The Bills made two turnovers in the first half in Pittsburgh and that’s a big reason why they find themselves down four points at halftime.
They outgained the home team 176-87 and picked up 12 first downs to the Steelers’ six, but Josh Allen’s interception and James Cook’s fumble both put the kibosh on promising drives. The Steelers weren’t able to do anything with Brandin Echols’ interception, but they drove for a Jaylen Warren touchdown after linebacker Patrick Queen pounced on the Cook giveaway.
Warren’s touchdown came with 8:09 to play and the Bills chewed up nearly all of that time while driving the ball inside the Steelers’ 5-yard line, but they had to settle for cutting Buffalo’s lead to 7-3 after a false start forced them to change their plan to go for it on a fourth-and-3.
Queen left the game with a hip injury after recovering the fumble and he’s considered questionable to return in the second half.
The Steelers turned Buffalo’s second turnover into the first points of Sunday’s game.
Running back Jaylen Warren finished off a short drive with a one-yard touchdown run and the Steelers are up 7-0 with 8:09 to play in the first half. The score was set up when linebacker Patrick Queen fell on a fumble by Bills running back James Cook on the Buffalo 39-yard line.
Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct after Warren scored, but officials did not push Chris Boswell’s extra point attempt back 15 yards. They enforced the penalty on the ensuing kickoff and CBS rules analyst/former NFL referee Gene Steratore confirmed this was a mistake because such penalties on the scoring team need to be applied on the conversion attempt.
The first Bills turnover came on their first offensive possession. Cornerback Brandin Echols stepped in front of a Josh Allen pass at the Steelers’ 35-yard line, but the Steelers followed that up with the first of their three punts on the afternoon.
The Bills have punted twice in between their turnovers and they need to find some offensive spark if they want a win in Pittsburgh.
The Bills will be without tight end Dalton Kincaid and wide receiver Josh Palmer in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
Both players are inactive after being listed as questionable on the team’s final injury report of the week. It’s the third straight game that Kincaid has missed with a hamstring injury while Palmer is sidelined by an ankle injury.
The Bills previously ruled out left tackle Dion Dawkins, right tackle Spencer Brown, and linebacker Terrel Bernard. Cornerback Ja’Marcus Ingram and defensive lineman Phidarian Mathis are also inactive.
Steelers cornerback Darius Slay was not on the injury report this week, but he is inactive on Sunday.
Wide receiver Scotty Miller, quarterback Will Howard, cornerback Darius Slay, defensive lineman Logan Lee, and defensive lineman Derrick Harmon, who has a knee injury, are also inactive.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will play on Sunday against the Bills, despite a fracture in his left wrist.
Make that fractures.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Rodgers has at least three fractures in his non-throwing wrist, suffered two weeks ago against the Bengals. None, per the report, are displaced. As reported on NBC’s Football Night in America at the time, Rodgers wanted to keep playing during the game in which it happened. He wanted to play last week. Finally, he’s getting his wish today.
The easy talking point is that teammates are impressed that a football player wants to play football despite having a football injury. The more subtle observation is that the situation underscores the inside-information problem in pro sports.
The NFL mandates bare-bones injury reporting, with no requirement to disclose whether bones are broken. Some clutched their pearls recently when Chargers running back Omarion Hampton disclosed that his ankle injury included a fracture. But the Chargers said what the rules required them to say. He had an ankle injury, and he was placed on injured reserve with it.
The Steelers also complied with the rules. The question is whether the current rules provide sufficient transparency. People are making wagering decisions with sportsbooks that sponsor the NFL (and in which NFL owners may hold equity positions of up to five percent) based on the information, or lack thereof, that the teams disclose. Why not let the bettors have all of it?
It’s one thing to say “wrist.” It’s another to say “wrist fracture.” It’s quite another to say “at least three wrist fractures.”
This doesn’t mean teams should be required to post X-rays or MRI scans on social media. But there’s a balance to strike, in order to limit inside information while protecting player privacy and not putting a bull’s-eye on the injured body part. The process should start with the teams being required to do more than list the body part that is injured. They also should be required to provide the full description of the injury.
Anything less than that creates inside information as to what the injury truly is. Which sets the stage for the kind of issues with which the NBA is currently dealing. Issues that can directly undermine the integrity of the wagering process. Which, given the manner in which the NFL profits from the wagering process, also impacts the integrity of the game.
On Sunday against the Steelers, the Bills won’t have both starting tackles. The Steelers will be missing one of theirs, too — for Week 13 and beyond.
The Steelers have placed left tackle Broderick Jones on injured reserve. He suffered a neck injury last Sunday against the Bears. He’ll be required to miss at least four games. Jones can return in Week 17, at the earliest.
A first-round pick in 2023, Jones had played in every regular-season game of his three-year career.
Coach Mike Tomlin said Andrus Peat will replace Jones against the Bills.
“I’m always ready to play or start,” Peat, a former first-round pick of the Saints, said Friday, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. “I’ve been a starter most of my career, so I always try to prepare like that and keep myself in that mindset.”
Peat has one appearance this season — a start in last month’s Sunday night loss to the Chargers.
Peat will be protecting the blind side of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who will play only two weeks after suffering a fracture in his wrist in a Week 11 game against the Bengals. Rodgers missed last weekend’s loss to the Chicago for the now 6-5 Steelers.
