2021 Steelers Season Recall: Steelers upset early 2021 favorite Bills in Buffalo

by Joe Kuzma (joe_kuzma) on April 18, 2022

Steel City Underground presents our 2021 Steelers Recall: a look back at Pittsburgh Steelers games and storylines from last season.

Week One of the 2021 NFL regular season was billed early as a major blowout win by the Buffalo Bills over the Pittsburgh Steelers. NFL media hyped the Bills as a Super Bowl contender throughout the Summer and no one was giving the Steelers a realistic chance at winning this opening weekend game.

Perhaps, rightfully so.

A bad taste left in Steelers Nation’s mouth after dropping four of their last five regular season games in 2020 and losing to the Cleveland Browns in the Wild Card round. The Steelers lost a slew of free agents and many felt that QB Ben Roethlisberger‘s best days might be behind him.

Let’s not forget that T.J. Watt was a training camp “holdout” and there were doubts about his “rust” and not being in “football shape” heading into this big matchup. However, the Steelers would turn heads as they did to start the 2020 season, silencing the hometown crowd.

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The Steelers won the coin toss and deferred. Unfortunately, things looked dire on the opening play as the coverage team was unable to keep Bills KR Isaiah McKenzie from taking the kickoff 75 yards down the field into Steelers territory. That required that the Steelers defense defend the red zone very early in the game.

They accepted the task, with Cameron Sutton making a play on Stephon Diggs for a loss of two yards, Cameron Heyward getting a hand on Josh Allen‘s pass, and forcing the Bills to settle for a 37-yard Tyler Bass field goal.

When a strip-sack on Ben Roethlisberger by Mario Addison (recovered by Okorafor) forced a punt, the Steelers defense once again held with Sutton knocking away a pass to Diggs. T.J. Watt would earn a strip-sack on Allen and Heyward would recover the ball.

It was clear early on that the game was going to be one of earning inches, and preventing turnovers, as each team looked for chinks in each others’ armor.

Where Pittsburgh struggled was in getting their offense in sync. With a young offensive line, and rookie running back Najee Harris in the backfield, the Bills were stout along their defensive front. They made it extremely difficult for the Steelers to gain rushing yards.

By the end of the game, Pittsburgh had recorded just four rushing first downs, and 75 rushing yards on 21 attempts. Harris had 16 carries for 45 yards as the Bills focused on his athleticism and big-play ability to force Roethlisberger to spread out the offense and pass the ball.

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The Steelers entered the half down 10-0 before taking the field for the third quarter.

Whatever head coach Mike Tomlin and the other staff may have said, it was clear adjustments were made and the message received. Roethlisberger came out looking more comfortable, relying on his veteran experience, while Josh Allen cooled off a bit in the Bills offense. But it still took until the fourth quarter for Pittsburgh to make some noise.

The Steelers trailed the Bills all game, but found themselves in an opportune situation near the start of the fourth quarter, where they received the ball at midfield. With a Chase Claypool pass interference call moving the ball up to Buffalo’s 23-yard line, Najee Harris inched Pittsburgh further into the redzone on an 18-yard run, setting up a first-and-goal scenario from the Bills’ five-yard line.

Ben Roethlisberger stepped back to pass and looked to the corner of the endzone on his first attempt to score, finding Johnson, who plays a tip drill and taps both toes for the incredible touchdown catch and their first lead of the game.

Things started to fall apart for Buffalo, as the Steelers special teams unit came up big as well when LB Ulysees Gilbert made a big splash play for a defensive touchdown, scooping up a blocked Matt Haack punt and walking it into the end zone.

The Steelers defense locked down the Bills in the second half. Cameron Sutton had a big game, recording two big pass defenses and two tackles for a loss. T.J. Watt finished the game with three tackles, one tackle for a loss, two sacks, the forced fumble, and five quarterback hurries.

After training for three quarters, Pittsburgh came back from a 10-point deficit to defeat the heavily-favored Bills at Highmark Stadium, 23-16: much to the dismay of the aforementioned national media!