The Bengals had a 10-point lead with just under nine minutes left but suffered a 39-34 loss Sunday in snowy conditions, preventing them from building momentum from last week’s win at Baltimore. They were trying to finish the season on a six-game winning streak to keep themselves in the playoff conversation, but now chances are even slimmer at 4-9.
Buffalo (9-4) scored 21 straight points to take a 39-28 lead with about three minutes to go. The pick-six was the game-changer. Christian Benford jumped in front of Burrow’s pass at the line of scrimmage, pulled it down and returned it 63 yards for a touchdown to give the Bills their first lead of the game with 5:25 left.
Burrow, helped by the return of Tee Higgins from a concussion that sidelined him in the quarterback’s return last week, had completed more than 70 percent of his passes to that point and thrown three touchdowns. His next pass also was tipped at the line of scrimmage and intercepted, and Buffalo took advantage to tack on another touchdown to put the game away.
The Bengals responded with one more score on a deep pass from Burrow to Tee Higgins, who made a one-handed catch for a 26-yard touchdown, but the two-point conversion failed and Cincinnati never got the ball back.
Up until the fourth quarter, the game was looking much different.
After winning the coin toss and electing to receive the ball first, the Bengals took advantage of a chance for a fast start and scored touchdowns on their first three drives, while the defense did enough to help Cincinnati take a 21-11 lead into halftime.
Buffalo scored on the first possession of the second half to make it a three-point game, Cincinnati went three-and-out the next series and the Bills had chances then to take over, but couldn’t capitalize as the Bengals defense twice prevented them from taking a lead on the next drive.
James Cook had a 24-yard touchdown nullified by a holding penalty before review showed Joseph Ossai had punched the ball out, short of the goal line, anyway. Then, six plays later, DJ Turner forced Cook to fumble at the 2-yard line and Oren Burks recovered in the end zone.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Burrow and company answered with a touchdown drive, capped by Mike Gesicki’s 12-yard catch in the endzone, but Buffalo responded with a four-play, 68-yard touchdown drive and then came the Bengals’ turnover troubles.
Cincinnati had done just about everything it could in the first half to put the team in a good position to win in the second half.
The Bengals limited the Bills to a field goal on the opening drive, despite giving up a 32-yard pass to tight end Dalton Knox on the first play from scrimmage, and they forced a turnover on downs late in the half. Josh Allen threw a dime to Khalil Shakir in between, for an 11-yard touchdown, followed by a two-point conversion pass.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Chase Brown had two of Cincinnati’s first-half touchdowns, starting with a 5-yard run after a fourth third-down conversion the opening drive. His second touchdown was a 10-yard catch right at the pylon that initially was ruled short of the goal line before the review.
Higgins also had an incredible 21-yard catch for a touchdown that made it 14-3 early in the second quarter.
Burrow finished with 284 yards passing and four touchdowns, while Allen completed 78.6 percent of his passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns to go along with 78 yards rushing. Cook had 80 yards on 18 carries, as the Bengals defense allowed 183 yards on the ground.
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