What we learned from Bengals' dominating win vs Bills in divisional round
The Cincinnati Bengals entered the divisional round against the NFL darlings (aka the Buffalo Bills) as big underdogs yet curb-stomped Buffalo on their home turf. It was pretty hilarious.
With the win, the Bengals punch their ticket to their second straight AFC Championship appearance and have to be feeling pretty good about beating the Chiefs for a fourth time since Joe Burrow took over as the QB. Oh, not to mention that Patrick Mahomes suffered a high-ankle sprain on Saturday.
Before we start talking more about that game, let's revert back to this game, the one that just took place that saw the Bengals blowout the Bills in Orchard Park. Here's what we learned.
This was the Bengals' most convincing playoff performance over the last couple of seasons, against a team that could have been the AFC's No. 1 seed.
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) January 22, 2023
What offensive line injuries?
If you didn't know coming into the game which team's o-line had three injured starters, you probably wouldn't have guessed that it's the Bengals. This group allowed for Joe Mixon to run the ball well and kept Joe Burrow upright for nearly the entire game. You couldn't have asked this unit to play better ball than they did on Sunday. Fantastic stuff.
Run game rebounded
After the rushing attack vanished over the past few months, they bounced back in a big way this week. Joe Mixon constantly had running lanes and made the most of them, putting together his best performance since that Carolina game in November. Mixon finished the game with over 100 yards rushing.
Super Bowl feels imminent
I've said this a few times over the past few months -- This really feels like the Bengals' year, man. Last week, it took Sam Hubbard recovering a fumble and rumbling 98 yards down the field to get the team the win. This week, they marched into Orchard Park and dismantled a team that a lot of people thought the league was rigging things for.
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I know that the Bengals still have to go into Arrowhead -- a very tough place to play -- but with Mahomes banged up and this team not being afraid of the Chiefs at all, it feels like the Super Bowl is a very real possibility. Winning it is another story but getting there is half the battle and this team has worked hard to accomplish that.