Josh Allen Leads the Bills to yet another historic win!
Mandatory Credit: Imagn Images
Heading into the Sunday slate of the NFL games in Week 14, one of the biggest matchups to keep an eye out for was the one between the Buffalo Bills and the visiting Cincinnati Bengals.
This game featured two of the league’s top quarterbacks in Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, going head-to-head late in the regular season with both teams needing wins despite their opposing records.
Prior to the start of the game, the Bills came in with an 8-4 record and three games behind division leaders, the New England Patriots. On the other hand, the Bengals were 4-8 and needed to win out if they were to have any chance of progressing to the postseason.
Bengals Hold Lead until Late in Final Quarter
Cincinnati’s offense came out of the gates running, putting up points in each of its first three drives of the game. The Bengals’ opening drive, which lasted for over 7 minutes, ended with Chase Brown finding the end zone from 5 yards out.
Joe Burrow then led the Bengals to two more well-executed drives ending with a 21-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins and a 10-yard touchdown pass to Chase Brown, respectively. Cincinnati entered the half with a comfortable 21-11 lead.
Despite the Bills cutting the deficit to just 3 points in the third quarter, following a touchdown drive, Burrow’s 12-yard pass to Mike Gesicki extended the lead once again to 10 points with just under 9 minutes left in the game.
Buffalo Bills Wild Fourth Quarter Leads to 21 Points in Comeback Win
After going down 28-18 to the Bengals in the fourth quarter, Josh Allen led the Bills with what was his longest-ever touchdown run of 40 yards. The most important part of that run and the Bills’ drive was the fact that it took only a little over a minute of the clock.
With momentum back on their side, Buffalo’s defense came up big in the Bengals’ ensuing drive. Just two minutes after the Josh Allen touchdown run, cornerback Christian Benford picked off Burrow, taking it back for a 37-yard pick 6, putting the Bills up 32-28 for the first time in the game.
Cincinnati still had over 5 minutes to get ahead, but Burrow was intercepted on back-to-back plays as Jordan Phillips’ pass deflection fell into the hands of A.J. Epenesa. Allen made no mistake as he marched the Bills’ offense down for yet another touchdown, handing Buffalo a 39-28 lead with just 3 minutes left in the game.
In the end, the Bengals had one more touchdown in them, but their failed 2-point attempt, coupled with Josh Allen running for a first down on third and long, was the final nail in the coffin as the Bills overcame the Bengals 39-34 in a hard-fought, snowy day clash at Orchard Park.
How the Bills Can Still Make the Playoffs
With the win, Buffalo moved up to 9-4 on the season and is currently 2 games behind the Patriots after Week 14. With only 4 games left in the regular season, they would need New England to drop multiple games in order to win the division.
But Buffalo can still mount more pressure as the Bills and Patriots are set to clash in Foxborough next week. A win there would mean the Bills narrow the gap to 1 game with 3 weeks of football still left.
However, if the Bills don’t win the division, their next games against the Patriots, Browns, Eagles, and Jets would be crucial for them to still make the postseason as one of the Wild Card teams.
Mandatory Credit: Imagn Images
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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!
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