Bengals vs. Bills: Madden predicts a defensive battle in Buffalo

The Bengals have gotten off to a rough start. Following a close loss on the road to the Seahawks, they were blown out at home by the 49ers, whose offense looked groundbreaking against the Bengals’ lifeless defense.

It is not the end of the world that one of the better offensive minds in the league was able to take advantage of the Bengals’ weakness, but Kyle Shanahan provided a blueprint on how to take advantage of a deficient defense that hasn’t improved from last year. Weaknesses that, due to the lack of investments at linebacker, does not look to get better anytime soon.

Now they have a tough matchup against the Bills who have a sturdy defense and a young athletic QB which the Bengals defense typically struggles against.

Let’s head to the Madden simulation to check how everything turned out.

To start, the Bills receive the ball and drive down the field with ease through the air and also on the ground. Showing knowledge of the Bengals’ weaknesses, on second down in the red zone, the Bills run a halfback slip screen. Devin Singletary is easily able to stroll into the end zone with his blockers in front of him.

Bills: 7-0

After this touchdown neither team is able to score for awhile, with the Bengals completely unable to get anything going on offense. Two minutes into the second quarter the Bills receive the ball and begin marching down the field. Josh Allen hits former Bengals tight end Tyler Kroft over the middle who is able to break some tacklers and run all the way down the field for the long touchdown.

Bills: 14-0

After this touchdown the Bills kick off to the Bengals, who are able to get past midfield where the drive ends up stalling. They punt to the Bills who quickly march down the field and with virtually no time left in the second quarter make a field goal to make it a three possession game going into halftime.

Bills: 17 - 0

After halftime the Bengals receive the ball, but are still unable to do much on offense and end up having to punt. The Bills receive the ball and drive down the field. After they cross midfield, the Bengals are able to get a stop and force them to settle for the field goal.

Bills: 20 - 0

The Bengals then receive the ball and are finally able to get some offensive momentum going. They drive down the field and into the red zone, where on second down Andy Dalton finds Tyler Eifert for the touchdown.

Bills: 20 - 7

After this, the Bills receive the ball and begin to drive down the field. They slowly make their way all the way to the 35-yard line, but after run stops on first and second down, a Geno Atkins sack forces them to punt instead of a field goal. The Bengals receive the punt inside their own five and drive down the field. When they pass midfield on second down, Andy Dalton hits Tyler Eifert on a corner route. Eifert then shakes off multiple defenders and sprints down the sideline score the touchdown.

Bills: 20 - 14

After the Eifert touchdown, the Bengals kick off to the Bills who are trying to run out the clock. They get a first down on the second run so they are able to run out the clock to around 40 seconds and use up all the Bengals timeouts. The Bengals receive the ball with very little time left. Despite the best efforts of Andy Dalton they are unable to score and the game is over.

Bills: 20 - 14

2019 Madden prediction record: 2-0