The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to take on and travel to the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card round of the 2023 AFC Playoffs. The game was initially supposed to kickoff at 1 PM EST on Sunday, but it is now being reported that the game is being moved to Monday at 4:30 PM EST due to the impending weather.
Buffalobills.com
Steelers game in Buffalo postponed to Monday afternoon
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There has been talk about the horrific weather in Buffalo all week long. There is supposed to be lake effect snow, frigid temperatures and those will come with a high wind chill. There was reportedly a plan in place for the game to be relocated to Cleveland should the weather be too horrible to play in, but instead the teams will face off on Monday rather than Sunday. NFL Insider, Jonathan Jones, for the NFL On CBS was the first to break the news about the game time being moved to Monday.
"Breaking: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says that Steelers-Bills will be postponed until 4:30 pm Monday."
This obviously plays into the Bills' hands. The horrible weather evened the playing field between the two teams a bit. It could have even given the Steelers the upper hand with the way Najee Harris has been running the ball recently. Now, that the game is being moved, the Steelers are right back where they were as the underdogs.
Now confirmed: Due to the winter storm, the Steelers-Bills wild-card game officially has been postponed to 4:30 ET on Monday.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 13, 2024
A change in game time (and day) was expected. At the original time of kickoff, it would have been difficult for the teams and fans to get to the stadium on game day, and the broadcast likely would have been blurry and, well, snow covered. The conditions for Sunday have been described as 'blizzard-like'. Some people are upset with moving the game to a different day, although they understand it was necessary to do so. However, the NFL should not have waited until 24 hours before the game was supposed to kickoff to make the change.
A.J. Mast / The New York Times
Steelers Nemesis Roger Goodell
The forecast has been the same all week long. The NFL and the state of New York could have made the decision to postpone this game way earlier in the week. Now, some fans who bought tickets might not be able to attend given the new circumstances.
Some folks may need to buy an extra night at their hotel, or even pay a fee for staying at their Air BNB an extra day. New York and the NFL didn't think about the fans one bit in making this decision, and if they had, the change would have been made earlier.
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Steelers T.J. Watt (#90) knocks the ball away from Bills Josh Allen (#17) in 2021.
The weather in Buffalo on Monday isn't going to be that much better, either. The Winter Storm Warning in that region is in effect until 7 AM EST on Monday. It is still forecasted to snow throughout the day, and the temperature is expected to be around 18 degrees at the time of kickoff with winds blowing at 15-25 miles per hour. The weather will still be atrocious, and barely any better than it would be at the original kickoff time on Sunday.
The last time the Steelers had a game postponed it was during the 2020 NFL season. The Steelers had a game scheduled for Thanksgiving night against the Baltimore Ravens, who had more than a dozen players test positive for COVID-19. The game wound up being postponed to the following Wednesday. Luckily, Pittsburgh won that matchup to continue on their undefeated season.
What do you think of the game being postponed? Let us know in the comments below!
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