2024 NFL playoffs: Steelers-Bills postponement in Buffalo may hurt one team more than the other

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Saturday that the Buffalo Bills’ Super Wild Card Weekend game vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers was being moved from 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, to 4:30 p.m. Monday (CBS and Paramount+) due to dangerous weather-related conditions. According to Weather.com, Buffalo is under a winter storm warning until 7 a.m. Monday morning, and snow accumulations in the area could range from 1 to 3 feet. Gov. Hochul made the decision with public safety in mind, but this decision may benefit one team more than the other.

The Bills are perceived to be the better squad in this matchup, and have home-field advantage. In fact, sportsbooks have Buffalo listed as double-digit favorites over Pittsburgh. However, if this game was played at 1 p.m. on Sunday, it may have benefitted the Steelers. Now that the game has been moved to Monday, Pittsburgh loses whatever kind of advantage the weather may have given it.

Apart from the snow, what may have been a huge factor in this matchup if it were played on Sunday afternoon was wind. Weather.com says wind could be up to 26 miles per hour throughout the early afternoon, which may have forced both the Steelers and Bills to keep the ball on the ground.

Buffalo statistically has a better rushing offense (130.1 rushing yards per game vs. 118.2 rushing yards per game), but Pittsburgh’s ground game has been impressive lately with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. 

Over the last three contests, Harris is averaging 24 rushes per game, 104.0 rushing yards per game and has rushed for four touchdowns. He’s registered back-to-back 100-yard rushing games for the first time in his career, and finished seventh in the NFL with 1,035 total rushing yards. 

As for Warren, he’s scored just one touchdown over the last seven games, but ranks second in the NFL among running backs in yards per rush (5.3), trailing only Christian McCaffrey’s 5.4 yards per rush. Warren is tied for third in tackles avoided this season (76), and is an important dual-threat weapon for Pittsburgh.

If this game were reduced to Harris and Warren vs. James Cook and Latavius Murray, if Josh Allen as a thrower and Stefon Diggs as a receiver struggled to get going in high winds, it probably would have played into Pittsburgh’s favor.