As the Buffalo Bills training camp rolls on, the team’s next preseason game is coming up on Saturday vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Buffalo Bills will start star quarterback Josh Allen for the team’s Week 2 preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday, head coach, Sean McDermott, announced.
McDermott said most starters will play about a quarter and a half on Saturday. The Steelers faced very few starters in their first preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Friday night.
It will be the first time this group will be on an NFL field together since the team lost at home to the Cincinnati Bengals in the Divisional Round of the 2022 NFL playoffs.
Buffalo once again comes into the season with big expectations. While the team isn’t the Super Bowl favorite like last year, they are one of the teams with the best odds to win it all, behind only last year’s Big Game combatants, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
The Steelers are well aware that Allen represents a vital test. He lit them up for 424 yards and four touchdowns in Orchard Park last October.
That was his career-best performance against the Black and Gold. Pittsburgh’s defense held Allen to 270 yards and a touchdown while upsetting the Bills in the 2021 season opener and 238 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception on a frosty Buffalo night in 2020.
In 2019, Allen threw for only 139 yards, one touchdown, and one interception against the Steelers at Heinz Field.
The Steelers’ revamped secondary will welcome the challenge now that it’s getting healthy. The Steelers didn’t hold many players out in Week 1 against Tampa but had several defensive backs that did not play.
Cornerbacks Joey Porter Jr. and Patrick Peterson and safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick, Keanu Neal, and Damontae Kazee could all make their Steelers preseason debuts against the Bills and the likes of Allen, Stephon Diggs, and company.
Several Buffalo players are unlikely to play because of injury, including running back Damien Harris, wide receiver Gabe Davis, defensive tackle Eli Ankou, and linebacker Terrell Bernard.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has not yet addressed which Steelers will play in the game. He will speak to the Pittsburgh media. Last season, the Steelers starters played about a quarter in the first preseason game.
