Cornerback blitzes
The Bills defense had difficulty generating pressure on Joe Burrow with four rushers, so they countered with the occasional cornerback blitz. Two instances in particular paid off in a big way.
At the end of the first half, Benford blitz from the right side of the defensive formation, catching the Bengals by surprise as he went unblocked to sack Burrow. The sack prevented the Bengals from widening their lead before halftime.
“Man, my eyes got big,” Benford said. “Nobody picked me up, and he didn’t throw it, and shout out to the guys on the back who (were) covering while I was blitzing because he was holding that ball for a minute.”
Later, this time from the left side of the formation, Benford blitzed again, only this time Burrow got rid of it perhaps too quick, as Benford leapt up into the throwing lane to get his hands on the ball and the rest was history.
McDermott: “Burrow was getting the ball out of his hands, so we felt like we had to change something up and tried to play him a little bit tighter. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn’t. The next spin of the dial was to pressure. There are only so many things that you can do. A couple of those worked, in particular the play before half and obviously CB’s interception for a touchdown there.”