Bills scare makes Steelers missing playoffs hurt even more

The Pittsburgh Steelers missing the playoffs was a bummer, but it feels much worse than that following Buffalo’s Wild Card troubles.

Pittsburgh Steelers fans feel a touch of sadness watching the NFL playoff games this weekend, as they know that their guys were so close to being a part of them. That’s all it was, though: a touch.

The reason for this is that we all wanted the Steelers to make the postseason, but we would have been lying to ourselves if we thought they would have seen anything more than a first-round exit. I mean, seriously, who would have expected us to keep up with the Buffalo Bills, especially after the 38-3 beatdown they dealt us earlier this season?

Speaking of beatdowns, the Bills were instead set to face the Miami Dolphins — a struggling squad that has recently fallen back on the talents of third-string quarterback, Skylar Thompson. Heading into Sunday, it felt like it would take a miracle for the Bills to even break a sweat against them. But, as we were soon reminded, even miracles are possible.

Not only did the Bills break a sweat, they almost lost due to a mistake-riddled performance on their own turf. And even though they ended up surviving the encounter 34-31, the question nonetheless has to be asked: if the Steelers went up against that showing, could they have won?

Could the Steelers have won a playoff game?

Such a thought could be explained away by Bills fans in a multitude of ways, with the blame likely falling on the intense rivalry factor, “overlooking” the opponent, or a mixture of both in their eyes. Not only that, but they would also waste no time bringing up Pittsburgh’s regular-season failures (such as the aforementioned 38-3 humiliation). However, there are a couple of rebuttals that can be given right back to them.

For starters, the Steelers have improved tremendously since their 35-point defeat — going 8-4 with only one loss being decided by more than seven points. Also, it doesn’t matter how big of rivals the Dolphins are or how much Buffalo overlooked them, there is no reason to struggle against them that much.

With all of that said, if the Bills could only skate by the version of the Dolphins that they faced today, they would definitely not be beyond losing to the Week 18 version of Pittsburgh.

Now that is not to mean that Pittsburgh would be able to compete with Buffalo consistently (a statement that should really go without needing to be said), but there is nothing about either of the two that looks like 38-3.

At the end of the day, what’s done is done, and a win is a win. With that in mind, congratulations to the Bills on advancing. But, as a parting note, I would like to recommend that they get it together before next weekend rolls around, as it’s going to take more than what we saw against Miami for them to advance any further.