The Pittsburgh Steelers snuck into the playoffs with some help from the Tennessee Titans, and with the Buffalo Bills win over the Miami Dolphins, the Steelers will head to Buffalo on Sunday for their AFC Wild Card Round matchup. Buffalo finished the year strong, but they’ve dealt with turnover problems from QB Josh Allen. As a result, Steven Ruiz of The Ringer said the key to the game is whether or not Allen falls into Mike Tomlin’s “trap.”
“There’s only one way for the Steelers to win this game, and the blueprint will be a familiar one for Mike Tomlin’s team: slop it up,” Ruiz wrote. “Fortunately for the Pittsburgh slop merchants, they’ll have a willing partner on the other sideline in Josh Allen, who is coming off maybe the weirdest performance of his young career in Buffalo’s division-clinching win over Miami on Sunday night. Allen turned the ball over three times and should probably be charged with a fourth after making the inexplicable decision to throw short of the end zone with no timeouts remaining at the end of the first half—a choice that cost his team three points.”
It’s going to be a lot harder for the Steelers to slop it up with T.J. Watt likely out for the Steelers. Either way, that’s been their path to victory more often than not this season. Allen’s turnover-prone, and he’s a guy who’s had a mixed bag of success in his career against the Tomlin-led Steelers. While he’s 3-1 against Pittsburgh in his career, he was just 13-25 for 139 yards in one of those wins, which came against Pittsburgh with Duck Hodges at quarterback. He’s thrown four interceptions in those four starts and been sacked five times, including three in his lone loss, coming in Week One of the 2021 season.
The Steelers’ pass rush is going to have to be effective, and their suddenly healthy secondary with Minkah Fitzpatrick and Damontae Kazee will need to show off their ball skills and try to force some turnovers. Buffalo’s offense is explosive, but the Steelers have a path to winning if they can force Allen to turn the ball over. Tomlin and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin are going to scheme up ways for the Steelers to throw different looks at Allen, and with the Bills also likely down WR Gabe Davis on Sunday, they’re going to be short-handed as well.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Steelers fare against Allen. He could torch them, something he did in Week Five last year with 424 passing yards and four touchdowns, and Sunday’s game could get ugly if that’s the case. But Pittsburgh could throw enough at him to force him into a few mistakes, and that’s where things could turn in Pittsburgh’s favor. We’ll see what happens.
