Bills fall flat with first place on the line: 6 reasons for concern after loss to Bengals

CINCINNATI - Should the Buffalo Bills manage to find their way to the postseason - and right now, that’s feeling like a bit of a reach - the last team they want to see are the Cincinnati Bengals.

If it wasn’t already crystal clear last January when the Bengals embarrassed the Bills in the divisional round of the playoffs, this team in the tiger stripes has Buffalo’s number, proving it once again with a 24-18 victory at Paycor Stadium on Sunday Night Football.

Sometimes it’s like that in sports, where one team just seems to have the upper hand over another, and no one knows this more than the Bills. Well, not these Bills, per se, but this franchise. Remember the Dolphins of the 1970s, and the Patriots of the 2000s? Yeah, how can you forget.

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While their inferiority against Cincinnati is still in its infancy, it is very real, and the simple truth is that the Bengals are just a bad matchup for the Bills. Obviously, they have a quarterback in Joe Burrow who is every bit the equal to Buffalo’s Josh Allen and hey, don’t shoot the messenger here, but he may be better.

And their defense, led by creative coordinator Lou Anarumo, has bottled up Buffalo’s offense in the last two meetings and made every yard and first down a struggle.

Buffalo had a chance to move back into first place in the AFC East with a victory after the frontrunning Dolphins lost in Germany to the Chiefs. Instead, the Bills fell to 5-4 and remain a game behind Miami, not to mention they are now technically in third place behind the 4-3 Jets who host the Chargers Monday night.

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“Whenever you lose a game it’s not a great position that you put yourself in,” center Mitch Morse said. “Nothing’s changed in regards to the sense of urgency, it’s at an all-time high.”

Here are Sal's Six Points:

1. Dalton Kincaid’s fumble essentially ended the night

The Bills were chasing the game the whole way after the Bengals won the coin toss, bucked conventional wisdom by choosing to receive, and then proceeded to drive the ball right down the Bills’ throats to a Burrow TD pass to Irv Smith. That’s not a typo. Irv Smith.

The Bills eventually left the field at halftime down 21-7, but it had two chances to make a dent in that deficit in the first 17 minutes of the second half, but all the slumping offense could manage was a Tyler Bass field goal.

The killer play came with 13:18 left to play. The Bills were threatening to make it a one-score game as Allen had them on the move after the defense had stuffed the Bengals on a fourth-down play at the Bills 35.

However, on a third-and-1 at the Cincinnati 22, Kincaid caught a pass over the middle but got flipped in the air by Nick Scott and Germane Pratt, lost control of the ball and Scott recovered at the 13. The Bengals turned around and drove 85 yards on 12 plays, chewing up 5:10 before settling for a 20-yard field goal by Evan MacPherson that made it 24-10.

That play soiled what was Kincaid’s best game of his young career as he finished with 10 catches for 81 yards.

“Ball security is of the utmost importance, so can’t let that happen,” Kincaid said.

2. Intentional grounding penalty was absurd

One of the bigger plays of the game occurred just before the end of the first half, and a bad decision by the officiating crew might have cost Buffalo points.

The Bills were down 21-7 but put together their best possession since their opening touchdown drive. But on a third-and-6 from the Bengals 38, Allen and Gabe Davis miscommunicated on a route - Allen thought Davis would take it deep, Davis decided to cut it short - and Allen’s pass wound up nowhere near his target.

The officials ruled that because Allen was in the pocket, it was intentional grounding. It was nothing of the sort and the penalty should not have been called. Because it was, it cost the Bills a 56-yard field goal attempt by Tyler Bass.

“I’ve never seen that call in my life,” Allen said. “That’s an option route, Gabe can sit down or go. I wasn’t pressured, they decided to make that call and unfortunately it didn’t allow us to get points there. I literally wouldn’t do anything different. I’m expecting him to run a go, he made the read to stop. That’s what it is.”

3. The rollercoaster that is Gabe Davis

Speaking of Davis, man is he a maddening player. Coming off a career-best nine-catch game against Tampa Bay, Davis was right back to playing the role of Casper the friendly ghost. He had no catches. Let me repeat that: The No. 2 wide receiver on the team had no catches in a game where the Bills needed him to play well and make a meaningful contribution.

On his first target he was one-on-one with CB Cam Taylor-Britt and did not win the route, yet Allen still threw it his way and Taylor-Britt picked it off. The second target, which did not count, came on the intentional grounding penalty when he and Allen were apparently reading from a different book.

And then his only other target came in the third, but he had no chance to catch a ball that Allen just threw in his direction while avoiding pressure.

Allen was asked why Davis was nowhere to be found. “I couldn’t tell you, honestly, until I watch the film,” he said. “I just try to run the play that’s called and try to execute to the best of our ability and there’s a couple of plays that we want back.”

4. Field position was an issue all night

One of the problems for Buffalo’s offense - and there were many - was that it was continually backed up near its own goal line and had to travel long distances to score. Obviously, they rarely succeeded.

They overcame poor field position on the first possession of the game as Ty Johnson made a bad decision to run the kickoff out of the end zone and was dumped at the 15. However, Allen directed an easy 85-yard TD drive that ended with his two-yard run.

From there, the Bills had drive starts the rest of the first half that began at their own 25, 12, 9, and 25 and they never scored.

Things didn’t change in the second half as they started at their 26, 9, 35 (after a turnover on downs), and 25. For the night their average drive start was their own 20. For the Bengals, it was their own 32 with two possessions that began inside Buffalo territory.

5. Rasul Douglas, Linval Joseph were used sparingly

The Bills new cornerback and defensive tackle, both acquired earlier in the week, were active and played, but as expected, their roles were limited, though we won’t get the snap counts until Monday morning.

Joseph was in on two tackles, one of them a stuff of Burrow on a QB sneak. Douglas also made two tackles and he broke up a pass.

The plan going into the game at corner was to rotate Jackson and Douglas but it seems like with another week of practice, Douglas will probably take over the position. Jackson broke up three passes, but he was also burned by Ja’Marr Chase for a 32-yard gain that helped set up the Bengals fourth-quarter field goal that made it 24-10.

6. Defense takes further injury hits

The Bills are already without three star players with LB Matt Milano, CB Tre’Davious White and DT DaQuan Jones all out for the season. And in this game, they lost LB Terrel Bernard to a concussion in the second quarter and cornerback Christian Benford to a hamstring injury. Neither played in the second half.

Bernard has been one of the most surprising players this year for the Bills as he took over for Tremaine Edmunds in the middle of the defense and entered the night leading the team with 73 tackles while coming up with five turnovers.

The Bills were missing two other linebackers, A.J. Klein and Baylon Spector, so when Bernard went out they were forced to use the lackluster combination of Tyrel Dodson and Dorian Williams.

As for Benford, he has also been a nice surprise and was playing pretty well as a full-time player. The Bills rotated Douglas and Dane Jackson early in the game, then Douglas and Josh Norman got playing time when Benford went out.

Also, the Bills continued to use their dime package with three safeties on the field for obvious passing situations with Taylor Rapp joining Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, but even that grouping was diminished because Bernard wasn’t the lone linebacker on the field. Instead it was Dodson.

Buffalo’s defense was playing as well as any in the league during the first four weeks, but it has been ripped to shreds by injuries and it’s getting tougher to believe that this group will be able to get it done against upper echelon teams, of which there are many more yet to be played.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills squander chance at first place with another loss to Bengals