Looking Back: Buffalo Bills

With the 2025 season on the horizon, Steelers.com is bringing you Looking Back, where a game against each of our opponents is highlighted. In this edition, it’s the Buffalo Bills.

Steelers 23, Buffalo Bills 16
September 12, 2021
Highmark Stadium

Sometimes it’s the most unlikely of heroes who make a game-changing play, and that happened on this fall afternoon in Orchard Park, New York.

Special teams coordinator Danny Smith, who preaches splash plays to his unit, got not just one, but two on one play.

With the Steelers holding onto a 13-10 fourth quarter lead, defensive tackle Cameron Heyward sacked Bills quarterback Josh Allen for a loss to the Bills 23-yard line. Bills punter Matt Haack, facing a fourth-and-12, never stood a chance.

Safety Miles Killebrew, who was brought to Pittsburgh for moments like this, blocked Haack’s punt, but it was young linebacker Ulysees Gilbert III was able to scoop it up and returned it nine yards for a touchdown, extending the lead to 20-10.

“It was a big play for us,” said Killebrew. “It was a moment in the game where it was a big momentum shift. It was a good team effort. I know a lot of guys don’t know how things happen on special teams. It’s very rarely one guy’s victory when something big happens, and this is one of those moments where it was a culmination of a lot of guys doing their job. I just happened to be at the point of attack. I was very thankful that I was able to make it happen. And then my boy Ulysees scoops it up and scores.

“It happened very fast, but it goes back to what we were practicing all week. Danny Smith wrote up a few good plays that we were able to execute, and especially against a good outfit like Buffalo. So, everything just kind of happened the way that we had hoped it would.”

Gilbert, a sixth-round pick in 2019, was at the right place at the right time.

“It was a play we had been running all week in practice and just a lot of effort and great…