The Pittsburgh Steelers are big underdogs heading into their Wild Card Round playoff game with the Buffalo Bills this Sunday, and Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward is not paying it any mind.
The Bills are currently 10-point favorites to beat Pittsburgh and move on to the Divisional Round, and Heyward expressed his thoughts on it this week.
“We don’t really care about 10-point underdogs,” Heyward said, via 93.7 The Fan. “That is for Vegas and all the other naysayers. We’re excited to be in this opportunity. We understand (that being) the 10-point underdog doesn’t decide the game. It’s in between the lines. It’s the team that executes. It’s the team that wins the turnover battle, the team that wins the rushing battles. Those are the things that. Ten-point underdogs is a whole lot of nonsense to us.”
Injuries limited Heyward to 11 games this season, and during his time on the field, he logged 33 tackles and a couple of sacks.
The 34-year-old, who played his collegiate football at Ohio State, was selected by the Steelers with the 31st overall pick of the 2011 NFL Draft.
He was kind of a late bloomer, as he did not make his first Pro Bowl appearance until 2017. However, that began a streak of six consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl, which just ended this year. Heyward also earned three First-Team All-Pro selections during that span.
Heyward’s best campaign came back in 2017, when he racked up 45 tackles and 12 sacks, but he also posted back-to-back double-digit sack campaigns in 2021 and 2022.
Pittsburgh won its final three games of the regular season to push its record to 9-8 and snare the final Wild Card spot in the AFC.
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