ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Don’t think safety Jordan Poyer and other members of Buffalo’s secondary didn’t notice Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster dancing on the Bills logo at midfield during pregame warmups on Sunday night.
Come the fourth quarter, after Levi Wallace intercepted Ben Roethlisberger to essentially seal Buffalo’s 26-15 victory, it was the Bills’ turn to break out into a dance along their sideline.
“It was tight energy. The song playing. We felt the momentum of the game swing,” Poyer said, before noting a TikTok video of Smith-Schuster posted on social media.
“I ain’t going to lie, seeing them dancing on our logo pregame, that turns you up a little,” he added. “You come and play with a little extra fire. We were hyped up on the sideline. We had a big win and we were having fun.”
Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes, safety Taron Johnson returned an interception 51 yards for a score, and the Bills (10-3) inched closer to claiming their first AFC East title since 1995 and third playoff berth in four seasons. Buffalo can clinch both as early as Monday night if Baltimore loses to Cleveland.
Smith-Schuster and the Steelers weren’t asked about the dance — something the receiver does before most every game — afterward.
Then again, they have other concerns after dropping consecutive games in six days following a 23-17 loss to Washington, and falling a game behind the AFC-leading Kansas City Chiefs (12-1).
The AFC North-leading Steelers (11-2) were still able to clinch their first playoff berth in three years before kickoff by virtue of the Miami Dolphins’ 33-27 loss to Kansas City earlier in the day.
“We’ve lost two. We’re facing some adversity. But we’re not hitting the panic button,” Roethlisberger said.
“Offensively we’re not very good. We’re not playing good football and it starts with me,” he added. “I think this is a team that has got a lot of resilience and understands what it takes to win football games and understands what time of year it is and right now it’s unacceptable.”
The Bills have won six of seven and have at least 10 of their first 13 games of a season for the first time since 1991. That’s a considerable switch from a team that had endured a 17-year playoff drought — which stood as longest active streak in North America’s four major professional sports — before coach Sean McDermott took over in 2017.
“Ten wins, the (job) is not finished,” Allen said. “We know what we have to do.”
The third-year player broke the game open by throwing touchdown passes 3:21 apart — a 19-yarder to Stefon Diggs and a 13-yarder to rookie Gabriel Davis — on the first two drives of the second half to put Buffalo ahead 23-7.
Buffalo’s second-half eruption came after Allen and the offence managed just six first downs and 102 yards on seven possessions.
Johnson, however, provided the offence by stepping in front of Roethlisberger’s pass intended for Smith-Schuster and returned it 51 yards to put Buffalo up 9-7 with 52 seconds remaining in the first half.
“Our defence stepped up big time, especially when we started out the way we did,” Allen said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that care about each other and we don’t want to let each other down. When we’re out there, we put it on the line for each other.”
Allen upped his season total to 35 combined touchdowns (28 passing, six rushing and one receiving) to break the team’s single-season record of 34 set by Hall of Famer Jim Kelly in 1991. His 28 TDs passing rank second most on the team list, and five behind the single-season record set by Kelly in ’91.
Allen finished 24 of 43 for 238 yards and an interception. Diggs had 10 catches for 130 yards. Acquired in a trade with Minnesota in March, Diggs now has 100 catches to match the Bills’ single-season record set by Eric Moulds in 2002.
The Steelers continue to resemble nothing of the team that set a franchise record by winning its first 11 games. Pittsburgh has been held under 20 points in three straight games, and was coming off a loss to Washington in which c oach Mike Tomlin called out his team’s sluggish running attack and receivers for their dropping passes.
The game was decided midway through the fourth quarter after Buffalo’s Tyler Bass hit a 23-yard field goal to put the Bills up 26-15.
On Pittsburgh’s third play from scrimmage, Roethlisberger’s deep pass up the right sideline intended for James Washington was intercepted by Wallace.
Roethlisberger finished 21 of 37 for 187 yards with touchdown passes to Washington and JuJu Smith-Schuster and two interceptions.
SACK STREAK
The Steelers extended their sack streak to a 70th consecutive game to break the NFL record set by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1999 to 2003.
Tyson Alualu was credited with Pittsburgh’s first sack of the game against Buffalo by stripping the ball out of the hands of Bills quarterback Josh Allen midway through the second quarter. The fumble was recovered by Bills centre Mitch Morse for an 8-yard loss.
The streak began in Week 8 of the 2016 season.
INJURIES
Steelers: Starting LG Matt Feiler did not return after hurting his shoulder in the first quarter. Feiler’s replacement Kevin Dotson was ruled out after hurting his shoulder in the the third quarter.
Bills: Johnson did not return after sustaining a concussion in the third quarter. Morse missed several series in the first quarter after having a brace place on his left elbow.
UP NEXT
Steelers: Continue run of prime-time games in travelling to play Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 21.
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
