Coming into this game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Buffalo Bills were banged up heavily on the offense. In addition to not having Dalton Kincaid and Joshua Palmer for Josh Allen, the offensive line was down two of their key starters.
Both offensive tackles in Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown were ruled out with injuries earlier in the week, which put Ryan Van Demark and Alec Anderson in as the outside protectors for Josh Allen. Sure, this duo isn’t bad at all, but being asked to contain T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith in a must-win game is big task.
Not only did they do a great job at protecting Allen themselves, the entire offensive line for Buffalo did a phenomenal job at keeping their franchise guy upright and clean for the game inside the pocket.
Buffalo's offensive line had themselves a great day vs. Steelers defense
According to Bills’ beat reporter Sal Capaccio, the Steelers only had one QB hurry on Allen and failed to record any sacks.
The Steelers had 0 sacks and were credited with 1 QB hurry.
— Sal Capaccio 🏈 (@SalSports) December 1, 2025
With Buffalo being down two out of five starters, especially coming off the edge, you would think that the Steelers would have themselves a field day of getting to Allen. Not to mention, the Bills were coming off a bad performance where they let Allen get hit 12 times against the Texans. Nope, it was the complete opposite.
The only times Allen got hit were when he scrambles towards the sideline, or took the ball up the middle to move the chains. This stat really speaks to two things: Buffalo is all about protecting their guy behind them, and the “Next Man Up” factor is real.
The fact that two backups at both tackle spots were able to step up in a big game against high quality players shows the work that Aaron Kromer has done with this offensive line. Buffalo should hopefully be getting Dawkins and Brown back for next week’s matchup against the Bengals, but we will have to wait to see how they do in practice this week.
Either way, the Bills have themselves great depth on the offensive line and if Van Demark and Anderson need to show up again, Bills fans can stay calm knowing that they can get the job done.