The Bengals were about the hottest team in the NFL before this week, and Buffalo had the #1 defense against the pass. Higgins was out there playing with a concussion, and as someone else mentioned, he was literally playing out of his mind as he had 11 targets, caught 6 passes for 92 yards, and 2 TDs. Christian Benford had Ja"Marr Chase on lockdown as he had 8 targets, 5 receptions for 44 yards.
If Buffalo had a defensive weakness prior to this game, it was their rush defense, and they held the Bengals lead RB Chase Brown to 12 rushes for 23 yards, which was a 1.9 yards per carry average.
I read here so often Bills fans complaining about how bad the Bills GM is with signing these old players and what a bad job he has done. Let me say that the leading tackler in that Bengals game was Jordan Poyer with Shaq Thompson right behind him, and that latter signing has greatly improved the rush defense.
Let's not forget that the Bengals put so much money into signing their receivers Chase, Higgins, and Gesicki. QB Joe Burrow took his team to the Super Bowl not that long ago. The one team that had most AFC teams that were afraid to face in the playoffs was Cincinnati.
The Buffalo Bills did well to beat them, and as much as their superstar elite alien unicorn QB made some great plays, it was the Buffalo defense that really was the game breaker with the pick six by Benford and another INT right after by AJ Epenesa. Christian Benford had a game with the only sack on Burrow and a pick-six. Defense, yeah! Team effort won the game. My 2 cents.