Bills take down Steelers 31-17, but injuries are a concern ahead of Chiefs showdown

ORCHARD PARK - For the first time in his NFL career, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is going to have to play a true road playoff game Sunday night.

And that game will take place at Highmark Stadium thanks to the Buffalo Bills’ 31-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on a frigid Monday night in a venue that looked like an igloo three hours before the start of the game.

Bills fans, I would think, are perfectly happy that the AFC wild-card game was moved from Sunday to Monday because the weather was about a million times better - cold, yes, but manageable wind and no snow - and it allowed the Buffalo offense to function the way it normally would.

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“People keep saying that’s what we wanted (the game being moved) and we had no call in that, or no say in that,” Josh Allen said. “That was a health and safety issue from the state. We would have played yesterday, would have played Saturday, would have played Friday, it wouldn’t have mattered. We would have come out here and played when we were told to play.”

But they would not have played, at least on offense, as well as they did. For the Bills to have scored 31 points and not turn the ball over was quite a night, even if the Steelers didn’t have their best player, edge rusher T.J. Watt, but that production would have been impossible Sunday.

For a while, it looked as if this was going to be an easy Buffalo victory as the Bills jumped out to a 21-0 second-quarter lead, but an unfortunate sequence at the end of the half changed things dramatically and because nothing has ever come easy for the Bills, the rest of the night was not nearly as comfortable as it should have been.

In the end the Bills survived and advanced, and as a result, the game Bills fans have been pining for - the Chiefs coming to Buffalo rather than the other way around for a postseason game - will come to pass at 6:30 p.m., the final matchup of the divisional round weekend.

Mahomes has never had to go on the road in the postseason. His only games away from Arrowhead Stadium were the three Super Bowls he has played in. At home, he’s 10-2 in January and two of those victories, as we all know, came against the Bills in the 2020 AFC Championship Game and the 2021 divisional round game, the infamous 13 seconds debacle.

Bills report card: Josh Allen leads Buffalo through adversity, injuries to beat Steelers

Of course, the Chiefs will have two extra days of rest when they come to Buffalo because of the one-day postponement, and it will make for a hectic week for a tired and battered Bills’ team.

“We’re a step behind already, we understand that,” Allen said. “I think it’s gonna be very crucial for guys to get their rest and making sure that we’re getting in the training room and rehabbing as much as we can. I know guys are gonna be bruised and beat up tomorrow. So, again, it’s going to take everybody this week getting our guys ready to go.”

Here are my observations:

The Bills have a big injury problem on defense

Unfortunately for the Bills, they paid a heavy price to beat the Steelers and they face the prospect of playing the Chiefs with a severely depleted defense, though this is nothing new this season.

Obviously they’ve been without cornerback Tre’Davious White and linebacker Matt Milano since early October, and did not have defensive tackle DaQuan Jones for 10 games, but they had worked out those absences and had their defense back in pretty good shape and playing well. But now in the last two weeks, disaster has struck.

They lost cornerback Rasul Douglas, linebacker Tyrel Dodson and safety Taylor Rapp in the Miami game and then lost linebacker Terrel Bernard, cornerback Christian Benford, linebacker Baylon Spector, and nickel cornerback Taron Johnson against the Steelers.

That is a major situation with Mahomes and Travis Kelce coming to town. Bernard certainly looks to be out as he was carted off the field with an ankle issue so that’s certainly not a good sign, and the others are going to be a wait-and-see scenario all week.

By the end of the night, the Bills had Dane Jackson and Kaiir Elam playing cornerback, and Dorian Williams and AJ Klein at linebacker, and Cam Lewis at nickel cornerback with Damar Hamlin playing as a third safety in the dime package.

“I hate to see guys go down on either side of the ball,” Allen said. “It’s one of the things I pray for before every game is making sure that both sides are safe from serious injury and I understand - and I think everybody in the locker room understands the type of game that we play and what comes with it. It sucks though. When you got guys that are playing at such a high level, guys that are young, that are figuring things out and then having injuries.”

Injuries aside, the Bills depth stepped up in a big way

So, with all those players going out, several reserves had to come in and while things were a little sketchy for a bit on defense, ultimately it came together in big moments in the fourth quarter.

Actually, the issues started in the first quarter when Benford went down and little-used Kaiir Elam had to play. Right away, Elam made one of the big plays of the night when he intercepted a Mason Rudolph pass in the end zone early in the second quarter, taking sure points off the board in what was a 14-0 game.

