3 biggest takeaways from Bills 9-3 victory vs. Steelers

After suffering an embarrassing loss last weekend against the Chicago Bears, the Buffalo Bills turned things around by picking up their first win of the preseason over the Pittsburgh Steelers, 9-3. Even though they failed to get into the endzone once again, Buffalo’s defense was the star unit of the game.

Tyler Bass kicked three field goals to help secure the win for the Bills. It’s the complete opposite of what happened in Week 2 of last year’s preseason game where the Steelers absolutely dominated the Bills. Another week has passed by and there is a lot more to evaluate than there was last week.

With that, we take a look at the three biggest takeaways from the Bills 9-3 victory over the Steelers.

Starting defense looked phenomenal

Pittsburgh and Buffalo played their starters on both sides of the ball for over a quarter and it was a big defensive battle. The only notable name on the defense that was kept off the field by choice was linebacker Terrel Bernard. With the injury that Matt Milano suffered this past week, it’s not shocking that Bernard was held out of action to avoid injury himself. However, that opened the door for guys like Dorian Williams (who is the presumed replacement for Milano) and Joe Andreessen.

While multiple players made solid plays at times, no one outshined edge rusher Greg Rousseau who led the team in sacks (2.5) and was making Broderick Jones like he didn’t belong in the NFL. The starting defense embarrassed Pittsburgh’s starting offense, which was led by Russell Wilson. If this defense plays this way during the regular season, it will be hard for opposing offenses to get into the endzone.

Buffalo needs competition for QB2

Call this an overreaction if you want, but the Bills have a problem at backup quarterback. Mitch Trubisky, for the second straight week, has put on underwhelming performances and the starting offense once again could not show what they can do because of the limitations he has.

There were throws he didn’t make that were easy completions, he made throws that didn’t make sense, and he just overall didn’t look confident throwing the ball down the field. It would be smart for the front office to look for some competition to put pressure on Trubisky heading into the regular season.

Injuries continue to pile on

The overall main goal for the Bills was to get out of this game completely healthy. That unfortunately was not able to happen as Buffalo was hit with more injuries in this game. Four players, including Trubisky, suffered game-ending injuries. The worst one came when wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling took a sandwich hit and injured his neck. The game was delayed for a couple minutes while he was being attended to.

Near the end of the game, it was reported the rookie defensive end Javon Solomon was ruled out for the rest of the game with a calf injury.