The Buffalo Bills, although they are on their way to another losing season, have been competitive in almost every game so far. That wasn’t the case on Sunday against the Steelers in Pittsburgh. After being humiliated by New England 55-31 last week, the Steelers, one of the NFL’s proudest franchises, were sure to come out with extra motivation against the Bills, and they did. They completely shut down rookie QB EJ Manuel and the Buffalo offense and coasted to a 23-10 win. There really was nothing whatsoever positive about the offense’s performance, except maybe for rookie tight end Chris Gragg scoring his first NFL touchdown to finish up a garbage time TD drive at the end of the game. Then again, Gragg had at least a couple of drops during the game. Manuel played like he wasn’t ready to return after missing games with a knee injury, as he consistently missed open receivers and looked antsy in the pocket. It didn’t help him that the running game did little to help. The Bills’ defense played a decent game again, getting a turnover on Jairus Byrd’s interception, registering four sacks on Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger (2 from Jerry Hughes) and holding Pittsburgh to field goals on all but two drives. Actually, it should have been all but one drive, but Marcell Dareus jumped offsides on a field goal attempt to hand the Steelers a first down and a second chance to score a touchdown, which they naturally capitalized on. That penalty was a continuation of the totally inexcusable mistakes the team has been making all season. With the season now 10 weeks old, the coaching staff deserves a lot of blame for not having this team playing disciplined football. The “young” team excuse doesn’t wash at this point. One negative in the Bills’ defensive performance was the play of cornerback Stephon Gilmore. Once again, he had a target on his back all day, and Roethlisberger burned him on third down consistently. Although he’s a high first round draft pick who came into the league with the reputation of being a “lockdown” corner, Gilmore is playing with no confidence at this point, and is the weak link in the secondary. The Bills, for the most part, fought hard all day on defense, only to have Gilmore burned for easy first downs on third down. The punt coverage team gave up 74 yards on 2 returns, setting up the Steelers with great field position with those two long returns. This game was one of those ugly contests that are discouraging to the coaches, players and fans, and showed that Buffalo is just not a team that’s ready for prime time.
NFL – Bills’ Game Review
10
Nov
louise
November 11, 2013 at 11:59 am
Dreadful game. Hopefully the Bills and EJ can snap back against the Jets.