Buffaloed Bills
PITTSBURGH — This was too much to ask of the Buffalo Bills, to win in Pittsburgh after a distraction-filled week that began with them not knowing if badly injured teammate Kevin Everett would live, much less begin to recover.
They tried getting their minds off Everett's spinal cord injury during practice, but it was not the same without him and couldn't be. They dedicated themselves to winning for him, and they hung around and hung around for 2½ quarters on Sunday in a game the Steelers were dominating but couldn't put away.
When a first down becomes an accomplishment for a Bills offense that has done very little in two losses, the inevitable finally happened as Willie Parker ran for a score and Ben Roethlisberger threw for another in the final 1½ quarters of Pittsburgh's 26-3 victory.
Afterward, the Bills regretted not completing their third pass of the game until late in the third quarter, not getting into the end zone, not slowing a Steelers offense that has been extremely balanced in two games.
Most of all, they regretted not winning for Everett, who watched some of the game in his hospital room as he tries to recover from one of the NFL's worst and scariest injuries in seasons.
"They wanted all those things to happen," coach Dick Jauron said. "They didn't happen. That's just the way things go. But all of those things are what they wanted."
The Bills paid tribute to Everett by wearing his name and No. 85 on T-shirts that will be sold for charity.
"Kevin's situation, you knew that was tough from the beginning," Derrick Dockery said. "Losing doesn't make it much easier. Like I said, it is tough. We have a little bit of adversity right now."
The Steelers knew the Bills would play with intensity and a sense of purpose to try to win for Everett, but emotion can carry a team only so far when an offense is going nowhere.J.P. Losman had completed only two passes when Pittsburgh went up 19-3, and it was too much to ask of rookie Marshawn Lynch (64 yards) to carry the offense. The Bills' best chance to make a game of it came when they drove to a first down at the Steelers' 5 early in the third quarter, but they settled for a field goal."We love to get after the quarterbacks. Our forte is trying to shut the run down and turning the dogs loose," defensive end Brett Keisel said of going against the inexperienced Losman. "We were able to do that and get after them a little bit, harass them a little bit, get them flustered and he wasn't able to make those big throws."The little ones, either, as the Bills threw for only 121 yards, nearly all of them after Pittsburgh opened its 16-point lead. That's no way to pull off an upset in a city where Buffalo hasn't won during the regular season since O.J. Simpson was its star in 1975."We have a young quarterback who hasn't played a lot of football in the NFL," Jauron said. "I really believe he's going to be a good player. I know it's frustrating for everybody, and it's certainly frustrating, but we do have a belief he'll work through it."The Steelers, 2-0 for only the second time since 1999, seem to have worked though many of the problems that dogged them as they went 8-8 a year ago.They've cut down on their turnovers, with only one in each game. Ben Roethlisberger threw an interception Sunday, but doesn't appear to be forcing the ball to heavily defended receivers as he often did last season.And the Steelers aren't giving up the deep downfield throws they frequently allowed last season. The Browns and Bills managed a combined one touchdown against them.Willie Parker is off to a fast start, too, with 233 yards in two games following his 1,494-yard season of a year ago.There also seems to be a sense of purpose under rookie coach Mike Tomlin, a change from the unsettled situation of a year ago when nobody knew whether former coach Bill Cowher was staying or going."We had a rough year, and everybody who was here last year doesn't want to go through that again," linebacker James Farrior said. "It was a tough season and we felt like we left a lot of plays on the field. This year, we're trying to make up for that."<B>Notes: </B>Pittsburgh is 2-0 for the second time in three years. ... The Steelers (500-474-20 in 75 seasons) are the first AFC team to reach 500 wins. Most AFC teams originated in the AFL, which didn't form until 1960. ... Pittsburgh was 11 of 16 on third downs. ... The Steelers have won their last five home openers. ... Tomlin is the only rookie head coach this season to be 2-0. Cowher started 3-0 in 1992. ... The Bills played in Pittsburgh for the first time since 1996. ... Pittsburgh already has as many victories as it did at midseason a year ago. ... The Steelers, commemorating their 75th season, wore throwback uniforms with white pants and gold jerseys.
