It’s a showy day in Western New York and the Bengals had little problem with that offensively in the first 30 minutes of Sunday’s matchup with Buffalo, carrying a 21-11 lead at halftime.
Cincinnati scored touchdowns on each of the club’s first three possessions, with Joe Burrow throwing two of them. Via Jay Morrison of SI.com, it was the last time the Bengals scored three consecutive touchdowns to open a game was back in Week 7 of the 2022 season against the Falcons.
The Bengals also started the game 7-of-7 on third down. The only time the club didn’t convert was late in the second quarter on a third-and-17, when Burrow couldn’t connect with Tee Higgins on an off-schedule play, to finish the first half 7-of-8 in the category.
Burrow finished the first half 13-of-18 for 130 yards with two touchdowns. Returning from missing last week’s game with a concussion, Higgins had four receptions for 49 yards with a TD.
Burrow’s best throw of the first half was arguably his 10-yard touchdown to Chase Brown with 3:18 left in the first half, as he rolled to his right and perfectly place the ball for Brown to dive and catch it in the end zone.
On the other side, Josh Allen is 9-of-13 for 96 yards with a touchdown. He made some magic on Buffalo’s second possession, converting a pair of fourth downs — once to move the chains, the next to connect with Khalil Shakir for an 11-yard touchdown.
But the next time the Bills had the ball, Cincinnati broke up an Allen pass at the line of scrimmage on fourth-and-3 from the Cincinnati 43 for a turnover on downs.
Buffalo will receive the second-half kickoff.
