Bills vs. Steelers: Three reasons Buffalo, featuring Josh Allen’s group of weapons, will beat Pittsburgh

Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers, playoff football in the snow … our football-loving forefathers would want it no other way. 

We’ll all be treated to this glorious postseason matchup Monday, starting at 4:30 p.m. ET (CBS) at Orchard Park.

Let’s lay out why the Bills will win their opening-round playoff game against the Steelers to advance to the divisional round. These three elements of the game will be key.

1. Josh Allen‘s diverse group of weapons 

The Bills ask Allen to do too much — for the past two seasons and leaking into 2023, that was a main, overarching narrative surrounding Buffalo’s star quarterback. 

And while he’s had another season in which he’ll probably finish in the top three in MVP voting again, this current edition of the Bills offense feels different. They’re less reliant on Allen. Let me explain. 

Against the Dolphins in Week 18, Allen completed 30 passes to eight different pass catchers. Khalil Shakir led the team with 105 yards. Dalton Kincaid tied Stefon Diggs for the team lead in catches with seven. Dawson Knox chipped in the game-winning touchdown. Trent Sherfield had three snags. There were 20 carries divvied up between James Cook and Leonard Fournette. Now, that duo was ineffective on those carries, combining for a mere 56 yards, but even having enough faith in the run game to hand the ball to backs 20 times in a game with massive playoff implications is telling. 

Buffalo is more diverse offensively than it’s been since the days of Diggs, Cole Beasley and John Brown. 

Remember the mid-December throttling of the Cowboys when Cook went for over 220 yards from scrimmage and Allen threw 15 times? That was only the fourth time in Allen’s career, and the first time since November 2020, in which he attempted fewer than 20 passes in a game. In the previous three other occasions, the Bills secured one-score victories. In the most recent occurrence, Buffalo smoked Dallas.  

A season ago, Diggs led the Bills with 108 catches in the regular season. Gabe Davis was second on the team with 48 grabs. This season, Kincaid is runner-up to Diggs in receptions with 73, and Cook is actually one of Buffalo’s five pass-catchers with at least 40 snags. 

Every defense wants to make every offense one-dimensional, and at times in 2022 the Bills had one pitch — a heater from Allen to Diggs, and not much else. Now they have a trusty slot receiver again…