The Buffalo Bills will not be winless this preseason as they captured a 9-3 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Acrisure Stadium. Buffalo was humiliated last week by the Chicago Bears and even though it is only preseason, getting a Bills win is always a nice feeling.
From start to finish, it was a defensive battle between both teams. It’s no surprise that it was due to the fact that Sean McDermott and Mike Tomlin’s specialty is the defense. While there were limited takeaways from this game, the Bills’ front office has a much better evaluation of the roster than they had last week.
While the front office and coaching staff start to put together a vision of what this roster could look like after next weekend, it’s time to take a look at which players shined and which one singular player had a rough outing.
Winner: DE Greg Rousseau
The rising star showed up and showed out for the Buffalo defense in the first four Pittsburgh drives. Rousseau recorded 2.5 sacks and played like the best player overall from both teams. Steelers’ offensive tackle Broderick Jones was no match for Rousseau, as he allowed Rousseau to apply nonstop pressure.
Rousseau proved his worth in this game to the point where he should be focusing on the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1 of the regular season rather than next week’s game against the Carolina Panthers.
Winner: K Tyler Bass
The Bills have yet to get into the endzone this preseason. They scored six points last week off of two field goals, and this week it was nine points with three field goals. Bass has yet to miss a field goal try in a game situation. While he has had some struggles throughout training camp, he has yet to disappoint the last two games. Leaving him off this list would have been a mistake, seeing as how he is the one that put the Bills on the scoreboard.
Winner: LB Joe Andreessen
Andreessen was all over the field for the Bills defense. Sean McDermott decided to keep Terrel Bernard out of the game so Andreessen got the nod to start next to Dorian Williams. While Williams showed flashes of potential, it was the Andreessen show in Pittsburgh.
He led the Bills in tackles (11 total), including two for a loss. He was getting off of blocks and delivering hard hits. The Buffalo native shined for his hometown team and may have put himself in the conversation to atleast get a practice squad spot with the Bills.
Loser: QB Mitch Trubisky
For two consecutive weeks, we have seen the Bills offense operate without Josh Allen under center and it is not pretty. Mitch Trubisky had a rough outing last week against the Bears and it continued on against the Steelers. The numbers this week are better for Trubisky, but the game tape shows the truth.
Trubisky didn’t have a lot of confidence inside the pocket and he didn’t read the field right at certain times. He was sacked twice, including when he could have avoided one sack when James Cook was wide open for him on a pass play. That mistake cost the Bills a drive early on in the game.
To make things worse, Trubisky suffered a knee injury as well so Bills fans will need to keep an eye on that situation.