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NO. 76 IS ELIGIBLE**
: The Steelers ran 67 offensive plays against the Buffalo Bills. Mike Adams was an extra offensive tackle/tight end on 25 of them.
The Steelers ran the ball on 21 of Adams' snaps, for 70 yards and a touchdown. They attempted to pass four times with Adams in relatively unfamiliar territory and completed two of them, for 2 yards and a touchdown.
It wasn't the first time the Steelers deployed Adams in such a fashion, but it might have been his most extensive and most effective action since losing his starting left tackle job following the Steelers' loss to Minnesota in London.
"They tell me to go out there, and I go gladly," Adams said. "I'm just glad to have a chance to be on the field. Any way to get on the field and help these guys and play with my guys is what I'm looking for. Hopefully one day I'll be able to get back out there the way I want to."
In the meantime, "I'll just do what they need me to do," Adams said.
Adams actually was given credit for a start at tight end on Sunday, the third time in five games that has happened since he lost his starting left tackle spot.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger isn't fooled by the designation.
"He's an extra tackle in there," Roethlisberger said. "Usually the guy who's over him is a linebacker or a smaller defensive lineman, and it helps move the pile and open up holes for us."
The Steelers are looking for such a matchup to exploit in exchange for all but tipping their run-pass hand when Adams enters the game. Adams pancaked Bills linebacker Nigel Bradham into the end zone on Le'Veon Bell's 4-yard touchdown run.
"Whenever you can effectively run the ball, especially on the goal line, as an offensive lineman that's what we're all about," Adams said.
He hasn't caught a pass … yet.
"I've been on a couple routes," Adams said. "I didn't get the ball so I must not have been," open.
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IF THE HANDLE FITS**: Rookie linebacker Jarvis Jones arrived with the twitter handle "@Sacman_29," then failed to register a sack in his first seven NFL games. But after collecting career sack No. 1 against Buffalo, Jones need not ponder an alteration to his identification on social media.
"I wasn't going to let it get that bad, man," Jones said.
He was nonetheless pleased to get a quarterback on the ground on a Sunday.
"It was about that time," Jones said. "I'm a pass-rusher, and when you're a pass-rusher and you don't have any sacks you're not sitting pretty. People are looking at you like, 'What kind of pass-rusher is he?'
"It was a blessing, man, it was perfect. It's been a long time coming. I just hope they continue to come. I think I should have had two other sacks today, left them out there. But it was a good start."
GUESS WHO'S BACK?: Safety Will Allen, who was brought back on Oct. 10 after a stint in Dallas, found himself in the sub-package defensive mix after Shamarko Thomas went down with an ankle injury in the second quarter. Antonio Brown, who authored punt returns of 50 and 24 yards, also credited Allen's presence on the punt-return team.
"Will Allen, one of our leaders on the team, has been doing a great job of challenging every guy in the punt-return game and taking it as a challenge to give me an opportunity to get in the open field," Brown said.
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ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH**: One of the topics addressed by several players after the Steelers held the Bills to nine points and 227 yards was the expectation that the Steelers' defense would be determined to bounce back after giving up a franchise-record 55 points and a franchise-record 610 yards against New England.
A sampling:
Wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery: "They were catching a lot of heat and they have a bunch of bad dudes over there. They were ready to go. They couldn't wait for this game. We knew what type of game we were going to get from our defense."
Defensive end Brett Keisel: "When you get punched in the mouth and you get embarrassed like we did you want to come back and have a performance like this."
OR WAS IT?: Safety Troy Polamalu didn't want to attribute how the Steelers defended against the Bills to what had happened against the Patriots.
"I hate speaking hypothetically," Polamalu said. "In truth I don't think we would have prepared any differently if we had won or lost last week, but we'd be speaking in hypotheticals if we 'd say (one way of the other). I think we have the same sense of urgency in preparation for each week.
"I've been here for 11 years. We've faced a lot of adversity. My mind-set hasn't changed. I haven't treated anybody else differently. I haven't been doing anything differently than I've done in the past."
