The Wild Card game in Orchard Park, NY, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills is shaping up to be a wild one. Not necessarily because of the players on the field but because of the potential for terrible weather conditions. When the weather turns bad, teams turn to their running games to help keep their offenses going.
That means Sunday afternoon’s game could be decided by the players carrying the ball and especially the big men on the offensive and defensive lines. One man who has certainly played in some inclement weather during his time in the league is former Bills LB Darry Talley. He joined One Bills Live, the Bills’ weekday radio show, on Friday to talk about the weather and how that can affect the matchup.
“What I think this game is going to turn into, and I’ve been telling everybody, it’s going to turn into a rock fight,” Talley said. “This is going to be a fight where it’s going to be won in the trenches. I don’t care about all the high flyers and nothing like that. This game is going to be won up front. If the weather has anything to do with it, it’s going to be in the trenches where this is won.”
Talley was drafted in the second round of the 1983 draft by the Bills and played 12 years in Buffalo before spending a season with the Atlanta Falcons and his final season with the Minnesota Vikings. While Atlanta might have been a nice relief from the cold weather, he certainly experienced some inclement weather in Buffalo and then traveled to Green Bay and Chicago in his final season.
Now in terms of the weather expected for 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has already declared a State of Emergency. If the game proceeds as planned, there are plenty of people who expect it to favor the visiting Steelers because it will hamper the Bills’ passing game with QB Josh Allen, WR Stefon Diggs, and rookie TE Dalton Kincaid. Do the numbers bear that out? If the game turns into a rock fight, as Talley suggests, are the Steelers suddenly favorites?
When you compare the offensive numbers, the Bills have a better running game than the Steelers. They average 4.3 yards per carry, tied for the eighth-best mark in the league with five other teams. They have 22 rushing touchdowns, tied for fifth-most in the league with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Steelers average 4.1 yards per carry, tied at 16th with four other teams, and have 16 rushing touchdowns, tied for 11th-most with the Chicago Bears and the Tennessee Titans.
Yet that only tells part of the story because every rushing offense has to face a rushing defense. The Steelers allow 4.3 yards per carry which is tied for 12th most in the league with the Eagles and the Cleveland Browns (and also the same as what the Bills average on offense.) The Bills? They allow 4.6 yards per carry, tied for the fifth-highest average with the Seattle Seahawks. Then when you compare the rushing touchdowns allowed, the picture becomes clearer. The Bills have allowed 14 rushing touchdowns, tied for 11th fewest in the league.
The Steelers have only allowed seven rushing touchdowns all year, the third least number of touchdowns in the league.
So when the rock fight begins on Sunday, the Steelers will be looking to keep the Bills out of the endzone on the ground as they have done better than everyone in the league but the Bears and the Baltimore Ravens.
