Getty Buffalo Bills cornerback Levi Wallace holds onto the ball after his interception late in the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers
Professional athletes will use any extra motivation they can to up their game.
Whether it’s something a competitor or opposing coach said, or maybe they were criticized on social media for their recent play. But on Sunday night, the Buffalo Bills found their motivation in the form of Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster dancing on the Bills logo at midfield before the game.
The Bills saw it and it lit a fire underneath them. As the offense came out of the tunnel before the game, Bills quarterback Josh Allen gathered his players around him and sent them a message.
“The recipe is simple fellas, do your (expletive) job, let them do all the talking and all the (expletive) dancing and we can do the work,” Allen said in a pre-game huddle.
🗣️ Tell ’em 17!
After the game, Bills safety Jordan Poyer said that seeing Smith-Shuster dancing on the logo pre-game gave the Bills a little extra juice heading into the game.
“Seeing them dancing on our logo pre-game and seeing all that, that turns you up a little bit,” Poyer said during a post-game video conference call. “It kind of gives you a little second itch to come and play with some extra fire. We were hyped up on the sideline, we had a big win. And we were just having fun.”
The Bills ended up scoring 23 unanswered points between the second and third quarter before cruising to a 26-15 victory over the Steelers on Sunday Night Football. Smith-Shuster was limited to six catches for 55 yards and a touchdown on seven targets.
The Steelers were also limited to just 224 yards of total offense, which was over 100 yards lower than their season average. 15 points was also their lowest point total of the season.
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Bills Defense Steps Up in Primetime
Since the beginning of the season, the Bills defense has slowly but surely been improving and returning to their form from a season ago. They needed that time to come together as a team, with the weird offseason, and they are just starting to hit their peak as an all-around defense.
They limited the Steelers to one of their season lows in total yardage, picked off Ben Roethlisberger twice and they also ended Pittsburgh’s five-game streak of not allowing a sack.
Down goes Big Ben!
The Bills defense stepped up on multiple occasions on Sunday and limited the Steelers to just one third-down conversion on 10 attempts. Pittsburgh was also only able to average 4.1 yards per play.
Buffalo’s Offense Was Just As Motivated
The Bills offense got off to a slow start on Sunday, but picked it up towards the end of the first half and into the second half. Josh Allen ended up throwing for 238 yards, a touchdown, and an interception on 43 pass attempts.
Stefon Diggs stepped up on the outside, catching 10 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown as he torched the Steelers defense all night long and led the Bills to a big win in primetime.
Buffalo also capped off the game with a 13 play, 52-yard drive that took up the final 7 minutes, 11 seconds of the game to seal the victory.
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