Buffalo Bills: Ranking the primetime games in the 2020 season
By Thomas Gore
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Buffalo Bills will face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Buffalo. The game will take place during Week 14 as a part of NBC’s Sunday Night Football and will kick off at approximately 8:20pm ET.
Last year’s match was a back and forth defensive affair that came down to the last drive until the Bills were able to finally secure the win by a score 17-10. This victory secured Buffalo’s second playoff spot in three years and showed the rest of the league that the Bills were ready to be a contender in the AFC.
This season’s contest is likely to be much different from last year’s. For starters, injuries plagued the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2019, seeing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger miss nearly the whole season. The tandem of Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges performed admirably in Roethlisberger’s absence, leading the team to an 8-8 record that still had playoff hopes going into their Week 15 matchup against the Bills.
After having almost a year to recover, Big Ben is looking to return to form as one of the NFL’s most productive quarterbacks. In 2018, Roethlisberger totaled 34 touchdowns on 5,129 yards passing with a passer rating of 96.5.
With Roethlisberger’s return as well the return of star wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster, the Steelers will likely be more of a threat than they were last year. That being said, the Bills will have few things going in their favor as well.
First of all, this year’s game against the Steelers will be at New Era Field. It is a well known fact that the Bills have one of the best home field advantages in the league. On the field of play, the Bills’ experienced core of veterans on both offense and defense will likely have one of the most stacked roster’s in the league by the end of the season. Add to that a star wide receiver in Stefon Diggs and this one looks a lot more winnable for the red, white and blue.
No Bills game is ever an automatic win, but out of the teams’ four primetime games, this one is the most likely to go in the win column.