turn the ball over. So hopefully that’s something they can build on with the run game, keep that consistent, and then also, you know, get more guys involved uh in the passing game as well. And we’ll get to that in a moment, but I’ll take 40 runs be against a Bills team that hasn’t been able to stop the run. They’ve been very uh dinged up, very good against the pass. And that, you know, again, the Steelers are going to have to throw the ball at times. And that leads us to your key with the tackles. We don’t know for sure who the left tackle is going to be, but if the Bills do have a strength on defense when it comes to trying to defend the pass, it is with the two pass rushers on the outside. Yeah, the two notables and they’ll rotate through their defensive line. Espaness is a good one. But yeah, the two guys you’re going to mention is Bosa and Russo. I mean, both of whom have had a lot of success in this league. Bosa, they don’t want to play him a ton of snaps. They want to designate him for pass rush situations, but he’s still highly effective. Rouso has rare length and I think he’s coming on strong and throughout his career. And you mentioned the tackle situation. We know Brick Jones isn’t going to be out there. So I would think you’re going to have to ask Falanu to kind of man things by himself and we’ll help the left side, but that’s a pretty good pairing. Yep. And that would be probably Russo would be the guy he would be facing on that right side. So, okay. So, we’ve run the ball. Uh we’ve protected Aaron Rogers we think is going to be playing. Looks like it’s trending well for them, but wouldn’t it be nice to find DK Metaf because Missy, that’s your key matchup and that has been lacking for a while for the Steelers. Yeah, it felt like in the beginning of the Bears game, we were moving in the right direction. and he found the end zone um the you know stadium where his dad played his career in the NFL. But I think in terms of utilizing DK for the yak yards and also just to move the ball down the field, he leads all of the Pittsburgh wide receivers with eight 20 plus or more uh catches. Uh but the problem is he’s only had two of those over the past six games. So that’s something that really needs to come back. And I also think you can’t just rely on him to get the yaky yard. So, it’s something that they’re going to have to consciously make a decision to move the ball downfield um and not get stuck in situations where you’re asking the defense once again to help you out because I think we saw not as bad as in LA obviously, but in the Chicago game it just felt like a little bit too much. Even though they won the time of possession, the defense was being relied on heavily. Yep. And we saw him get open and early in the game, second play, second offensive play, he was underthrown. We saw Roman Wilson, by the way, get deep earlier. Uh he was overthrown in that one. So there are some plays out there, but boy, the students have got to start making some of the passing game. Oh, a thousand%. I mean, the intermediate and downfield passing game that’s really let them down. And we know it’s a short centric passing game, which is fine, and it acts as kind of a ball control situation, but you got to hit on some of those shots. All right, it is time now for our weekly Immaculate Prediction. It is live. It’s an opportunity for you to compete against Steelers Nation with your pick. And our question this week, will Pat Frymouth record at least one touchdown? We’re giving away an autographed Pat Fryouth jersey, a $50 Steelers Pro Shop gift card, and a classic terrible towel. Up next, how can the Steelers slow down the Bills offense led by reigning MVP Josh Allen? We’ll let you know when the matchup presented by Shell Polymers resumes. [Music] Our [Music] fans are here. Give us something to cheer about today. The crowd at Acure is so loud. There’s nothing like game day in Pittsburgh. Oh my TJ, this defense is swarming. And it’s kicked off. Wow, what a catch. Get two. Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ll see you at Acer Stadium. Here we go. [Music] Well, the Bills stretch of winning five consecutive AFC East championships is in serious jeopardy. They’re two games behind the Patriots heading into play on Sunday at Acer Stadium. And the Patriots hold tiebreakers already. Of course, the Steuthers facing a tiebreaker deficit with the Ravens currently, although they do get to play him twice. But Missy, this is a very big game, not just for the Steelers, but for the Bills as well. Yeah. And you know, for Josh Allen, this is a guy that other than one time out of five tries, the Steelers have lost to. Um, and it was a game in Buffalo that week one. TJ Watt signed a contract extension and that defense went crazy. And we saw, you know, with Josh Allen what happened last week against Houston, but those guys also had some extra time to try to get healthy. And you said the playoff picture is murky. It is. And you know, slowing this guy down, Missy, which is your key, harassing reigning MVP Josh Allen would go a long way toward winning this game on Sunday. Yeah, I was just reading on their website uh when Shawn McDermott was talking about some of the injuries that they’re dealing with. He said, you know, Josh is practicing, but he’s still a little sore. That game was last Thursday. Um and I bet he is still sore just from watching it, you know, not actually feeling that. And it just shows that they brought him down eight times. They made his life a living hell. Um, and he was still doing