Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Bills will be looking to advance to the AFC Championship Game for the second time in three years on Sunday. To do it, they’ll have to beat the Cincinnati Bengals at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park.
Here are my three keys to the game for them to get the win, plus notes and stats:
1.) Defensive line time
The Bengals' offensive line is very banged up. They will be starting three players who are normally backups at left tackle, right tackle, and right guard.
The Bills have spent plenty of resources to improve their defensive line over the last several years, including high draft picks Gregory Rousseau, Ed Oliver, A.J. Epenesa, and Boogie Basham, plus free agent money on Jordan Phillips, Shaq Lawson, Tim Settle, and DaQuan Jones.
Now is the time for those players to show why the organization made a heavy investment in them. They need to dominate a depleted Bengals offensive line and control the game.
2.) Limit Bengals' weapons
The Bengals have some of the best weapons in all of football in wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd, plus tight end Hayden Hurst and running backs Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine.
Joe Burrow is one of the top quarterbacks in football. The Bills will certainly have their hands full. It will be almost impossible to completely shut down the Cincinnati offense, so the key for the Bills is to limit what they can do after getting the ball in their hands, and not allowing touchdowns.
Tackling will be a really important part of this game for them. The better the Bills can do that, the more chance they'll have of forcing the Bengals into 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-long situations.
3.) Stop the turnovers
The Bills turned the ball over three times against the Miami Dolphins, including two Josh Allen interceptions and a fumble by the quarterback, which turned into six points for the Dolphins. They overcame those mistakes to ultimately win the game by three points.
However, that's not a formula for winning football against better teams in the playoffs.
Allen and the Bills offense has to do a better job of protecting the ball. That doesn't mean they have to be completely conservative and never take risks, but they need to be calculated, know when to press and when not to, and not give a terrific Bengals offense any extra possessions.
NOTES AND STATS:
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