Regular Season Game Eleven at Buffalo: Keys and Prediction

The Steelers, still smiling off beating the Raiders by 32 last week, will take their show on the road Sunday when they travel to play the Bills in Buffalo. The Bills have had a tough year with former Steelers assistant, Chan Gailey, winning just twice. On the other hand, they put up 49 last week vs the Bengals, and the Steelers know they can’t come in and sleepwalk through this game thinking it’s going to be all that easy.

1. Rattle Ryan – The Bills QB, former Bengals backup Ryan Fitzpatrick, suddenly looks like a guy that could be playing in Hawaii once the season ends. He came out of nowhere to take the starting job away from now released Trent Edwards, and he has thrown for 1961 yards, 18 TD’s and 9 picks. Last week the Steelers produced six sacks, forced three turnovers and had an interception return for a TD wiped out by a questionable penalty. They need to pressure Fitz and do that again to make sure they take care of business.

2. Get Mendenhall back on track – Rashard Mendenhall hasn’t had a 100-yard game since Week 3, but he might have a great chance to break out at Buffalo. The Bills have the league’s worst rush defense, though they’ve allowed an average of 104.7 yards the past three weeks after a five-game stretch in which they surrendered at least 200 four times. Last week he had 59 yards on 23 carries, but giving him the ball 20-30 times should produce more than 100 yards and give them a good shot at a win.

3. Intensity – After seeing the Steelers lose to the Chiefs on the road and the Raiders at home last year, this team should not take anyone lightly. They need to make sure to come out with the same emotion and energy they did last week vs the Raiders at home. While the Bills have won just two games, they have played quite a bit better as of late, and the Steelers can’t just think they can walk on the field and not have to play hard for 60 minutes for a win.

Prediction – This team seemed to learn from its mistakes of last season when they took apart the Raiders last week, and I can’t seem them going backwards this weekend in Buffalo. They are the better team, and they should be able to set the tone on defense, and over the past two weeks they have put up over 400 yards on offense, and against a porous Bills defense, they should have a good day there as well. They should be able to impose their will as Mike Tomlin would say. Steelers 37 Bills 17