New York State In-depth

Five takeaways from the Cincinnati Bengals’ dominant win over the Buffalo Bills

The Bengals invaded Buffalo on Sunday, routing the Bills.

All three phases of the team played extremely well and honestly it’s hard to find someone who didn’t live up to expectations for the Bengals in this game. They made it look easy despite being 6 point underdogs. It’s a testament to how underrated and mentally strong this team is. Let’s dive into some of the takeaways from Cincinnati’s 27-10 win.

The offensive line strengthens

The offensive line arguably played their best or second best game of the year. The amazing thing about this feat is that it comes with three offensive substitutes.

Hakeem Adeniji, Max Scharping and Jackson Carman all deserve cues for how they were able to play in this game. Joe Burrow was only sacked once and Cincinnati ran on its normal offensive line.

After going almost 60% to fast play last week due to offensive issues, the Bengals really let the ball fly and let it fall behind. The offensive line also dominated the Bills front seven when it came to running the ball. The Bengals’ offensive line was the biggest question mark in the game, but they turned that perceived weakness into one of the game’s greatest strengths.

Mr Pflug

Joe Mixon looked like the best Joe Mixon in this game. This essentially works as another stretch to complement the offensive line, but Mixon rushed for 5.3 yards per carry and 105 total yards this game. To look at some of the advanced numbers, Mixon had an EPA of 0.15 per game on-site, which is in the 90th percentile.

Mixon also had a 60% success rate running the ball, which again is above the 90th percentile at elite level, and he’s made a first down on 40% of his runs! He did all of this while only punishing Bills’ defenders from the beginning of the game to the end. One of his first runs was a throwing game, dropping his shoulder and giving Jordan Poyer the appearance of a snowplow. Samaje Perine also had a good game, but Mixon had an elite game.

Lou Anarumo does it again

Lou Anarumo keeps getting better performances from this defense against elite quarterbacks. Josh Allen looked confused, under duress and frustrated for the whole game. Allen didn’t have a passing touchdown, but he threw an interception and posted a 68.1 passer rating in that game.

Any advanced stat for Allen in this game is well below the 40th percentile, and that’s rare for him. Allen first downed only 29% of his passes that game. The Bills only scored 10 points, which is their lowest performance of the season and the only time they only scored two points. Aside from a long touchdown drive and a long field goal drive, the Bills offense had four punts, three of which were 3-and-outs, a turnover on downs, and an interception thrown by Allen. This Bengals defense didn’t even have to do what everyone said it would do. Most pundits mentioned that they would have to force turnovers to win this game, but instead they won the game before interception. They absolutely suppressed this Bills offense.

Mike Hilton is on fire

For consecutive weeks, Mike Hilton advocates having the best game of any defender. He made eight tackles in that game. Six of those tackles were charted as solo tackles and one of those was a tackle for a loss. He also broke up a pass and had two quarterback hits.

On the Bills’ penultimate drive, Hilton had a tackle on Cole Beasley, a quarterback hit that almost counted as a stripsack, and made a stop at Devin Singletary without a win. Hilton shows that there really is no nickel defender more impressive and an integral part of their team than he is. He is Anarumo’s queen on the chessboard, capable of doing anything he asks at a high level.

Stefon Diggs is silent

On paper, the matchup between Stefon Diggs and the Bengals’ cornerbacks was one of the Bills’ greatest assets. In the canceled game between those two teams, Diggs had nearly 30 yards on the only drive Buffalo also had, so it made sense. In that game, Diggs was held on 10 targets with 4 catches for 35 yards, which is very inefficient.

Diggs’ mark of 3.5 yards per target is something you’ll typically see from a running back, but instead this comes from an elite wide receiver. There was some misfire from Allen to Diggs in this game, but that also speaks to how close coverage he was for the entire game. The Bengals’ cornerback room and Anarumo deserve a ton of credit for taking away Bill’s best receiver of the game. It’s something the Patriots could always do when making playoff runs, and it’s become fairly common for this Bengals defense under Anarumo.

Cincinnati is battling Kansas City for a Super Bowl spot this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS. The game is available via fuboTV – start your free trial here.

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