After registering a big win Sunday at Heinz Field over the New York Giants the Pittsburgh Steelers will now start preparing for their Week 14 road game against the (6-6) Buffalo Bills, who suffered a big come-from-ahead road loss Sunday to the Oakland Raiders. According to VegasInsiders.com, the Steelers opened up as 1.5-point road favorites over the Bills.
In their loss to the Raiders the Bills had a 24-9 lead with 9:01 left in the third quarter. The Raiders, however, then managed to score 29 unanswered points in the final quarter and a half of the game and that included their quarterback Derek Carr throwing two touchdown passes and running back Latavius Murray scoring twice on the ground.
In a losing effort, Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor completed just 18 of his 35 total pass attempts for 191 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. The Bills also wasted a solid performance by running back LeSean McCoy as he registered 191 total yards from scrimmage in the game on 24 total touches.
The Bills defense failed to sack Carr on Sunday and only registered two quarterback hits during the contest to boot. Conversely, the Raiders defense sacked Taylor four times during the game.
Since Mike Tomlin became the Steelers head coach in 2007, Pittsburgh is 3-0 against the Bills with their last win coming in 2013. Tomlin, however, is 2-2 in regular season games that he’s coached against Bills head coach Rex Ryan during his career and 1-0 against him in the playoffs.
The Steelers last lost to a Ryan-coached team in 2014. In that road loss to the New York Jets, then-quarterback Mike Vick completed just 10 of his 18 total pass attempts for 132 yards with two touchdowns. The Steelers offense helped the Jets out in that game as they turned the football over a total of four times.
At 6-6, the Bills will likely need to win their remaining four games in addition to getting some help to make the playoffs. As for the Steelers, their easiest path to the postseason remains winning their final four games as that would result in them winning the AFC North division with an 11-5 record.
In case you’re curious, the over/under for the game between the Steelers and Bills opened up at 47.5-points.
