For the ninth time this season, the Steelers held the advantage heading into halftime. They led the Bills, 7-3, mostly because of two Buffalo turnovers. However, the Bills were vastly outplaying the Steelers, highlighted by Buffalo's 125 rushing yards and 20:14 in time of possession.
When the second half started on Sunday night at Acrisure Stadium, just one play was all that was needed to break the dam toward an abysmal 26-7 loss. And, we didn't have to wait long to see it:
That fumble forced by Joey Bosa was picked up by Christian Benford, who then ran it to the end zone for a touchdown -- all on the first play from scrimmage.
Just like that, the lead evaporated. The touchdown put the Bills up, 10-7, but it might as well have been 100-7 with the way Buffalo was dominating the game.
"There's momentum swings in the game," Aaron Rodgers said after the game. "I didn't think we had a great performance in the first half, (but) we were ahead. There's a lot of conversation at halftime about some different things. We came out, called a play. It was gloved. In the back, fumbled, 10-7. We just never really recovered from that. I thought there were other parts of the game-day experience that were flat as well."
Rodgers wouldn't go into detail regarding those. However, the Steelers' performance was so bad that they not only allowed the most rushing yards in a game at home in 50 years, but had their fans booing 'Renegade' and chanting for the firing of Mike Tomlin. Just about everything that could go wrong ... did, starting with this play, then everything else that played out in what might have been the worst quarter of football all season.
Rodgers had to get patched up after Bosa's sack forced him to bleed from his nose. While Mason Rudolph was in the game, he threw a horrific interception in which he overthrew the 6-foot-7 Darnell Washington. The Bills took advantage and drove for a touchdown off that, taking a 16-7 lead. In the third quarter, the Steelers totaled just 18 yards of offense while the Bills took a two-score lead. Without the defense bailing the offense out, the nightmare scenario came to life.
It's hard to pin a loss like this on just one play. But, this start to the second half set forth events that buried the team with no chance to pull out a win, even in the most unlikely circumstances.
THE ASYLUM
The Big Play: Horrid start to second half
For the ninth time this season, the Steelers held the advantage heading into halftime. They led the Bills, 7-3, mostly because of two Buffalo turnovers. However, the Bills were vastly outplaying the Steelers, highlighted by Buffalo's 125 rushing yards and 20:14 in time of possession.
When the second half started on Sunday night at Acrisure Stadium, just one play was all that was needed to break the dam toward an abysmal 26-7 loss. And, we didn't have to wait long to see it:
That fumble forced by Joey Bosa was picked up by Christian Benford, who then ran it to the end zone for a touchdown -- all on the first play from scrimmage.
Just like that, the lead evaporated. The touchdown put the Bills up, 10-7, but it might as well have been 100-7 with the way Buffalo was dominating the game.
"There's momentum swings in the game," Aaron Rodgers said after the game. "I didn't think we had a great performance in the first half, (but) we were ahead. There's a lot of conversation at halftime about some different things. We came out, called a play. It was gloved. In the back, fumbled, 10-7. We just never really recovered from that. I thought there were other parts of the game-day experience that were flat as well."
Rodgers wouldn't go into detail regarding those. However, the Steelers' performance was so bad that they not only allowed the most rushing yards in a game at home in 50 years, but had their fans booing 'Renegade' and chanting for the firing of Mike Tomlin. Just about everything that could go wrong ... did, starting with this play, then everything else that played out in what might have been the worst quarter of football all season.
Rodgers had to get patched up after Bosa's sack forced him to bleed from his nose. While Mason Rudolph was in the game, he threw a horrific interception in which he overthrew the 6-foot-7 Darnell Washington. The Bills took advantage and drove for a touchdown off that, taking a 16-7 lead. In the third quarter, the Steelers totaled just 18 yards of offense while the Bills took a two-score lead. Without the defense bailing the offense out, the nightmare scenario came to life.
It's hard to pin a loss like this on just one play. But, this start to the second half set forth events that buried the team with no chance to pull out a win, even in the most unlikely circumstances.
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