everything he could to try to get that game back into the Bills hands and to come out with a victory. Uh, they did not though. But for the Bills under Josh Allen, when he does not record a touchdown, which he did not that game against Houston, they’re two and seven. Um, and he can kill you in the air and he can kill you with his own feet. So, it is definitely something that, you know, making him as uncomfortable as possible, making him more sore will be a good idea. and underscoring that dual threat capability. He’s tied with Cam Newton for the most games in NFL history, right? Throwing and running for a touchdown. He’s got more touchdown passes than anybody under the age of 30 broke Pton Manning’s record. So, he’s just what if he’s not the best player in football, he’s one of them. He’s the reigning MVP. I don’t know I’ve ever seen a touchdown producer like this guy. I mean, he just manufactures uh touchdowns at a remarkable rate. Now, they did get to him a lot and I think Houston might be the best defense in the league, but I’ll put the Steelers pass rushers against anybody. They I mean, they could do that sort of damage as well. What’s interesting to me about Allen is he came in the league as a real wild stallion. You know, a lot of Brett FAR tendencies and last year the negative plays kind of dried up, but it’s still in his DNA. He’s a risk taker. But these past couple weeks, a lot more sacks, a lot more turnovers, and we know the Steelers defense is great at splash. Well, hopefully the Steelers can do that. And hopefully the Steelers can also stop James Cook. That would be a nice key as well because he went over a thousand yards rushing last week and is number two in the NFL in rushing yards. Yeah, they they’ve really changed the way they play football over the last couple years. They want to be a physical downhill running team. Finally realized that they played their home games in Buffalo as opposed to trying to air it out in late in the year. And I’m not sure that there’s a back other than maybe Jonathan Taylor that’s having a better year than Cook. They just gave him money. He’s a dual threat player. Tremendous football player. Gileiam and Haw too. Haw the tight end, the rookie tight end. And Gilliam, big beefy guys. Gilliam’s a fullback. There’s not a lot of fullbacks in the NFL. They’ve got one on their roster and they will utilize him to try to pound it at you. Yeah. And last year, much like the Steelers this year, they were by far the heaviest six offensive line team in the league. And they’ve gotten away with it because they drafted Haw, who’s kind of their Darnell Washington massive tight end. And so they still have a lot of big bodies out there. And obviously the Steelers knew this coming in, right? and they’ve had mixed bag. They didn’t do a great job against the Jets. They’ve faced a lot of top rushing offenses. They’ve done better recently as the season’s gone on, but you go into this game though. Daniel Aquali who was hurt several weeks ago. Um he was brought in to add depth in the Dline. Derrick Harmon was your top draft choice. He’s not going to play this week. So, there’ll be some challenges in topping this team. Yeah, I definitely did a double take when coach Tomlin brought up Derek Harmon because he played through the entire game um in Chicago but dealing with that knee injury immediately ruled out during his press conference on Tuesday. He has been uh you know a silent but not unnoticed really high member of the Steelers defense and I think ya Black is going to have to step up. He’s going to play some more snaps. I think we saw what he can do as well last week. But Derek Harmon has just been improving every week and not a guy that you’re always going to notice, but still able to get after, you know, the passer as well. So, a huge loss for them, but they were able to, you know, tame Jonathan Taylor. So, hopefully they can utilize some of the things they did against the Colts against James Cook and the Bills. All right, it’s time for my key, which is to limit the tight ends in the red zone. The tight ends for the Bills have 24% of their catches, but almost 40% of their touchdowns. Josh Allen’s thrown 18 touchdowns. Seven of those have gone to tight ends. Four to Dalton Concincade, who of course is one of the better receiving tight ends in the NFL. Two to Jackson Haws, the big massive rookie, and one to Dawson Knox. So, you know, we’ve seen this time and again, and we saw it last week with Love getting into the end zone. the tight ends down in the red zone can be a killer and they’re uh targets that Josh Allen seeks out in the red zone. Yeah, they drafted King Kade in the first round a couple years back to be a matchup nightmare and took a little while, but this year he’s really leveled up and become exactly that. He’s missed the last couple games and when we’re recording this, I’m not sure what his status is, but I I did some research this morning. Allen’s splits with and without concade this year are drastically different. Yep. So, we’re going to find out on Sunday. A huge game for both of these teams, the Steelers and the Bills. They square off coming up on uh Sunday at 4:25 at Acro Stadium for Missy Matthews. For Matt Williamson, for our entire Steelers production crew, I’m Rob King. Thanks for watching this edition of The Matchup presented by Shell Polymers. [Music]

Rob King, Matt Williamson, and Missi Matthews preview the Steelers game against the Bills and talk about the matchups to watch in the game

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