Bengals Blow Big Lead in Big Loss to Bills

Tight ends were a particularly nasty problem for the Bengals defense that they ultimately couldn't solve as the Bengals fell to the Bills 39 - 34.

On most days, when the Cincinnati Bengals take the field with Joe Burrow as their starting quarterback, they usually have a huge advantage over the other team.  Burrow is usually the best player on the field, and more often than not, even for a franchise as moribund as the Cincinnati Bengals, that’s enough to win on most Sundays.

That wasn’t true on this particular Sunday, however, because on this particular Sunday, the Bengals didn’t have the best player on the field.  That was Josh Allen, the Buffalo Bills superstar QB who, for the first time in his career, decisively outplayed Burrow in a head-to-head matchup.

Allen used his arms and legs to equally devastating effect against a Bengals defense that, especially in the second half, had no answers for the dual-threat QB.  Allen finished the day with 251 yards and three touchdowns through the air, and 78 yards and another touchdowns on the ground, as he routinely bought himself time against a Bengals pass rush that sorely missed Trey Hendrickson's finishing ability.  Time after time, the Bengals created pressure, only for their lack of rush discipline to allow Allen to break contain.  And time after time, Allen turned those opportunities into big plays, like his 40-yard sprint to the endzone in the fourth quarter to start the Bills comeback, his longest touchdown run of his career..

For the first half, however, it was Burrow who looked superior, but it took just two plays in the fourth quarter to turn Burrow’s masterpiece into a disaster-piece.  The Bengals held a commanding lead against the Bills for much of Sunday’s game, thanks in large part to Burrow’s impeccable accuracy and absolute mastery of the game of football, but ultimately, Burrow was also their undoing.

Following a Bills score that cut the Bengals lead to three, a pick-six by CB Christian Benford gave the Bills their first lead of the game.  It was also Burrow’s first really bad play of his truncated season.  The Bengals ran a first down screen play to Ja’Marr Chase, but the Bills sent Benford on a blitz and Burrow threw the ball right to him.  It looked like Burrow tried to stop his throw, but it was too late.  The wobbly ball fell into Benford’s hands in-stride and he was off to the races.  Just like that, it was 31 - 28 Buffalo.

On the Bengals very next offensive possession, Burrow threw another pick, this time thanks to a tipped pass that fell into the hands of Bills DE A.J. Epenesa.  This one wasn’t Burrow’s fault, but regardless, the result was the same.  The Bills had the ball and the lead, and five plays later, Allen found rookie TE Jackson Hawes on 4th down for a touchdown.  It was the Bills third fourth-down conversion of the game, and the second touchdown pass of the day to a Bills tight end.  For the day, Bills tight ends would catch 11 passes for 137 yards, led by Dawson Knox’s four receptions for 93 yards, continuing a season-long trend of tight ends being an unsolvable challenge in coverage for the Bengals defense.  The Bengals, who led by two-scores for huge swathes of the game, suddenly found themselves with their own two-score deficit, and with only three minutes of game-time remaining.

The Bengals made a furious comeback, but it wasn’t enough.  A quick 25-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins, his second touchdown reception of the day, made the score 39 - 34, but the Bengals were unable to convert the two-point conversion that could have brought them to within a field goal.  The Bengals kicked the ball off to the Bills with 2:13 seconds remaining, hoping beyond hope that their defense, which had played admirably well in the first half, was capable of getting one last stop.  It wasn’t meant to be.  Facing a 3rd & 15 with the Bengals on the brink of doing the impossible and forcing the necessary three-and-out, Allen, as he’d done over and over in this game, simply outran the defense.  The Bills ran the rest of the clock out and sent the Bengals home with their ninth loss of the season and the playoffs looking, once again, like the faintest of pipe-dreams.

And yet, the Bengals, incredibly, are still not out of it.  Any hope of a Wild-Card spot ended today, but the division still remains remotely in reach.  A 27 - 22 win by the Pittsburgh Steelers today over the Baltimore Ravens puts them in commanding position to win the AFC North, but with a 1 - 3 finish over their last four games could give the Bengals one last chance.  The Bengals finish with games against Baltimore, Miami, Arizona, and Cleveland – all winnable.  The Bengals, obviously, haven’t earned any benefit of the doubt, but as ridiculous as it seems, the Bengals still aren’t dead.

The problem is, this game was another reminder that the defense, even on good days, isn’t a unit that can reliably make stops.  They stepped up in the first half with a red zone stand on the Bills opening drive, holding them to a field goal, and followed that up with a turnover on downs two drives later thanks to quick pressure from Bengals DE Cedric Johnson that broke up Allen’s pass to receiver Khalil Shakir.  In the second half, the Bengals defense made what at the time appeared to be the play of the game when cornerback DJ Turner II stripped Bills RB James Cook of the football at the goal line (his 2nd goal line fumble on that drive), resulting in a recovery in the endzone for a touchback.  It was the continuation of a positive trend over the last couple weeks for the defense as a whole, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop a freight-train/fighter jet of a QB like Josh Allen.

So, for the first time since 2020, the Bengals are assured of a losing season, even if it’s not technically a lost season.  Even if they win out and somehow sneak their way into the postseason, it’s difficult to imagine this team posing a massive threat.  They aren’t consistent enough on either side of the ball – except on offense when Burrow is literally perfect.  And sadly, as today’s game proved, Burrow can’t be perfect, at least not all the time.  The Bengals will try to keep the flame of their season alive for one more week, but one more slip up will snuff it out completely.

After a season like this, frankly, it might be better for the Bengals just to put us out of our misery.