ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Joe Burrow threw two touchdown passes as the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Buffalo Bills 27-10 on Sunday and threw a wrench in the highly anticipated travel plans of the Buffalo Bills, their fans and perhaps even NFL brass.
Burrow ignored the snowy conditions to finish 23 of 36 for 242 yards. He completed his first nine passes as the Bengals controlled the game from start to finish and help send Cincinnati to the AFC championship game for the second straight year.
The championship game will be in Kansas City again — instead of in Atlanta, the predetermined neutral site chosen had Buffalo beaten Cincinnati.
The league decided on the neutral site scenario because the Bills (13-3) finished the season a half-game behind the Chiefs (14-3) after their game at Cincinnati was canceled on Jan. 2 when Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field.
Hamlin was in attendance on Sunday, but his inspirational presence from an end-zone suite was not enough to spark the Bills who never seemed to get anything going all afternoon.
Burrow completed his first nine passes for 105 yards on Cincinnati's first two drives of the game, helping the Bengals jump out to a 14-0 lead.
Ja’Marr Chase opened the scoring with a 28-yard scoring catch 3:20 into the game. Then followed Burrow hit Hayden Hurst on a 15-yard eight minutes later to make it a two score game.
Joe Mixon scored on a 1-yard plunge, and Evan McPherson made field goals of 20 and 28 yards as the Bengals never trailed the entire game.
Cincinnati’s defense swarmed Josh Allen, who finished 25 of 42 for 265 yards, and scored on a 1-yard run.
The Bills’ playoff run came to a disappointing end in the divisional round for a second straight season. Last season they lost 42-36 in overtime to Kansas City.
The Bills came into the season with Super Bowl aspirations, but seemingly eventually ran out of emotional and physical gas.
Aside from Hamlin's medical episode, the Bills had their schedule disrupted twice by severe winter storms and injuries also an issue.
The Bills were missing a key pass rusher on Sunday, as Von Miller sustained a season-ending knee injury in November. Buffalo generated very little pressure against a Bengals offensive line that was missing three starters due to injuries.
The Bengals used a balanced attack in the first half to the Bills on their heels, outgaining Buffalo in total yards by a margin of 274-135, and 412-325 overall.
Mixon’s 105 yards rushing alone were 1 short of how many the Bengals combined in their past two games, both against Baltimore.
Cincinnati's defense held one of the NFL’s top offenses to a season-low 10 points. And the unit put an exclamation point on the win by making snow angels in the end zone in celebration after Cam Taylor-Britt intercepted Allen’s attempt at the goal line to shut the door on Buffalo's postseason plans with 62 seconds remaining.
Cincinnati will play in consecutive AFC championship games for the first time in franchise history against the same team they played in that game, Kansas City. The Bengals defeated Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs 27-24 to advance to last year’s Super Bowl, where they fell to the Los Angeles Rams.
The Bengals have won the last three meetings against Kansas City, including a 27-24 victory last month. The Chiefs will be making their fifth straight appearance in the AFC championship game following a 27-20 win over Jacksonville on Saturday.
Cincinnati 14 3 7 3 = 27
Buffalo 0 7 3 0 = 10
First Quarter
Cin–Chase 28 pass from Burrow (McPherson kick), 11:40.
Cin–Hurst 15 pass from Burrow (McPherson kick), 3:47.
Second Quarter Buf–J.Allen 1 run (Bass kick), 7:25.
Cin–FG McPherson 28, 1:49.
Third Quarter
Buf–FG Bass 25, 7:42.
Cin–Mixon 1 run (McPherson kick), 1:17.
Fourth Quarter
Cin–FG McPherson 20, 11:22.
A–70,733.
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Cin Buf
First downs 30 18
Total Net Yards 412 325
Rushes-yards 34-172 19-63
Passing 240 262
Punt Returns 2-25 0-0
Kickoff Returns 1-21 4-90
Interceptions Ret. 1-0 0-0
Comp-Att-Int 23-36-0 25-42-1
Sacked-Yards Lost 1-2 1-3
Punts 2-36.5 4-44.75
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties-Yards 2-9 8-60
Time of Possession 33:54 26:06
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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING–Cincinnati, Mixon 20-105, Perine 7-33, Burrow 6-31, Chase 1-3. Buffalo, Allen 8-26, Singletary 6-24, Cook 5-13.
PASSING–Cincinnati, Burrow 23-36-0-242. Buffalo, Allen 25-42-1-265.
RECEIVING–Cincinnati, Chase 5-61, Hurst 5-59, Perine 5-31, Higgins 3-28, Mixon 2-18, Boyd 1-23, Irwin 1-13, Wilcox 1-9. Buffalo, Knox 5-65, Singletary 5-38, Diggs 4-35, Beasley 3-33, Shakir 2-40, Davis 2-34, McKenzie 2-10, Morris 1-6, Hines 1-4.
MISSED FIELD GOALS–None.
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