The Athletic has live coverage of Bengals vs Bills in Sunday Night Football action.
The Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals — two teams that can’t escape each other in pursuit of a Super Bowl. They meet for a third time this calendar year, including last year’s “Monday Night Football” game that was eventually canceled following safety Damar Hamlin’s collapse from cardiac arrest.
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While Hamlin’s story surrounds Sunday night’s meeting, there are other talking points concerning these two teams. The Athletic’s Bills writers Tim Graham and Joe Buscaglia break it down.
The Bills and Bengals — two franchises trying to win that elusive Super Bowl and have to go through each other to do it. What concerns you most about the Bengals on Sunday night?
Graham: Joe Burrow lit up Buffalo last season. He moved the ball downfield with ease before the regular-season game was canceled, and made tackle football look easy at Highmark Stadium in the playoffs. After struggling for a month to find consistency this year, he appears to be back. Through four games, Burrow had two TD passes and two interceptions. Since then, including against a couple tough defenses in San Francisco and Seattle, he has eight TDs and two interceptions. Perhaps most worrisome for the Bills is his connectivity with Tee Higgins. Prior to last week, an absurdly low 38.9 percent of Burrow’s throws to Higgins were caught. Against San Francisco, Higgins caught five of six targets for 69 yards. Burrow also reminded folks he can run last week. He took off five times for 44 yards. Cincy’s defense has allowed just 18.6 points in winning four out of five games. Josh Allen, however, will be the best quarterback the Bengals have faced in a long while.
Buscaglia: The Bills’ ability to slow down the now surging Bengals passing attack. While they did just trade for Rasul Douglas, there still isn’t any indication if he’ll be ready to start, or even be active, for the Sunday night game. If he is ready, that’s a well-oiled Bengals passing game with two extreme talents at wide receiver working against a player that just parachuted onto the team days ago, and is still learning the nuances of their play calls. If Douglas doesn’t play, that means it’s another start for Dane Jackson, who the pass-heavy teams have picked on in the past. All this means is that the Bills offense better get ready to score some points to steal a road win.
Dalton Kincaid is finally on the board with his first touchdown catch. Is this the start of the rookie TE getting more involved in the offense?
Graham: I’m still leery of rookie tight ends producing on a week in, week out basis. But Kincaid’s performance last week was remarkable. Remember, he was the Bills’ only tight end last week because Dawson Knox and Quintin Morris were hurt, and it was a short week against a Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense that blitzes about 37 percent of the time. Even so, Kincaid ran routes all night. Sunday night could be Kincaid’s third-straight busy game. The Bengals’ defense has been gracious to tight ends, allowing a touchdown in four of their seven games. George Kittle didn’t score last week but rolled up nine catches for 149 yards.
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Buscaglia: Kincaid’s stock is soaring, and it would not be a surprise if he becomes Josh Allen’s second-most targeted pass catching option while Dawson Knox rehabs from wrist surgery. The trust from Allen in the rookie tight end is obvious, as is his natural route running and pass-catching abilities. The Bills even tried to run a Travis Kelce-style pitch play from inside the 5-yard line to get a touchdown, which should give everyone an idea of how much they believe in him within their offense. Kincaid played on 84 percent of the offensive snaps last week, but that could have been a bit inflated by being the only active tight end for the game. His snap count might come down slightly now that backup Quintin Morris looks poised to return from a two-game injury absence, but it shouldn’t take away from Allen looking his way — especially if Stefon Diggs is unavailable.
Here we go with another nagging injury for Josh Allen. Maybe you weren’t worried about his right shoulder a few weeks ago. How about now?
Graham: The first big clue Allen’s shoulder is OK is that, despite not practicing Wednesday, he held his usual weekly news conference. As a rule, players who are in danger of not dressing are kept away from the microphones in days leading up to the game. And maybe it wasn’t the worst development for Kyle Allen to get extended reps. Backup quarterbacks rarely get practice action once the preseason ends, and you never know when Kyle Allen might need to play a series or two in a pinch.
