Josh Allen and the Bills pull off the unthinkable plus other takeaways from Week 13 win over Steelers
Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills made history in more ways than one in the Week 13 win.
The Buffalo Bills are 8-4 after a win against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 13. It was a dominant second half from the Buffalo Bills, who made sure the Steelers never got a chance to get back into the contest. Buffalo opened up the second half with a forced fumble on quarterback Aaron Rodgers, which resulted in a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and never looked back.
While quarterback Josh Allen didn’t light the league on fire with his performance, he still found a way to make NFL history in the victory. With a rushing touchdown, Allen surpassed Cam Newton for the most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in the regular season.
It wasn’t all pretty, as the team had more than a handful of self-inflicted wounds early on in the matchup, but found a way to get a victory and keep their playoff hopes alive.
Allen wasn’t the only one to make history
Running backs James Cook and Ray Davis, along with the damage Allen did with his legs, wound up making history. With over 240 rushing yards on the ground, the Bills had the most rushing yards in Pittsburgh since 1975. Cook was all over the field, gashing the defense with jump cuts. While he wasn’t able to find the end zone and had a fumble himself, he deserves the game MVP.
For Davis, it was inarguably his best day in the 2025 season. Any time Cook went out of the game, it felt like Davis slotted in for a nice 10- to 15-yard gain each run.
It was only the second time since the start of the 2023 season that the Steelers had allowed an opponent over 200 yards on the ground. A dominant performance from the Buffalo Bills running backs and Allen.
Cook finished with 144 yards, Davis had 62, Allen had 38, and Ty Johnson finished with five yards. Buffalo finished the day with 51 carries for 249 yards and a touchdown.
What makes the victory, especially the run game, that much more impressive is when you factor in that Buffalo trotted out two backup tackles as both Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown were injured for the contest. The next-man-up type mentality worked in Buffalo’s favor in the Week 13 win.
Defense came to play
Cornerback Christian Benford and defensive end Joey Bosa deserve their flowers for their performance against the Steelers. Outside of the forced fumble and recovery for a touchdown, Benford had an interception in the second half, sustaining the momentum for Buffalo.
The Bills limited the Steelers to only 108 yards passing with 58 rushing yards on the day while owning the time of possession by over 20 minutes.
Allen had an interception early in the contest, and Cook fumbled the ball, which resulted in points for the Steelers. Outside of that, the Bills locked down the Steelers all game and made life miserable for Rodgers and Mason Rudolph.
Without some key playmakers on both sides of the football, and an abysmal start for the offense, Buffalo walked into Pittsburgh and did something that no team has done in over 40 years; the impressive ground attack led by James Cook made the difference. Each game feels like a must-win from this point on. Here’s hoping that Buffalo can find some answers to the passing game ahead of next week.
Despite the early mistakes and the injuries piling up, Buffalo delivered in a must-win game. If the Bills can marry this type of physical ground game with a more consistent passing attack, they’ll give themselves every chance to stay alive in the AFC playoff race.
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