Five things we learned from Bills 26, Steelers 7:

1. Missing man

Forgive fans for thinking that Pat Freiermuth’s face has been plastered to the back of a milk carton. He still remains employed by the Steelers. It was just difficult to find him on the field Sunday.

Freiermuth logged 17 of 43 offensive plays, the second-lowest snap count of his career. He again ceded playing time to Darnell Washington (34) and Jonnu Smith (23). More startling is that Freiermuth was not targeted once in the game. Eight other players had passes thrown in their direction, but Freiermuth was shut out. It was the second time it happened to Freiermuth this season, the other taking place against Minnesota when he played a career-low 15 snaps.

After playing a career-high 69% of the offensive snaps last season, the first year of his reworked contract that included a $48.4 million extension over four seasons, Freiermuth has played 48% of the snaps. A year after setting a career best with 65 catches, Freiermuth has 26.

Freiermuth is hardly the only tight end struggling to find a role in the offense. Smith has 30 catches for 190 yards and is averaging a career-low 6.2 yards per catch. He hasn’t topped 28 receiving yards in a game this season, which is confounding after he totaled 88 catches for 884 yards with Miami last season.

2. Deceptive advantage

For the fourth time this season, the Steelers blew a halftime lead in a loss. They also lost a game when they held a 10-0 advantage in the second quarter.

The 7-3 lead they took into the third quarter Sunday, however, was deceiving. It was protected by a Band-Aid that the Bills couldn’t wait to rip off, which they did on the first play of the second half to take the lead for good.

Consider that Steelers ran 16 fewer plays than the Bills in the first half, possessed the ball for less than 10 minutes and had just 87 yards of total offense. This included 31 after the first three series, which totaled 14 plays.

The Bills, meantime, had 67 yards rushing in the first quarter, 125 at the half and 176 total yards at the break. It was an indication of what was the come in the final 30 minutes.

3. Secondary thoughts

Jalen Ramsey tied for second on the team with nine tackles and Joey Porter Jr. was tied for fourth with eight. Porter, knocked for his tackling as a rookie, has improved greatly in that area and made several nice open-field tackles against the Bills.

The problem is that those open-field tackles took place in, well, the open field, meaning Porter was the last line of defense after the running back broke through the first two levels.

Because of Buffalo’s ability to run the ball, the secondary didn’t have to make many plays through the air. Slot corner Brandin Echols, however, made two. He intercepted Josh Allen on the Bills’ opening drive, and he broke up another pass. Kyle Dugger had the other pass breakup.

The Steelers have 10 interceptions this season, which is tied for No. 10 in takeaways. Echols is the only player with multiple interceptions.

4. Line dancing

With Broderick Jones heading to injured reserve, Andrus Peat got the first crack at replacing him at left tackle.

Peat’s presence was negligible. The Steelers rushed for just 58 yards, their third-lowest total of the season, but they also ran just 43 plays. Even with Spencer Anderson fulfilling his usual job as a jumbo tight end, the Steelers averaged 3.2 yards per rush.

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Peat also wasn’t responsible for the lone sack of Rodgers. Guard Mason McCormick was beaten on the play in which Joey Bosa hit Rodgers from behind, dislodging the ball and leading to a defensive touchdown for the Bills.

The Bills disrupted the quarterback just one other time, an indication that the line did a fair job in pass protection. Still, Rodgers and Mason Rudolph combined to complete 10 of 24 passes for 117 yards.

5. Snap decisions

When James Pierre departed with concussion symptoms, it provided Asante Samuel Jr. his first defensive snaps since Week 4 of the 2024 season when he was a member of the Los Angeles Chargers.

Samuel contributed three tackles, including one solo stop while playing 28 snaps. He could be part of the defensive backs rotation the rest of the way considering the Steelers scratched a healthy Darius Slay. The benching represented a sudden fall from grace for Slay, who started the first nine games after signing a one-year, $10 million contract with the Steelers in free agency.

Fellow defensive backs Jabrill Peppers and Chuck Clark also played exclusively on special teams after making spot starts at safety earlier in the season.

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