Takeaways: Steelers fall in Wild Card round to Bills
There was a lot of optimism for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they entered the Wild Card game against the Buffalo Bills on Monday, January 15. The Steelers had been on a three-game win streak. The game got away from them early in the first half and recovery was a hard climb. Unfortunately, the Steelers would run out of time, and luck, to mount a successful second-half comeback and exited the NFL playoffs with a 31-17 loss.
Conditions weren’t ideal for the game. The entire state of New York had essentially been shut down due to harsh weather leading up to Monday afternoon’s kickoff, leading fans to be seated among snow drifts in the stands. On the field, the temperatures hovered around 10 degrees Fahrenheit for the majority of the game.
Early mishandling of the ball was a shot to the Steelers offense’s foot, but they fought through the adversity to score a late second-quarter touchdown when Mason Rudolph found Diontae Johnson in the end zone to make the score 21-7. Both Pat Freiermuth and George Pickens had balls come loose during catches, and things didn’t look pretty for Pittsburgh.
On the game, Rudolph completed 22-of-39 passes for 229 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also threw one interception; a ball that was narrowly snatched from Johnson by Kaiir Elam in the end zone as snowballs from the stands were thrown by fans.
The momentum shifted in the game when Montravius Adams blocked a Tyler Bass field goal attempt that Nick Herbig recovered. That set up the Steelers’ first touchdown. The block was a franchise first in any playoff game.
https://twitter.com/steelers/status/1747029076185870504?t=ic7iWBXorLChyujGv9juEg&s=19
In the second half, things got a little chippy on the field. Joey Porter Jr. was hit from behind at the end of a play and was taken to the locker room for evaluation of a concussion.
Joey Porter Jr. blasted in the back of the head by a Buffalo Bills O-Linemen.
Someone explain how launching yourself at a defensive players back of the head is legal? The league needs to protect defensive players pic.twitter.com/t5QcacJ5Mm
— Fantasy Fanatics (@FFB_Fanatics) January 15, 2024
Receiver Allen Robinson was also hit high on a play just minutes later and left the game to be evaluated for a concussion.
Pittsburgh’s defense, playing without T.J. Watt, but with Minkah Fitzpatrick back at free safety, had a few miscues in the match. Josh Allen exploited a miscommunication to throw the first Buffalo touchdown pass. Allen also took advantage of the middle of the field on another touchdown pass that was thrown over the coverage. Later, he was able to take off on foot (did he pull a fake Pickett slide?) for another touchdown thanks to teammates’ downfield blocking that may, or may not, have been aided by some contact with Steelers defenders trying to get to the quarterback and stop him from reaching the end zone.
The result of those plays was a major swing in the Bills’ favor that the Steelers could not quite overcome, even when Rudolph connected with Calvin Austin III for a touchdown pass.
It was a tough game that Pittsburgh fought to control but ultimately couldn’t. A pair of penalties on Myles Jack set Buffalo up for the Allen pass to Khalil Shakir for an almost unbelievable touchdown after Fitzpatrick failed to complete the tackle. That play broke the backs of the Steelers with little time left in the fourth quarter to create an answer.
The Steelers got into the playoffs, which was nearly unthinkable before their final three games of the season were all wins. Improbability has its way of creating situations that require luck as much as skill. On Monday afternoon, the Steelers hit a wall they just could not climb over, ending their postseason run.
