The 2025 Buffalo Bills season is in the books, but one game from the run still deserves a final look: Week 14 against the Cincinnati Bengals. If you had to pick one play to explain the whole thing, this was a game full of candidates - a back-and-forth shootout, a fourth-quarter surge, and enough chaos to keep both sidelines on edge.
Buffalo came in at 8-4 after beating the Steelers, while Cincinnati arrived at 4-8 but with Joe Burrow back in the mix after missing most of the year. The Bengals had already shown what that meant the week before, when they tore through the Baltimore Ravens. In Buffalo, they kept rolling early, and the game quickly turned into one of those matchups where every drive felt like it mattered.
The first sign of what was coming was a Bengals third-down conversion in the opening quarter at 13:38. Buffalo forced Cincinnati into 12 third downs overall, but the Bills had trouble finishing the job once they got there, allowing 10 conversions. That early conversion helped Cincinnati stack touchdowns on its first three drives and grab control.
Buffalo answered in kind, and the Bills’ own third-down work was part of the story too. They converted six of 11, and when the situation got more desperate, they weren’t shy about going for it.
Buffalo faced five fourth downs, went for four of them, and converted three. Two of those came as touchdowns, including the second-quarter strike to Khalil Shakir at 7:36.
Josh Allen’s throw to Shakir was the kind of play that makes you stop and rewind, and the Bills also found the end zone later on a touchdown to Jackson Hawes.
Still, the game didn’t swing until the fourth quarter, when Buffalo needed a jolt and got one from Josh Allen himself. Down 10 and deep into the final period, Allen broke loose for a touchdown at 7:41.
James Cook helped Buffalo on the ground, even if his numbers weren’t eye-popping, but that run from Allen was the spark. Suddenly the Bills were within three, and the entire feel of the game changed.
Then came the play that flipped the scoreboard for good. Christian Benford jumped a route perfectly and turned it into a 63-yard pick six at 5:35.
It was Buffalo’s first lead of the day, and it came at a moment when Cincinnati had already been difficult to slow down. By then, the Bengals had possessed the ball six times and scored touchdowns on four of them.
The Bills had not exactly shut them down; they had just waited for the right moment to strike.
And the Bills weren’t done. After the pick six, Cincinnati came right back throwing, only for Joe Burrow to be intercepted again. Buffalo turned that mistake into points six plays later and stretched the lead to 11.
Cincinnati still had life. The Bengals scored again and then missed on a two-point try because of a fumble, leaving Buffalo ahead by five.
Even then, the ending wasn’t simple. With about two minutes left, the Bills were trying to run out the clock, but James Cook’s minimal gain was followed by an eight-yard sack of Josh Allen.
Facing 3rd & 15, Buffalo suddenly had to deal with the possibility of giving Burrow one more shot. Instead, Allen delivered again, converted the third down, and ended the Bengals’ hopes.
That’s what made this game so hard to pin down with just one play. The Shakir touchdown showed Buffalo’s passing touch, Allen’s run showed the urgency of the comeback, Benford’s pick six changed the lead, and Allen’s final conversion sealed it. If there was one snap that captured the whole night, though, it was probably the one that turned Buffalo from chasing the game to owning it.
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