ORCHARD PARK - Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Did you know that Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott and Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin were briefly college teammates at William & Mary University in the mid-1990s?

The national media will continue to beat that dead horse this week as McDermott and Tomlin lead their two rust belt teams into a collision at Highmark Stadium Sunday afternoon in a wild-card matchup between the No. 2 seed Bills and No. 7 Steelers.

The two men have long maintained a friendship, not to mention a tremendous amount of professional respect for each other, and so far, McDermott owns a 3-1 record in their head-to-head encounters.

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The Bills won a huge game on Sunday Night Football late in the 2019 season in Pittsburgh which helped them in their quest to secure Josh Allen’s first playoff berth. In 2020 with no fans in attendance in Orchard Park due to the pandemic, the Bills won another December showdown, 26-15, on the way to their first AFC East division title in the McDermott/Allen era.

Tomlin’s Steelers stunned the host Bills on Opening Day 2021, an ugly 23-16 Buffalo loss in which the dynamic offense from 2020 was completely non-functional. And then in 2022, the Bills exacted sweet revenge at home - this time in front of a packed house - as they embarrassed the Steelers 38-3 as Allen threw for 424 yards and four TDs including a team-record 98-yard TD to Gabe Davis.

Sunday’s game will be the fourth time these teams have met in the postseason, but the first in Orchard Park, and the first when Tomlin and McDermott were children, the last when they were still in college.

In 1974 the soon-to-be Super Bowl champion Steelers beat the Bills 32-14 at Three Rivers Stadium in the only playoff game of O.J. Simpson’s career. In 1992, with Jim Kelly out with an injury, Frank Reich directed a 24-3 victory over the Steelers as the Bills eventually advanced to their third consecutive Super Bowl. And in 1995, on their way to a Super Bowl appearance, the Steelers routed the Bills 40-21 in a game that Bruce Smith missed because of the flu, and Kelly was knocked out of with a knee injury.

Here’s an early look ahead to Sunday’s Bills vs Steelers matchup:

Top players for Pittsburgh Steelers on offense, defense

● QB Mason Rudolph: After ineffective Kenny Pickett got hurt, and ex-Bills backup Mitch Trubisky flopped, the Steelers turned to Rudolph and he helped save their season by starting and winning the last three games, completing 74.3% of his passes to get Pittsburgh into the tournament.

● RB Najee Harris: He has topped 1,000 yards in each of his first three NFL seasons, the first Steeler to do that, and in the last two games he had 122 against the Seahawks and 112 against the Ravens.

● RB Jaylen Warren: The other half of a strong rushing tandem, he had 784 yards and averaged 5.3 yards per carry which tied for fifth-best in the NFL. He also added 61 receptions for 370 yards.

● WR George Pickens: When he’s engaged, he’s dynamic. His 63 receptions went for 1,140 yards, an 18.1-yard average with five TDs.

● WR Diontae Johnson: Like Pickens, he’s a big-play receiver who averaged 14.1 yards on his 51 catches and scored five TDs in a passing game that was terrible until Rudolph stepped in.

● DT Cameron Heyward: The Bills O-line has faced outstanding DTs all season and here comes another one, a 295-pound run stuffer who can also push the pocket.

● LB Alex Highsmith: While T.J. Watt led the NFL with 19 sacks, Highsmith had seven along with 69 pressures, but now with Watt out, Highsmith will have to assume a bigger role in the pass rush.

● LB Elandon Roberts: Pittsburgh’s leading tackler with 101 also had 2.5 sacks and two passes defensed.

● CB Patrick Peterson: The well-traveled veteran allowed just a 51.7 completion percentage and he broke up 11 passes with two interceptions.

● K Chris Boswell: The Steelers don’t score much so they need a reliable kicker and Boswell made 29 of 31 field goals and 27 of 28 extra points.

Who is favored to win Bills vs Steelers?

The Bills have opened as a 10-point favorite for the game. The money line is Bills minus-500 (bet $500 to win $100) and Steelers plus-400 (bet $100 to win $400). The over-under is 35.5.

What time does the Bills vs Steelers game start?

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Highmark Stadium.

How to watch Buffalo Bills vs Pittsburgh Steelers game on TV, streaming

● Cable/Network TV: CBS. The game will be available locally via the following stations: WROC (Channel 8, Rochester), WIVB (Buffalo area), WTVH (Syracuse area), WKTV (Utica area), WENY (Elmira area), WRGB (Albany area), and WBNG (Binghamton area).

● Online streaming services: You can watch games on NFL.com and the NFL mobile app, and you can subscribe to NFL+, the league’s own streaming service, though you can’t cast the games to your TV - you must watch on your phone or tablet.

● TV streaming: You can also stream games if you have subscriptions to Spectrum, DirecTV, fuboTV, Sling, Vidgo, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and Paramount+.

On the radio: How to listen to the Bills vs Steelers game

You can listen on SiriusXM satellite radio on Sirius channel 158 and XM channel 226 (Bills feed) and Sirius channel 82 and XM channel 225 (Steelers feed), and on traditional radio, the Bills Radio Network has stations all across the state. Chris Brown has the play-by-play, Eric Wood is the analyst, and Sal Capaccio is the sideline reporter. The network includes:

• Rochester (WCMF 96.5 and WROC 950 AM)

• Buffalo (WGR550, 550 AM)

• Syracuse (WTKW 99.5/WTKV 105.5)

• Binghamton (WDRE 100.5FM)

• Ithaca (WIII 99.9/100.3 FM)

• Bath (WVIN 98.3 FM)

• Newark (WACK 1420 AM)

• Dansville (WDNY 93.9 FM)

• Elmira (WNGZ 1490 AM)

• Auburn (WAUB 98.1 FM/1590 AM)

• Geneva (WGVA 95.9 FM, 1240 AM)

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Who do the Bills play next? Buffalo hosts Steelers in playoffs