Buscaglia: Missing a practice after an extended rest period following a Thursday night game is never a good thing. However, the Bills may have looked at it as an excellent opportunity to maximize Allen’s rest with the throwing shoulder for six straight days — something teams can’t do with their quarterbacks in most weeks during the regular season. Allen practiced in full on Thursday and appears unfazed by the injury. We’ll have to see if his accuracy is impacted at all, but I’d like to see the actual impact in a game setting before the worry meter rises at all. With the way his throws looked at practice, I have a sneaking suspicion he’ll be just fine on Sunday night.
Which of the Bills’ recent’ signings/additions intrigues you the most and why?
Graham: I was struck by Green Bay’s reaction to losing Douglas. You can tell how much he meant to the locker room. The next day, Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon said “I’m still sick to my stomach” over the trade. “We took a blow,” cornerback Carrington Valentine said. That says a lot about Douglas, I think. What you also can glean from his resume is that he’s a survivor, the type of player Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane covet. Yes, Douglas was a 2017 third-round draft choice, but he also has been waived or released a bunch and didn’t become a regular starter until his fourth season. Douglas was with four teams in 2021 alone: signed and cut by the Raiders; signed and cut by the Texans; signed to the Cardinals practice squad and then signed by the Packers that October. He played the last 13 games, including a playoff, starting 10. He snagged five interceptions and returned two for touchdowns while breaking up 13 passes and forcing a fumble. That’s relentless.
Buscaglia: I’ll go with the big one-technique defensive tackle Linval Joseph, who Diggs more affectionately referred to as “Big Goon” this week. The two played together in Minnesota and now meet back together in Buffalo. Despite Joseph turning 35 last month, he is exactly what the Bills needed once DaQuan Jones had to go on injured reserve with a pectoral injury. Joseph is a massive human being, at 6-foot-4 and 328 pounds, but extremely long, 33.25-inch arms will help him be a force against offensive linemen and, at the very least, hold well at the point of attack against the run game. Since losing Jones, the Bills watched as backups Jordan Phillips, Tim Settle and Poona Ford all struggle considerably against the run, leading to a potential liability against opponents. We’ll have to see how much game he has left, but conceivably now with Joseph, they have the true one-technique who was no longer on the active roster. Ed Oliver should be thrilled by the signing, because it will help him considerably on game days.
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Bills players haven’t done much talking about Damar Hamlin this week, but obviously the team’s return to Cincinnati is a storyline Sunday night. What’s been most impressive about how the team has handled the emotional factor and increased attention concerning Hamlin over the last 10 months?
Graham: The Bills might not know how returning to Paycor Stadium will hit them until they walk into the building where they waited for what must’ve felt like an eternity to learn if their brother was alive. All of the emotions they felt in the visitors’ locker room, on the field, in the bus corral will come back to them. These memories will be processed individually in the moment, but in many ways the Bills have been reflecting on what’s to come for months. They’ve been talking about it among themselves and with sports psychologists. They’ve also witnessed so many mileposts of Hamlin’s recovery: being on the field for training camp, putting on the pads, taking his first hit, playing in the preseason, dressing for the regular season. I suspect the Bills will have clear minds by kickoff.
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How Bills players are handling Damar Hamlin's return to Cincinnati, another shot at Bengals
Buscaglia: The Bills have tried as hard as they can to make this week about as normal as possible. Whenever prompted to speak about last year and the emotions of returning to Cincinnati for the first time, most have pointed to Hamlin making a full, healthy comeback and that they’re treating it like any other game. The physical return to the stadium where it all happened may elicit some unexpected emotions in the moment, but the Bills are keeping a clear mindset for the time being. Hamlin could be a healthy scratch again this week, which has been the case in all but one game this season, and that could take a little of the enormity of their return away.
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Perception, reality and the NFL coordinator under fire while running a top-five offense
(Top photo of Josh Allen (left) and Joe Burrow: Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Images)