From beating the New England Patriots to losing 23-20 to the Bengals. It appeared that Buffalo was on their way to their 4th straight victory when they built a 17-3 lead at half time. However,the Bengals stole Buffalo’s second half playbook and completed the comeback to give Buffalo their first loss of the season. If the Bills plan on making the playoffs they will have some serious work to do on defense. They gave up some huge numbers again today; 298 in the air and 171 on the ground. The defense had a chance to shut it down on Cincinnati’s winning drive put was not able, resulting in Mike Nugent kicking a 43 yard field goal to seal the win.
Fitzpatrick and the Bills offense weren’t that same high powered unit that we were used to seeing from the previous weeks but when you face a 3rd rank defense it’s hard to put up those numbers. They may not have scored the 35 plus points a game but they were still in a position to win. One of their 4th quarter drive in particular was stopped when a Steve Johnson catch was ruled incomplete. After the booth review, the play on the field stood, the drive stalled and the Bengals tied the game at 20 on the very next drive. You can’t be expected to score 30 points a game ever week but if you want to be a playoff team in the NFL you’ll have to put up more than 13.
I’ll chalk up this loss as one the one that got away. It’s one of those games that they should have won. They didn’t; so it’s time to move on, learn and fix your mistakes. The Bills have a tough challenge ahead of them next week against Vick and the Eagles, and if they can win, they will be back on track. It would have been nice to be 4-0 but like my wife says, it’s hard to win 4 games in a row, especially if you only won 4 all last year.
Notes from the game:
- Fred Jackson had 98 total yards including a touchdown
- Ryan Fitzpatrick finished with 199 yard passing, no TD, no INT
- Bills offensive line only gave up one sack
- I’m sad about the loss but no need to worry just yet.
- I hate the Bengals now!
