In a wild, surprisingly competitive game that wasn’t over until they’d played 13 extra minutes, Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham mad the fourth of his 40-plus yard field goals to lead Pittsburgh to a 19-16 overtime win over the Bills.
Suisham showed that the Steelers made a smart move when they signed him to replace the inconsistent Jeff Reed, going 4-for-4 and connecting from 48, 46, 45 and 41 yards in the game.
But the Steelers were lucky to get a chance to kick that fourth and final field goal. The Bills easily could have won the game in overtime when Ryan Fitzpatrick dropped a beautiful deep ball into Stevie Johnson’s arms in the end zone for what should have been a game-winning touchdown. But Johnson dropped it -- his fifth dropped pass of the game.
The loss drops the Bills’ record to 2-9, but they’re playing competitive football. In their last six games the Bills are 2-4, and all four losses were by three points.
Being competitive wasn’t the same thing as winning, however, and the Steelers managed to find a way to win on a day when plenty went wrong on both sides of the ball. Even Rashard Mendenhall, who with 151 yards on 36 carries had the best player of any Steeler not named Suisham, had a costly fumble that helped the Bills go from down 13-0 to tied 13-13.
The Steelers have plenty to work on as they head toward next week’s big AFC North showdown with the Ravens. But at 8-3, the folks in Pittsburgh have to feel very good about where they are, even on a day when they had to fight a lot longer and harder for a win than they might have thought.