Pittsburgh Steelers 15-26 Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen passes for two touchdowns as visitors suffer second-straight NFL defeat

The Buffalo Bills pulled off a statement win to move to 10-3 and as they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 26-15. 

As could be expected when a top offence meets a top defence, the game started slowly through the first quarter as neither team managed to get on the scoreboard. This was particularly true for the Bills found their ground game stifled by one of the league’s best run defences. 

But not long into the second half, with the game close at 9-7, Bills quarterback Josh Allen finally began to connect with receiver Stefon Diggs, as the elite route runner dropped multiple Steelers cornerbacks on his way to receiving 10 catches for 130 yards and a touchdown.   

While the fourth quarter saw the Black and Yellow’s offence become more competitive, and ultimately win the quarter thanks to a touchdown from Juju Smith-Schuster, the game was already put away by the Bills’ 23 unanswered points. A second interception of the day from the Buffalo defence wiped any hope of a miraculous comeback off the board. 

The Bills ran out of New Era field victors, while Mike Tomlin’s men suffered their second straight defeat. 

The win means that the Buffalo Bills end any hopes of the New England Patriots winning the AFC East for the first time in 11 years and become clear favourites to take the division as an injury-ridden Miami Dolphins team failed to hold out against the Kansas City Chiefs.  

As for Pittsburgh, despite having been the final undefeated team just weeks ago, they now drop into the second seed below the 12-1 Chiefs. 

After the game, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger owned up to the poor performance, saying: ‘We’re not playing good football and that starts with me. So, we all need to look in the mirror and understand that we all need to be better. I think that we will be.

‘This is a team that has a lot of resilience and understands what it takes to win football games, and understands what time of year it is, and understands that the way we’re playing right now is unacceptable.’

The Steelers’ last three games will see them face the struggling Cincinnati Bengals next, before moving on to face the Indianapolis Colts and finishing the regular season against rivals the Cleveland Browns.

With the last two games posing as big threats to the Steelers’ record, Pittsburgh will have to find a way to be better if they are to regain the first seed in the AFC, and ultimately a first-round play-off bye. 

By Kit McIntosh