Seven days after allowing team records of 55 points and 610 yards at New England, the Pittsburgh Steelers (3-6) defeated the visiting Buffalo Bills (3-7) at Heinz Field Sunday afternoon. After much criticism of effort, age, ability, and Hall of Fame defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, the defense held rookie E.J. Manuel to 155 yards passing and the Bills offense to a total of 227 yards in the 23-10 victory. Buffalo’s only touchdown came with five seconds remaining on a 15-play, 80-yard drive to end the game. Prior to that drive, the Bills had a field goal, nine punts, and an interception.
The Steelers offense struggled at times, starting with a Ben Roethlisberger interception on the opening drive, but managed five scoring drives. Shaun Suisham made all three field goals he attempted, Le’Veon Bell scored his fourth touchdown of the year, and Jerricho Cotchery caught his team-leading sixth touchdown. Roethlisberger was 18-30 for 204 yards, the touchdown, and the one interception. His counterpart, rookie E.J. Manuel, returned from four weeks off due to injury to go 22-39 for 155 yards, one touchdown, and one interception as well. Many of Manuel’s completions were for short yardage and C.J. Spiller and Fred Jackson were unable to get anything going on the ground for the Bills.
Pittsburgh totaled 136 yards rushing and averaged 4.1 yards per carry, shared between Bell, Jonathan Dwyer, Felix Jones, and one 25-yard impact play by Emmanuel Sanders on an end-around. WR Antonio Brown caught six Roethlisberger passes for 104 yards, adding to his league-leading receptions total. Defensively for the Steelers, Ryan Clark had an interception, Lawrence Timmons, Cameron Heyward, and Jarvis Jones tallied sacks, and Heyward would have recovered a Manuel fumble had it not been ruled an incomplete pass on a booth review. William Gay led all defenders with 11 tackles, nine solo.
The action started very slowly with the opening drive interception by Buffalo’s Jairus Byrd leading to the only first quarter score, a Dan Carpenter field goal. Pittsburgh took control in the second quarter, however, with a Suisham field goal and Cotchery’s five-yard TD reception earning them a 10-3 halftime lead. Bell’s four-yard TD run made it 17-3 late in the third quarter and the Steelers put it away with two field goal drives in the fourth to make it 23-3, before the late Bills drive gave them something positive to take home as time expired.
Before and during the game, rumors surfaced regarding Ben Roethlisberger’s apparent desire to be traded after this season, as reported by NFL.com reporter Ian Rapaport. Roethlisberger’s agent, as well as the team, denied any such activity via Twitter and a halftime press release, respectively. Roethlisberger reiterated to reporters after the game that he has no plans to leave and wants to retire a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers remain in last place in the AFC North, as Baltimore (4-6) overcame allowing a “Hail Mary” pass that tied the game with no time remaining for Cincinnati (6-4), to defeat them in overtime. Pittsburgh was the only team to win Sunday in the division, as Cleveland (4-5) had a bye week. Pittsburgh hosts Detroit (6-3), leaders in the NFC North, in Week 11 action next Sunday at Heinz Field.
