Buffalo Bills: Final score prediction for Week 14 against the Steelers
This is the final score prediction for the Buffalo Bills’ Week 14 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Buffalo Bills are coming off an impressive and dominant victory over the San Fransisco 49ers on Monday Night Football, their first victory on Monday Night Football dating back to 1999. Up to this point, it was easy to make the argument that the Bills have been poor playing in primetime slots. Just including this year’s sample size, before last week’s game, the Bills had not won a game outside of the 1 PM Eastern time slot. This primetime curse will be put to the test again in Week 14 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but this time it will be on Sunday Night Football.
Unfortunately for the Bills, the Steelers are coming off of their first loss of the season, meaning the Steelers will be looking to quiet the narrative coming into Week 14 that they were previously overrated. With that being said, the Bills should be able to take advantage of the blueprint Washington put on film last week before the Steelers have too much time to make their adjustments.
Coming into Week 14, the Bills injury report is looking as clean as it has looked all season with only a backup safety Jaquan Johnson being ruled out and only a few others limited in practice this week. It seems as if Jon Feliciano, Andre Roberts and Quinton Jefferson will all be active this week despite all posting limited practices at least once this week.
As for the Steelers, their injury report is a little bit more impactful than the Bills. The Steelers will be without three impactful players in Week 14, including cornerback Joe Haden, and linebackers Robert Spillane and Vince Williams. Williams will likely miss this game because he was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list earlier this week. Spillane and Williams have been replacing Devin Bush at inside linebacker this year after he suffered a season-ending ACL injury.
With both Spillane and Williams set to miss this game, the inside linebacker responsibilities fall to Avery Williamson who was acquired from the New York Jets earlier this season via trade. This is a significant impact on the outcome of the game given the Steelers’ defensive scheme that generally requires two inside linebackers, but the Steelers will only have one with significant experience with Marcus Allen likely being the other replacement.
Ideally for the Bills, the hole left in the Steelers defense at inside linebacker, and even cornerback, will make it easier for the Bills to achieve their Week 14 keys to victory. However, the Steelers defense is still one of the best, if not the best defense in the league; these injuries will simply make it more difficult for them to defend the entirety of the field with consistency. With the way the Bills offense has been clicking recently, my Week 14 final score prediction is for the Bills to win 27-24.
Based off of how stingy the Steelers defense is this season, I think the winner will be decided by 3rd and 4th down efficiency as well as red-zone efficiency. It will be key for each team to take advantage of their red-zone trips by scoring touchdowns as opposed to settling for field goals.
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Additionally, the final result will likely hinge on some calculated decisions to go for it on key 4th downs from both head coaches in Week 14. Ultimately, I believe the Bills will hand the Steelers their second loss of the season and advance Buffalo to 10-3 on the season with 4 games left to play.