Top 3 Things We Learned

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Top three things we learned from Bills vs. Bengals | Week 14

Dec 07, 2025 at 09:30 PM

The Buffalo Bills erased a double digit deficit in the fourth quarter in dramatic fashion to beat the Bengals 39-34 Sunday at Highmark Stadium.

Here's what we learned from Bills-Bengals:

1 — How the Bills went from down 10 to leading by 11 in under five minutes

In less than five minutes of game clock, the Bills erased a 10-point fourth quarter deficit going from trailing 28-18 with 7:41 remaining to leading 39-28 with 3:09 to play.

"Never a doubt," joked QB Josh Allen, whose 40-yard touchdown scramble started the run of 21 unanswered points. "That was obviously a really tough game."

The most important part of Allen's run was how little time elapsed from the clock on the drive. On the prior offensive series, RB James Cook fumbled on the goal line with the Bills trailing 21-18. Cincinnati took advantage with a 12-play drive, chewing up just over seven minutes of clock before QB Joe Burrow found TE Mike Gesicki for a 12-yard score.

Only 1:11 elapsed on Buffalo's scoring drive to cut it to 28-25 via the longest regular season touchdown run of Allen's career.

"All we had to do was score one more point than them. It didn't matter how we did it, it didn't matter how good or bad it looked. We just got to continue to find ways to win football games," Allen said.

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The Bengals looked poised to re-extend their lead, needing just four plays to get to the Buffalo 33-yard line. That was until Christian Benford, the reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week, turned the game on its head with a 63-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Burrow attempted to get Benford down immediately after the interception by his ankles, but Benford escaped and was off to the races. This gave the Bills their first lead of the game with under six minutes left of the fourth quarter, 32-28.

"It was a pivotal swing in the game, no doubt about it," said head coach Sean McDermott.

According to Next Gen Stats, Benford's pick swung Buffalo's win probability from 16.2% to 77.0% — the single biggest win probability swing on a play outside of the last two minutes in the NGS era (since 2016). Benford reached a max speed 20.52 mph on the run back, picking up steam once he noticed Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase in the rearview trying to catch up.

"I looked while I was running, I did one of these and I saw Chase — like really running. I said, 'Oh shoot'. So I really put my wheels on and thanked God he couldn't catch me," Benford said.

On the Bengals very next offensive play, DT Jordan Phillips got a hand up at the line of scrimmage, deflecting the ball into the air and DE A.J. Epenesa came down with the interception.

Buffalo capitalized with a fourth down touchdown reception by TE Jackson Hawes from the 3 yard line to take a 39-28 lead with just over three minutes to play. It marked Allen's fourth total touchdown of the game and the seventh regular season game of his career with at least 250 passing yards and 75 rushing yards.

The Bills now have two comeback wins after trailing by 10+ points in the 4th quarter this season. It's the 3rd time they have had multiple such comebacks in a season in franchise history.

2 — Bills get "aggressive" on fourth down calls

The Bills converted three fourth downs in Sunday's win, two of which resulted in touchdowns while the other led to a touchdown.

All of them were from 4th and 3 or longer — the first time in the Josh Allen era and Sean McDermott era that Buffalo successfully converted three times in a game when needing to gain at least three yards.

"I really trust coach McDermott for being aggressive tonight on fourth downs," Allen said. "I know early on in the game, too, we converted on a few. "It feels good to have that trust in him."

Trailing 14-3 in the first half, the Bills had a 4th and 4 from the Cincinnati 45 yard line. Stuck between too far from field goal range and too close to punt, the Bills went for it and converted with a 17-yard reception to Gabe Davis.

The Bills would need another clutch conversion several plays later on another 4th and 4 from the Cincy 11 and Allen delivered by extending the play outside the pocket then miraculously squeezing the ball past a defender and into the hands of WR Khalil Shakir in the end zone.

Josh Allen scrambles in the snow and finds Shakir for six!

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— NFL (@NFL) December 7, 2025

The most important conversion came after the Bills had clawed back to take the lead in the fourth quarter. Up 32-28, the Bills could have conceivably kicked from the Bengals three yard line to take a seven-point advantage after TE Dawson Knox had a touchdown overturned the play prior.

Allen said there was no hesitation from the coaching staff to go for it on fourth down and it paid off with a touchdown pass to TE Jackson Hawes.

McDermott credited VP of Football Research Dennis Lock and Game Management Specialist Marc Lubic for emphasizing the need to stay aggressive.

"They did a really good job of sharing some of the information leading into the game in terms of how we want to play and if we get into a situation like that, what we want to do," McDermott said "Those guys were on it from the top, so give credit where credit is due. And then the offense executed."

Buffalo Bills vs Cincinnati Bengals, Regular Season, December 07, 2025 at Highmark Stadium.

3 — A series of schematic observations

The Bills pride themselves on executing at a high level. Here's where they succeeded in doing so against the Bengals:

Exploiting a Bengals weakness

Cincinnati came into this game allowing a league-high 93.4 receiving yards per game to tight ends and 13 touchdowns to TEs. Allen completed 11 passes to his tight ends for 137 yards and two touchdowns.

Sean McDermott: "That was one of the areas that we felt we could expose some of what they do. Having Dalton back helped. Dalton had a big game, Dawson Knox, and then Jackson Hawes… It's good to have Dalton back and I think from the sounds of it he made it through healthy."

Christian Benford makes an incredible play to intercept Joe Burrow for a 67-yard Pick-6!

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— NFL (@NFL) December 7, 2025

Cornerback blitzes

The Bills defense had difficulty generating pressure on Joe Burrow with four rushers, so they countered with the occasional cornerback blitz. Two instances in particular paid off in a big way.

At the end of the first half, Benford blitz from the right side of the defensive formation, catching the Bengals by surprise as he went unblocked to sack Burrow. The sack prevented the Bengals from widening their lead before halftime.

"Man, my eyes got big," Benford said. "Nobody picked me up, and he didn't throw it, and shout out to the guys on the back who (were) covering while I was blitzing because he was holding that ball for a minute."

Later, this time from the left side of the formation, Benford blitzed again, only this time Burrow got rid of it perhaps too quick, as Benford leapt up into the throwing lane to get his hands on the ball and the rest was history.

McDermott: "Burrow was getting the ball out of his hands, so we felt like we had to change something up and tried to play him a little bit tighter. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't. The next spin of the dial was to pressure. There are only so many things that you can do. A couple of those worked, in particular the play before half and obviously CB's interception for a touchdown there."

Allen makes protection change on game-clinching run

After a sack on second down, the Bills needed to pick up 15 yards on third down. With the Bengals out of timeouts with 1:54 remaining, Buffalo could've called a handoff to take the clock down to about one minute and change before punting.

Instead, they called a pass play and the Bengals made the mistake of sending five rushers without a QB spy in the middle of the field as Allen saw a running lane open and No. 17 iced the game with a 17-yard pickup.

Allen: "It was 3rd-and-15, you don't expect the quarterback to run there. I was expecting a zero blitz, so I changed the protection, changed the route from our back, and it just kind of opened up and just took off and just tried to get a first."