The Buffalo Bills are guaranteed to remain in a playoff spot after Week 14, beating the Cincinnati Bengals to move to 9-4 on the season.
The Buffalo Bills will remain in a playoff position for at least another week, moving to 9-4 on the season after a 39-34 win over the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday afternoon.
The win, along with the loss by Indianapolis, puts the Bills into the fifth seed, pending the result of the Monday Night Football game between the Chargers and Eagles.
It wasn't always a pretty game, and there remains a lot of concern for the Bills defense. But the team, led once again by Josh Allen, found a way to get the job done.
Here are the positives and negatives from the Bills' win in Week 14.
Positives
Josh Allen: Without Josh Allen, the Buffalo Bills often look like a team that would be no better than any bottom-five group in the NFL. Allen did everything he could for the Bills, going 22-28 for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns. Even when his receivers couldn't get open, he kept the play alive long enough to make something happen. Just look at his touchdown pass to Khalil Shakir as a prime example.
Oh, and let's not forget that, for the 50th time in his career, Allen had at least one passing and one rushing touchdown in a game. Allen's 40-yard rushing touchdown was the longest in franchise regular season history. On the ground, Allen picked up 78 yards and a touchdown on nine carries, including the game-clinching 17-yard run on 3rd and 15 with under two minutes to play.
Buffalo is now 45-8 when Allen scores a rushing and passing touchdown in the same game.
Dawson Knox: For the first time in what feels like years, Dawson Knox proved to be a safety blanket for Allen. Knox finished the game with six catches, 93 yards, and a two-point conversion catch. His X catches was the first time since Week 15 of the 2022 season that Knox had at least five catches in a game.
Christian Benford: The Bills number one cornerback now has touchdowns in back-to-back games. After scoring his first career touchdown on a fumble return against the Steelers, Christian Benford picked off Joe Burrow in the fourth quarter, running it back 63 yards to put Buffalo on top for the first time.
Bills Second Half Defense: While it wasn't perfect, the Bills defense in the second half made the big plays they needed to. There were no bigger plays than Benford's pick six and, on the very next drive, AJ Epenesa added an interception for himself after Jordan Pillips tipped a pass in the air.
Negatives
Bills First Half Defense: It couldn't have been a worse start for the Bills defense if they tried to play poorly. Cincinnati scored touchdowns on its first three drives of the game, but that wasn't the whole story. The Bengals went 7-of-7 on third down in those drives while getting 15 first downs in the half.
Bills Second Half Defense: It wasn't as bad as the first half and they did make some big plays, but the Bills defense in the second half wasn't perfect by any means. but the defense couldn't do enough to stop the Bengals offense on Sunday. The Bills gave up 338 yards, 25 first downs, and allowed the Bengals to finish 10-12 on third down while.
Again, Benford did get the big pick six followed by Epenesa's interception on the next drive, but Buffalo's defense, as a whole, just wasn't very good on Sunday afternoon.
James Cook's Ball Security: The usually sure-thing James Cook was anything but on Sunday. Cook had two fumbles on the same drive. One went out of bounds just before going through the endzone, but the other wasn't so lucky. Cook, at the two-yard line, had the ball punched out into the endzone. The Bengals would recover, ending a promising 12-play, 70-yard drive.
Cook finished the game with 80 yards rushing and 31 yards receiving.
Sean McDermott's Timeout Usage: He's been in Buffalo since 2017, and one of the biggest knocks on Sean McDermott remains his timeout usage. Against the Bengals he called a timeout ahead of a third down, only for the Bengals to pick it up. He used another one before an extra point attempt after the Benford touchdown. It didn't hurt them in the long run, but his timeout usage continues to be a headscratcher.
Bills Pass Rush: Without Joey Bosa, the Bills pass rush was almost non-existent. Benford got the team's only sack of the day, and the team had just five QB hits. Even on the Epenesa interception, he was pushed out of the way that it actually put him in position for the interception. With New England up next, the Bills need to hope Bosa is ready to go.