Rainy Day Injured Quarterback Mayhem!
The Bills make Aaron Rodgers regret his "triumphant" return. C.J. Stroud out-duels Gimpy Dimes. Matthew Stafford melts in the rain. Max Brosmer makes a fool out of Kevin O'Connell. And much more!
In this action-packed Week 13 edition of Walkthrough …
Aaron Rodgers has risen! No, he’s dead again. No, he’s risen again! You know what? It doesn’t really matter.
Baker Mayfield is also still alive, somehow. And Chris Godwin and Bucky Irving have also returned to try to spur a Buccaneers resurrection.
Daniel Jones plays on a broken leg against against the AFC’s best defense. Remarkably, things don’t go so well.
Oh no: Mathew Stafford got wet. HE’S MELTING! HE’S MELTING!
Shedeur Sanders makes his second start. Unfortunately, the 49ers don’t stand around waiting to get sacked and beaten the way the Raiders did.
Max Brosmer … ew.
And much more, including a look back at Thursday and Friday’s action.
Let’s ride.
Get-Right Spotlight: Buffalo Bills 26, Pittsburgh Steelers 7
What Happened
For 30 minutes, the Bills were the most miserable would-be contenders in the NFL.
Except for the Eagles. They’re pretty darned miserable. So are the Ravens and Chiefs. The Lions, too. Are we counting the Colts as contenders? How about the Buccaneers entering Sunday? There’s a lot of misery to go around the NFL these days.
Let’s start over.
Get-Right Spotlight: Buffalo Bills 26, Pittsburgh Steelers 7
What Happened
For 30 minutes, the Bills were among the most miserable would-be contenders in the NFL. Their offense, without starting tackles Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown, looked downright irredeemable, turning the ball over twice in the first half.
Aaron Rodgers, playing with a non-throwing wrist that’s reportedly broken in three places (radius, ulna and astral plane, presumably), performed his usual over-the-hill junkballer routine in the first half. Kenneth Gainwell plucked an underthrown swing pass off the turf for a 19-yard catch-and-run after a James Cook fumble, setting up a Jaylen Warren touchdown. The Steelers led 7-3 at halftime.
Then, on the first play of the third quarter, Joey Bosa swallowed Rodgers like a Jello shot. Rodgers fumbled as he passed through Bosa’s digestive tract. Christian Benford scooped and scored to give the Bills a 10-3 lead.
Mason Rudolph replaced Rodgers. Benford intercepted Rudolph. Cook churned out 43 of his 144 rushing yards on a touchdown drive capped by a Josh Allen pass to back-from-the-doghouse receiver Keon Coleman.
Rodgers returned, but Allen, Cook and the Bills defense were through messing around. The Bills controlled the clock for most of the second half of a feisty, chippy, grungy victory.
What It Means for the Bills
No, they didn’t solve all of their offensive problems. They just faced an opponent with a weak run defense and a wishful-thinking passing game. But the Bills beat a playoff contender in a week when most of the other perennial Super Bowl powerhouses took one on the chin. Be happy, BillsMafia!
The Bills now have head-to-head wins over the Ravens, Chiefs and Steelers, providing some playoff-tiebreaker insurance if things get messy in the weeks ahead.
What It Means for the Steelers
The Steelers are now .500 and waist-deep in the Rodgers narrative. They can’t run a functional passing game while in protect-the-geezer-at-all-costs mode. They can’t do much of anything with Rudolph driving their Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera offense. And Rodgers is the one who decides whether or not Rodgers will play and what Ian Rapoport will tell the public about his injury status every Sunday morning. Jets and Packers fans can fill yinzers in on what happens next.
