“It was an honor to be part of history in today’s 500th win,” said
rookie head coach Mike Tomlin. “We talked as a football team about it a little (Saturday)
night. That was an
important thing for us and they were excited.”
The Steelers (2-0) outgained the Bills (0-2) 420-223 in total yards
and scored on six of
their nine possessions in the game. Buffalo, meanwhile, managed just
one first down in
the first half and 10 for the game as the Bills never seemed to solve
Pittsburgh’s defense,
which recorded four sacks and held Buffalo to 121 yards passing.
Despite outgaining Buffalo 239 to 58 in the first half, the Steelers
could manage just a
12-0 lead on four Jeff Reed field goals as Pittsburgh had drives
stall at the Buffalo 16, 10,
21 and 13.
The only time the Steelers failed to score in the first half was when
quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a deep pass to Santonio Holmes that was
intercepted. But even that
played followed a possession on which the Bills were stopped on
fourth down to turn the
ball over to Pittsburgh.
“I maybe got a little too aggressive instead of taking something
else, but my thought was
that I’m going to air it out and throw it deep down the field,” said
Roethlisberger, who
completed 21 of 34 passes for 242 yards, one touchdown and one
interception.
“The worst case scenario was the safety making a great play on it.
It’s a read play, but just
like the touchdown to Santonio last week (against Cleveland), it was
so far downfield that
it was a just let it fly kind of thing and the guy made a great
play.”
It was one of few glaring mistakes for the Steelers on the day.
Buffalo threatened to make a game of it in the second half as the
Steelers’ special teams
unit, playing without captain James Harrison, who was injured on the
final play of the first
half, allowed Terrence McGee to return the opening kick of the third
quarter to the
Pittsburgh 32. McGee appeared to step out of bounds at midfield, but
Tomlin was not
made aware of that until the Bills had run a couple of plays and was
therefore unable to
ask for a review of the play.
“It is disheartening because at home, you would like to get a chance
to find out,” said
Tomlin. “But that’s football. The defense stiffened and gave up three
and we were able to
get out of that situation.”
Despite Buffalo driving to the Pittsburgh 5, the Bills were unable to
get the ball into the
end zone and settled for a 24-yard Ryan Lindell field goal that cut
the Steelers’ lead to
12-3.
That’s when Willie Parker, who rushed for 127 yards and a touchdown,
took over.
The Steelers ran Parker six times for 34 yards and Roethlisberger
completed a pair of
passes, the second of which was a one-yard touchdown pass to rookie
tight end Matt Spaeth, as Pittsburgh took a commanding 19-3 lead.
Given how the Steelers’ defense was performing, it was a lead Buffalo
would never
challenge. And when Parker rolled into the end zone untouched from 11
yards out with
7:18 remaining in the game, it was just icing on the cake.
“We’re not trying to tell a story with our play,” said Tomlin. “We
got out there and play on
Sunday. We play to win. Style points are things that we analyze on
Monday when we are
trying to see perfection. We left some plays out there today.
“Thankfully, we are 2-0, but hopefully, we will get better and that
is our intention.”