“Another player that’s gone through a journey this season, like we have as a team and the mental skill it takes to stay confident and believing in oneself, and then to go out there and execute,” coach Sean McDermott said. “And this is not executing in a preseason game and working oneself back. This is executing at a level of playoff football and that’s even faster normally than in a regular season game. So I thought he did a real good job and that was a big play for us.”

Baylon Spector started in place of Dodson, but then he suffered a back injury so AJ Klein - who was supposed to be going on vacation with his family to Key West, Florida on the weekend - was summoned.

He was re-signed to the Bills’ practice squad Wednesday, practiced twice, was elevated to the game day roster because of the Dodson injury, and wound up playing most of the second half. He led the team with 11 tackles.

“It’s like a guy going, you know the Griswolds – he’s going on vacation, right?” McDermott said with a smile. “We stopped him, I think, just short of WallyWorld. And he came back and he put the uniform on and had to go out there and play. I think that’s pretty special right there. So I applaud AJ for that and pretty remarkable. I should applaud his family as well.”

Dane Jackson played for Douglas, Cam Lewis stepped in to play nickel corner in place of Johnson, and Damar Hamlin had a few snaps replacing Rapp as the third safety in the dime package. It was quite a gutty effort by the defense to overcome all of that trauma.

Two poor Allen decisions flipped the game

Even with all that happening on defense, the game probably had no business being as close as it was in the fourth quarter, and this sequence late in the second quarter was a major reason why it was.

Up 21-0 and driving for more, the Bills had second-and-7 at the Steelers 31, but Allen made two questionable decisions that led to incompletions, and that’s where all the trouble started.

On second down, he decided to throw a deep sideline ball to Ty Johnson that never had a chance of being completed. And on third down, rather than take something safe underneath and if it was short of the line to gain, the Bills could have either gone for it on fourth down or tried a field goal, Allen elected to throw downfield over the middle to double covered Stefon Diggs and it was broken up and nearly intercepted.

In retrospect, an interception would have been great because what happened next was horrible. Montravious Adams blocked Tyler Bass’ 49-yard field goal, the ball bounced back to the Bills 33, and after the Steelers recovered, they punched the ball into the end zone to cut their deficit to 21-7 at the half.

“Stayed too long on my first read there (to Johnson),” Allen admitted. “If I were to come down to Khalil on our little mesh route there in man to man, would have been different. And then obviously the next play to Stef, the kid (safety Eric Rowe) made a heck of a play getting down the middle. If I put 1% more mustard on that, I think it’s a different story going into halftime but it is what it is. Every game you’ve got a different situation that arises and I’m just happy that our team was resilient enough to find a way through it.”

James Cook was back to being dangerous

Since his explosive 179-yard rushing performance against the Cowboys in Week 15, Cook had gone into a little dip in the final three regular-season games. He had 70 yards against the Chargers, but only 48 against the Patriots and just 36 against the Dolphins, plus he had a combined four receptions for 12 yards.

But in a game where the Bills knew they would need to be balanced, Cook had a very nice night as he had 79 yards rushing on 18 attempts.

“It’s always important that you can stay two-dimensional,” coach Sean McDermott said. “I thought James ran with purpose tonight. You could tell by the tilt of his pads, he was ready to go, so we need more of that.”

With Allen chipping in 74 yards rushing, 52 coming on his dazzling touchdown run that made it 21-0, the Bills finished with 179 yards on the ground. The Steelers, the team who you figured would have the rushing advantage, finished with 106.

Khalil Shakir needs to be more involved

The second-year wide receiver made another great play and this one came at a critical time, just like his deep sideline catch last week in Miami which set up the game-winning TD.

Clinging to a 24-17 lead, the Bills put together a much-needed drive in the middle of the fourth quarter and it ended with Shakir catching a short pass over the middle, using great balance to stay on his feet after a hit, then breaking away from the Steelers’ secondary to complete a 17-yard TD that put the game away.

“Just a shallow cross,” Shakir explained. “My job is to get across the field and show eyes if they do bring any sort of blitz and Josh put it right on me. Dude hit me and I was able to just stay up and make a play from there.”

“He’s been fantastic and it’s not a secret anymore, teams are starting to game plan for him,” Allen said. “The kid just works hard, he doesn’t ever complain about anything, he’s always where he’s supposed to be. He plays football the right way.”

Which is why Joe Brady needs to find ways to get him more involved. He was targeted only three times on Allen’s 30 pass attempts but he caught all three for 31 yards.

“You put yourself in good positions to have success and he’s been making the most out of it,” Allen said. “It’s been fun to see him grow as a as a young player.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills use hot start to defeat Steelers 31-17, will host Chiefs next