{"id":563777,"date":"2025-11-29T19:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/563777\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:55:15","slug":"pittsburgh-has-blueprint-to-gain-winning-edge-over-buffalo-just-look-back-to-find-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/563777\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Has Blueprint To Gain Winning Edge Over Buffalo. Just Look Back To Find It."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Upsetting the Buffalo Bills won\u2019t be easy. When two teams are similar, riding the wave of an up-and-down season, it\u2019s easy to give the tiebreaker to the team with the better quarterback. There\u2019s no question the Bills have that advantage with Josh Allen. So if Pittsburgh is going to beat Buffalo, they\u2019ll have to find the winning edge elsewhere. That \u201celsewhere\u201d is special teams.<\/p>\n<p>The proof of that comes from Pittsburgh\u2019s last win over Buffalo in 2021\u2014a season-opening upset, with the game\u2019s turning point coming on football\u2019s third unit.<\/p>\n<p>In a 13-10 nailbiter, Miles Killebrew blocked a fourth-quarter punt that LB Ulysees Gilbert III recovered for a touchdown. A momentum-swinging play that put Pittsburgh up two scores and part of 17 fourth-quarter points to finish the game strong.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what Pittsburgh needs. Special teams splash that hasn\u2019t been there enough this season. Chris Boswell has been excellent, the kick coverage teams have been solid, and the Steelers <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2025\/09\/watch-special-teams-takeaway-leads-to-aaron-rodgers-4th-td-steelers-lead\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forced and recovered a fumble<\/a> in Week 1. Since then, things have gone quiet.<\/p>\n<p>Blocks and high-impact plays won\u2019t happen every single week. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/news\/why-have-there-been-more-blocked-kicks-this-season-cowboys-address-surprising-trend\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2025 saw more blocked field goals<\/a> than any time in recent memory, though things have calmed down as special teams coordinators have course-corrected. Still, it\u2019s an area the Steelers have taken great pride and success in over the years, getting their hands on kicks and punts.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not for a lack of trying. Pittsburgh has put its best options on the field goal block team. Nearly 6\u20197 TE Darnell Washington is a regular on that unit in the hopes of swatting one. Last week, rookie Yahya Black and Cam Heyward came oh-so-close to tipping a Chicago Bears\u2019 extra point attempt.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, \u201coh-so-close\u201d means he didn\u2019t do it. These are pass\/fail plays.<\/p>\n<p>But these aren\u2019t accidents, either. Those moments are schemed and planned. Coaches study the tape and chart where a team is weak on the punt protection unit. What the operation times are. If there are injuries or backups to exploit. What gap a kicker likes to kick over so the block team can put its best guys in that space\u2014all purposeful planning to win on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh needs that plan to come to life tomorrow. That\u2019s how the Steelers will gain an edge on the Bills. On special teams, it can come in any form. A turnover, a block, a big runback. Even an A-plus punt that pins Buffalo deep. Make one (or two) of those, and the scale will tip in Pittsburgh\u2019s favor to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upsetting the Buffalo Bills won\u2019t be easy. When two teams are similar, riding the wave of an up-and-down&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,4034,7,6,57,2085],"class_list":{"0":"post-563777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-cameron-heyward","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-yahya-black"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115634748470803361","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}