After the Buffalo Bills muscled their way past the Pittsburgh Steelers with a ground-and-pound approach, it looked like offensive coordinator Joe Brady might start dialing up more of James Cook down the stretch. And for good reason - when the run game clicks in December, it travels. But against the Bengals, things didn’t go quite as smoothly, even though Cook still showed flashes of what makes him such a dynamic piece in this offense.
Cook finished with 18 carries for 80 yards, plus two catches for 31 more. That production came with a costly blemish - a goal-line fumble in the third quarter that killed what had been a methodical 12-play, 70-yard drive chewing up nearly seven and a half minutes.
That kind of mistake can swing games, especially in December. And it nearly did.
Cincinnati answered with a mirror-image drive of their own, only theirs ended in the end zone early in the fourth quarter. Suddenly, the Bills found themselves in danger of letting a winnable game slip away - again.
But this time, Buffalo had an answer. Two of them, actually.
First came Josh Allen, doing what only Josh Allen can do - breaking loose for a 40-yard touchdown run through the snow, a play that looked like something out of a video game. Then, just minutes later, Christian Benford jumped a route and took it 63 yards the other way for a pick-six. Just like that, Buffalo flipped the script and took control for good.
It wasn’t pretty, but in December, style points don’t matter. Wins do. And this one mattered - a lot.
Joe Brady knows it, too. Speaking Monday, the Bills’ offensive coordinator made it clear that winning in different ways is becoming a hallmark of this team’s late-season identity.
“We want to be able to show that we can win different ways and different styles of games,” Brady said. “Finding ways to win football games is the most important thing right now, and showing that we can do it in different ways, I think, is equally as important.”
That adaptability is becoming a quiet strength for this Bills team. They're not blowing teams away with one dominant phase of the game - they're finding ways to survive and advance, even when things get messy. And as Brady pointed out, having Josh Allen gives you a pretty big margin for error.
“When you have Josh Allen at quarterback, as long as there’s time on the clock, you’re going to be able to score points. The game’s not over,” Brady said.
He’s not wrong. Allen’s ability to flip the momentum in a heartbeat - whether it’s with his arm, his legs, or just sheer willpower - is the kind of wildcard that makes Buffalo dangerous, no matter how the game is unfolding.
That said, the Bills still have issues to clean up. The passing game leaned heavily on tight ends against the Bengals, which worked - but it’s worth noting Cincinnati has struggled all year defending that position.
Outside of Khalil Shakir’s highlight-reel touchdown grab, the wide receiver group was mostly a non-factor. No wideout saw more than three targets.
None had more than two catches. And not a single one cracked 21 receiving yards.
That’s not a sustainable formula if Buffalo wants to keep stacking wins in the final stretch. But it is a testament to the offense’s resilience - and Allen’s playmaking - that they found a way to win anyway.
The Bills are still a work in progress. But they’re a team that’s learning how to win ugly, win late, and win when things don’t go according to plan. And in December, that might just be the most important skill of all.