What Cleveland Browns fans should look for when Steelers play Buffalo

Gameplanning the Steelers defense

Of course, all units of both teams are worthy of study, but the toughest nut to crack is the Pittsburgh defense, which has thus far been the best in the NFL. Hence if the Bills have any success at all versus the Steelers defense, it is definitely worth trying to copy what they do. It’s a copycat league, as they say. Moreover, Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield are both strong-armed and mobile quarterbacks, although Mayfield is not going to act like a power fullback as Allen does on occasion. But in terms of arm strength, timing and accuracy, Mayfield can run many of the same style of plays that the Bills run.

The Bills have a deep wide receiving corps, led by Stefon Diggs, who already has over 1,000 yards this season, plus Cole Beasley, Gabriel Davis, and John Brown. Buffalo uses two running backs, outside speedster Devin Singletary and rookie power runner Zack Moss.

The rest of the NFL has struggled to find a weakness in the Steelers defense. But perhaps Alex Smith found a few incipient microcracks in the armor, proving that they could be beaten with a patient short passing game. Yet that’s not necessarily Buffalo’s strength. Josh Allen is more known for the deep ball, which is usually taken away by the blistering Pittsburgh pass rush. It’s not that Allen cannot throw short passes, but Alex Smith is one of the greatest tacticians in the NFL.

His reputation is a “game manager,” which has become a veiled insult, but it really isn’t. Being able to identify the open receiver quickly and hit him is a valuable skill and has nothing to do with having a weak arm or lack of macho. Allen, on the other hand, might be able to survive the pass rush a split second longer than most quarterbacks and we may see a few more deep balls than usual against the Steelers.

The Browns will be studying Washington’s film plus anything that can be added from Buffalo’s film that indicates success.

Teams have had better success moving the ball against Buffalo.  Roethlisberger will be successful as long as that baling wire holds his arm together.

The Steelers’ wide receivers corps is equally deep compared to Buffalo with JuJu Smith Schuster, James Washington, Diontae Johnson, and Chase Claypool. Halfback James Connor returns this week from the Covid-19 list. His presence may be critical to restoring any sort of reasonable balance between run and pass in the Pittsburgh offense. If they can reduce the strain on Roethlisber’s arm, he may survive the year and continue to put up numbers. If, however, they cannot break the nasty habit of putting the ball up 50 times a game, it’s going to catch up to them.

The Bills defense will be attacked in a much different way than the Steelers. Namely, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt were born to perform in snowy Buffalo at playoff time, and Buffalo is not nearly as formidable upfront as the Steelers. Whatever the Steelers do to Buffalo with James Conner and Benny Snell,  the Browns should be able to do much more effectively with Hunt and Chubb. Likewise, Mayfield can attack Buffalo deep, but it is unlikely that we will see Roethlisberger go vertical on Sunday night.

As for stopping Mr. Allen, that is also going to be a much different task for the Browns defense than stopping Roethlisberger’s short passing game. At this point, Roethlisberger is given too much respect for the deep ball which no longer exists. The Steelers have dangerous wide receivers but they are not going deep. The Bills, on the other hand, are going as deep as they want, and if Allen can avoid the Browns pass rush he will deliver the goods. Allen is a lot like the 2008 version of Roethlisberger.

Like the Browns, the Bills may be stepping on the gas as the season progresses, and the thinking is from the oddsmakers that they may have actually caught up to the level of the Steelers. It should be a really exciting game on Sunday Night Football, and an interesting prelude to the Browns versus Ravens on Monday Night Football.