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Top 3 Things We Learned

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Top 3 things we learned from Bills vs. Steelers | Week 13

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The Buffalo Bills scored 26 unanswered points, riding a flurry of second half takeaways and a dominant run game to a 26-7 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium.

Buffalo improves to 8-4 and will host the Cincinnati Bengals (4-8) next weekend.

Here's what we learned from Bills-Steelers

1 — Scoop-and-score sparks Buffalo's second half comeback

On the first play of the second half, Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers dropped back to pass, bought time in the pocket and then was rocked from behind by Bills defensive end Joey Bosa. The ball jarred loose from the future Hall of Famer's right hand, bounced several times on the turf and was picked up by cornerback Christian Benford who returned it 17 yards for the touchdown.

Trailing 7-3 going into the locker room, it took the Bills all but 16 seconds to grab their first lead of the game — a much-needed time for Buffalo to record its first defensive touchdown of the season and the first touchdown of Benford's career.

"We needed it. That was a huge play," Bills head coach Sean McDermott said.

McDermott shared that his half time message to the team was highlighting the importance of getting off the field quickly to start the third quarter, generating positive field position via special teams and defense, and finding some way to double dip with points. Buffalo hit the trifecta in a hurry.

"Not only did we get off three and out, but we get the takeaway there and scored on defense, and then the ensuing drive after that took it away again and gave our offense good field position," he said.

Bosa's sack fumble on Rodgers was the fifth forced fumble by the pass rusher this season, the second-most he's had in a single season of his career. It was the Bills first fumble return from outside the end zone for a TD since the 2020 season.

On the very next defensive series, Benford made another impact play with his first interception of the year, returning it to the Buffalo 44-yard line. Benford is just the second NFL player this season to record both fumble recovery TD and an INT in the same game.

"The message this week was to score on defense," linebacker Shaq Thompson said. "And we responded to that. We got a challenge by Coach McDermott, and we stepped up and showed up."

Eight plays later, the Bills converted a 4th and 1 from the Steelers 1-yard line as QB Josh Allen maneuvered around a leaping defender off his left side, stepped up and found an open Keon Coleman for a touchdown.

Buffalo went from down four to leading by multiple possessions in less than seven minutes.

"That was a huge jolt for us," Allen said, praising the defensive effort.

2 — Bills run game delivers season-high in yardage

The Bills totaled 249 rushing yards on a staggering 51 carries, earning an average of 4.9 yards per touch. It marked a season-high in team rushing yards and the third-most rushing yards in a game since drafting Josh Allen.

Even more impressive, it was the most rushing yards allowed by Pittsburgh to an opposing road team since 1975 — a record held by the Bills with 310 yards that game. The Bills did it all without their top two starting tackles Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown.

"It means that we have the best offensive line in the league for the run game," said OL Alec Anderson, who started at right tackle in place of the injured Brown. "Just a great collective group effort."

Anderson has been used sparingly by the Bills this season after he was the most-utilized lineman in six-OL packages a year ago. After two frustrating false starts due to trying to time the silent count on the road, Anderson adapted and his sturdy presence on the right side of the line allowed for gapping holes for the Bills running backs.

"Line up and run it downhill. That's what I love to do,"Anderson said. "It was a perfect game plan against a perfect team, and we just executed."

According to Next Gen Stats, the Bills called a run on 63.5% of their plays, their 4th-highest rate in a game since drafting Josh Allen. RB James Cook III notched his league-leading seventh game with 100-plus rushing yards — 130 of his 144 yards came from under center runs.

CBS analyst Tony Romo explained on the broadcast that Buffalo leaned on zone run and duo run concepts and kept going back to the well over and over as Pittsburgh struggled to stop it.

"A lot of duos that we ran tonight," Allen said. "Our guys were breaking some tackles. The holes were there."

Buffalo's dominance on the ground frustrated the Steelers all night. Even when things weren't great for the Bills in the first half, they still managed 125 rush yards and held the ball for over 20 minutes. In total, the Bills had a season-high six explosive runs (gains of 12+ yards).

"I've never seen a team run the same play as much as they ran today and have as much success as they had," said Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt, who was limited to one QB pressure and zero QB hits.

It wasn't just Cook who feasted in Pittsburgh. RB Ray Davis collected a season-high 62 rushing yards and had four runs of at least 10 yards.

Allen put the exclamation mark on the victory with a fourth quarter rushing touchdown from eight yards out, the 76th of his career and the most rush TDs by an QB in NFL history,

3 — Defense allows season low in points, rush yards

The Bills defense showed out with one of their best performances from start to finish, ending with season-lows in points (7) and rushing yards (58) allowed.

Sunday marked the 12th time in the Sean McDermott era that Buffalo held its regular season opponent to seven points or less. It's the fifth defensive performance with less than 60 rushing yards and 7 points allowed since 2017 — the Steelers have been Buffalo's opponent for two of those performances (2022, 2025).

"Our guys, they showed up today, they stood up. They knew this would be a challenge, and they rose to the occasion," McDermott said.

For Buffalo, Sunday ranked as the 10th best defensive success rating since the start of 2021, per TruMedia.

"I think the attitude was just from the week, coming off that loss," Shaq Thompson said. "We just wanted to get back in that win column."

Take a look at how the Buffalo Bills celebrated their 26-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. This gallery is presented by Ticketmaster.

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