Bills 26, Steelers 7

As Stephen Brunt once said, you can put any football game of any kind on television and he’ll at least watch some of it. Even by that standard, that was a lot of American football over a four-day period: three NFL games on Thanksgiving Thursday enjoying their own time-slot, then another on Friday, then rivalry weekend in college football on Saturday then the slightly reduced slate of Sunday NFL games. By halftime in the Denver v. Washington game, I’d had enough football although when I checked the score in the night, part of me wished I had seen the dramatic and unsuccessful overtime two-point conversion attempt by Washington which gave the Broncos a one-point win and pulled them even with the Patriots at 10-2 as these two battle for the AFC’s number one playoff seed. But it really was a lot a football.

One thing that occurred to me after the first play from scrimmage of the second half of yesterday's game in Pittsburgh which featured a Joey Bosa blindside sack of Aaron Rodgers then a scoop-and-score by cornerback Christian Benford which propelled the Bills to what became a relatively easy win at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium was that as Mason Rudolph entered the game on the next play from scrimmage, it was not Rudolph who was sporting the red nose but rather it was Rodgers, who turns 42 tomorrow and looked old, hurt and defeated as he left the game clutching his lame left arm and with his nose bloodied by Bosa’s hit. I have never ever taken pleasure from an injury to any player but I will admit that when Rodgers went down on that play, my sympathy for him, for a few reasons, was ever-so-slightly less than it would have been for almost any other NFL player. To his credit, he returned to the game one series later but was just as ineffective as he had been earlier. If I were a Steelers fan, despite not posting a losing season in 20 years, the prospects at quarterback with Rodgers and the not-so-red-nosed Rudolph atop the depth chart are bleak at best. Add to that the expiring shelf-life of the very long-in-the-tooth (but still highly respected and for good reason) head coach Mike Tomlin, and Steelers Nation will be expecting, and will probably get, some big changes this off-season. The Steelers have only had three head coaches since 1969: Chuck Knoll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin. Looks like its time for a reset in Pittsburgh. The boos were loud and Tomlin, the Steelers head coach since 2007, acknowledged them afterward. He and Bills coach Sean McDermott were teammates at the College of William and Mary and share a close friendship. Tomlin is a class act but I’d say his time is done.

As for the Bills and their offensive mindset going into yesterday’s game, they obviously committed to the run and they certainly stuck with it. How many times did we hear Tony Romo on the CBS broadcast ask how many times the Bills were going to run the same simple rushing play with James Cook? Although there wasn’t much to show for it in the first half, they certainly did not waiver from the plan and the box score shows that it ended up working very well indeed. Cook ran for 144 yards on 32 carries, Ray Davis had nine carries for 62 yards, Ty Johnson had five yards on two carries and Josh Allen added 38 yards on eight carries. All told, the rushing effort added up to 249 of the Bills 372 total yards – the most the Steelers have ever given up at Acrisure Stadium (which opened in 2001) and the most they have allowed at home in 50 years. Keon Coleman, who will be chairing a series of team and community meetings this week, returned to the lineup and caught two balls on three targets with a touchdown. The team’s leader in the passing game yesterday was none other than James Cook with three catches for 33 yards. Cook continues to prove that he is, as Bill Cowher pointed out, the second-best player on the team.

Saturday’s big game at the Big House in Ann Arbor did not live up to its billing as the continuation of what ESPN has called the greatest rivalry in American sports. The Wolverines came into the game - known as “The Game”- as the 15^th ranked team nationally and a win over undefeated and top-ranked Ohio State probably would have propelled them into the 12-team college football playoff but the 121^st meeting between these powerhouse programs was not close with the Buckeyes winning 27-9, a score which flattered the Wolverines and sent their 112,000 fans home disappointed. This rivalry dates back to 1897 with the Wolverines and Buckeyes meeting every season since except for 1918 (because of WW 1) and 2020 (because of COVID). Michigan leads the all-time series 62-53 with six ties.

Up next for the Bills is a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals which was originally scheduled to be a featured 4.25pm game for FOX but was flexed last week to a less prominent 1pm start as the Bengals are not one of the top teams in the AFC as they were expected to be. But they do have Joe Burrow back and he led his team to a big win in the Thanksgiving night game in Baltimore. The Bills have struggled against Cincinnati in the Josh Allen era and with the Bengals having four extra days to prepare and with only a highly unlikely outside shot at a wildcard spot, they will present a real challenge on Sunday in Orchard Park.

Joey Bosa, who has bucked his injury-prone reputation so far this season, left the game in the second half with an undetermined hamstring injury. He was seen walking normally afterward so he may be available against the Bengals but hamstring injuries – just ask Dalton Kinkaid – can linger and usually need a week or two. Thankfully, the Bills came away from yesterday’s game with no other injuries that we know of.

As a side note, looking ahead to the Bills big rematch with the Patriots in Foxboro the following week, the game is currently scheduled to be a 1pm start but (this is pure speculation on my part) it seems likely that it will be flexed to 4.25pm or possibly to the Sunday night game which is currently scheduled to be Minnesota at Dallas.