Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Bills came out with a much stronger overall effort on a short week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a "Thursday Night Football" showdown at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park.
The Bills offense certainly wasn't as stagnate as the past few weeks, getting out to a much better start with 17 first half points. Even though the unit slowed down after one more scoring drive to start the third quarter, it was still enough to help Buffalo earn a 24-18 win.
Quarterback Josh Allen was quite efficient on the evening with 324 passing yards, two touchdowns, one interception and a rushing touchdown. This all as he's battling through a shoulder injury to his throwing arm.
The Buccaneers weren't that dangerous of an opponent for the Bills, as the Bills defense came up with a solid performance, even with a late push from Tampa Bay that gave them a last shot to win with a Hail Mary.
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With their fifth win of the year, the Bills have a longer layover until their next game when they travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals on "Sunday Night Football" at Paycor Stadium.
This will be the first game back in Cincinnati for the Bills since last season's Week 17 matchup on "Monday Night Football" that saw safety Damar Hamlin go into cardiac arrest in the first quarter of their matchup. The game ended up being suspended and not made up on the NFL schedule.
The Bengals started out their 2023 season in rough shape, but have since righted the ship and look as dangerous as ever. Quarterback Joe Burrow appears to be fully healthy again after suffering a calf injury early in training camp.
Cincinnati is coming off an impressive 31-17 win over the suddenly struggling San Francisco 49ers in this past Sunday.
Going into Sunday night's matchup, the Bengals sit at 4-3 in the AFC standings right behind the Bills, and are also in a three-way tie for second place in the AFC North.
Last week's edition of "Howard Picks the Bills" got very ugly, very fast after an abysmal loss to the New England Patriots. However, this week was a slight improvement after Buffalo's win over the Buccaneers.
Given the Bengals' improvement over the course of the season, as well as the sustained ability of the teams the Bills have yet to face, not much has changed in Howard Simon's predictions.
Howard is rather uncertain about the Bills going into Cincinnati, and believes the Bengals will be too much to handle on Sunday night. Despite picking the Bills to lose to the Bengals, Howard did flip a game on the schedule and has Buffalo finishing the year with a 10-7 record.
While the Bills are still likely to lose out on the division with that record, it is possible they will be able to sneak into the playoffs, given the competition around them.
Be sure to follow along on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the latest picks from Howard by using the hashtag #HowardPicksTheBills. You can also track all of Howard's picks throughout the season with Brayton Wilson's picks tracker on X: @BraytonJWilson.
You can listen to, and watch the latest edition of "Howard Picks the Bills" available below: