Bills pounded into ground by Bell, Steelers in 27-20 loss

• The Bills are now 6-7 and all but done in the playoff race, while the Steelers are alive at 8-5.
• Le'Veon Bell set a Steelers record with 236 yards rushing, which was also the most ever against the Bills.
• The Buffalo defense intercepted three passes, but also allowed 460 total yards.

ORCHARD PARK – So here the Bills were, in a really big spot, with their playoff lives hanging in the balance, up against a quality group just as desperate for a victory to remain entrenched in the hunt.

This is exactly the kind of game that a team with viable aspirations of making the tournament simply has to win, the kind of game that you rise up and perform in, the kind of game that makes a loud and proud statement.

In other words, the kind of game the Bills lose almost every time, the kind of game they lost Sunday afternoon 27-20 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

“It wasn’t good enough,” said safety Corey Graham. “When I was in Baltimore and we won the Super Bowl, somehow, when it was close, things were getting rough, we found a way to win. Good teams find a way to win, bad teams find ways to lose.”

Ding, ding, ding, ding. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

COMPLETE COVERAGE:

► Report card:It’s your turn to grade the Bills

► Rex Ryan and Doug Whaley? Both should stay or both should go

► Tyrod Taylor may not have done enough to keep Bills' QB job

► Steelers 27, Bills 20: Quarter by quarter recap

Deep down, you had to know this was going to happen. If anyone walked out of cold, snowy, depressing New Era Field surprised by Buffalo’s inept performance, I’m not sure there’s a cure for your level of jingoism. Anyone who has watched this team for 16 years, and thinks rationally, had to have a foreboding foreshadowing of what was to come because they have so much horrifying history filed away in their numb-to-it-all heads.

Life offers a few guarantees; death, taxes, snow in a western New York winter, and Bills’ games that literally suck the marrow from your being. This was merely the latest, and who knows, it might cost some people their jobs.

Everyone but Rex Ryan and his players heard the pregame rumors that the Pegulas might fire Ryan if the Bills lost to the Steelers, perhaps as quickly as Monday, but almost certainly at the end of this 17th straight season without a playoff appearance, even though it’s only the second of the Ryan era.

Who knows how much truth there is to that? Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn’t, but this much I know: This performance sure isn’t going to help Ryan because his team was thoroughly outplayed on both sides of the ball, all day long.

Defensive tackle Leger Douzable, who was forced to pick up some extra load with Kyle Williams inactive due to a back injury, was clearly irritated afterward because he knew the Bills had put forth two consecutive lousy showings on defense in games they needed to win.

“The Oakland game was ridiculous; we have to close that game out,” Douzable said to a nodding and knowing reporter who felt the same way. “We’re up 24-9, there’s no reason we should have lost that game. This game, I don’t know how to describe it. We had three turnovers (all interceptions of Ben Roethlisberger) and usually you get three turnovers in a game you’re going to win. Hats off to them, Le’Veon (Bell) had a great game, and we couldn’t stop him from doing that.”

Well, the turnovers were nice, but the Bills also allowed the Steelers to roll up 460 yards and possess the ball for more than 38 minutes with Bell inflicting epic damage. He had 236 yards rushing which not only is a record by a Bills opponent, but also a Steelers franchise record. Bell added 62 receiving yards, giving him 298 yards from scrimmage, thus making Bell the first player in the NFL this season to single-handedly outgain the opponent (the Bills managed just 275 yards). The Bills looked overmatched trying to stop him as they missed more tackles than there are replays of It’s A Wonderful Life this time of year. 

It was a horrendous day for Ryan’s defense, but Douzable was nonetheless perplexed when he was told that Ryan’s job was reportedly on the line. “That’s a ridiculous statement, there’s no way you can fire a coach that’s in the playoff hunt in Week 14 or whatever it is,” he said. “I don’t understand how you can say you can fire the guy.”

I’ve made my stance pretty clear on this: I’m tired of the Bills firing coaches and starting from scratch every two or three years. It hasn’t worked, so why would it this time? Further, I’m not sure Ryan needs to be the scapegoat because I’m pretty sure if Ryan had a competent quarterback, his seat wouldn’t be hotter than a blast furnace.  

Alas, he doesn’t, and Tyrod Taylor proved it again.

Mike Tomlin has Roethlisberger; Bill Belichick has Tom Brady; Jack Del Rio has Derek Carr; Jim Caldwell has Matthew Stafford; Mike McCarthy has Aaron Rodgers; Dan Quinn has Matt Ryan; Pete Carroll has Russell Wilson. Rex has Tyrod. Hammer him all you want, and maybe he’ll be fired by the time you read this, but good quarterbacks make good coaches; it’s usually not the other way around.

I’m not absolving Ryan of blame, though, because he certainly deserves his share. Clearly, his beloved defense has been lousy far too often this season. This was the sixth time in 2016 it has allowed 27 or more points, and that happened five times in 2015; Bell is the second back (Miami’s Jay Ajayi was the other) to roll past 200 yards rushing this year; the pass rush has been anemic lately, and was nonexistent Sunday; and his secondary, which he and we thought was a strength before the year, is simply not.

I asked Ryan if he considered his defense this season a failure. “No, I wouldn’t say that,” he responded. “I mean there’s a lot of things into it, but no. I get it, we had a bad day today … obviously it wasn’t a good day, but I’m not going to say that. We’re trying every day, we hit the field with a purpose, we’re trying to get better and that’s what we’ll do these final three weeks.”

If he is still the coach, I think he can win all three and get to 9-7. Browns and Dolphins here, Jets on the road, sure they can win them all. It may not save Ryan, but even worse, it won’t matter in the playoff chase because on Sunday, the Bills did what they always do.

MAIORANA@Gannett.com