The Buffalo Bills were riding a wave of emotion heading into Sunday’s divisional-round matchup. And with some really cool snow hitting the city of Buffalo rather quite hard, we expected to see an instant classic unfold from the get-go.
Except that didn’t happen. Before the Bills could even get settled in, the Cincinnati Bengals landed haymaker after haymaker. By the time a struggling Buffalo could look up, it was 14-0 — after respective touchdowns from Ja’Marr Chase and Hayden Hurst –with a 9-0 advantage (!) in first downs for Cincinnati near the end of the first quarter.
For a moment, it was almost as if the Bills’ defenders couldn’t see the Bengals’ convenient white jerseys in the snow. Buffalo may have had the home-field advantage, but Cincinnati appeared to have the aesthetic advantage … literally.
There was still a ton of football to be played, but this definitely wasn’t how the AFC’s No. 2 seed wanted to start a quarterfinal matchup at home.
For what it’s worth, the Bengals — despite being a close No. 3 seed that played in last year’s Super Bowl — entered their battle with the Bills as a relatively huge underdog. A +5.5 pre-game spread would suggest bettors expected the Bills to comfortably advance to a neutral-site AFC title game against the legendary Patrick Mahomes.
But the defending AFC champs had different ideas and made an early statement against the Bills.
NFL fans had lots of jokes about the Bengals' white jerseys in the snow flustering the Bills
The Bills trying to see the Bengals in the white jerseys in the snow pic.twitter.com/X4y7cPlQrt
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) January 22, 2023
Burrow conducting this orchestra like he has all the time in the world back there behind a makeshift line.
He’s doing this with such cruising efficiency it looks like the Bills have lost the white Bengals jerseys in the snow.
— Laurie Horesh (@LaurieHoresh) January 22, 2023
Can the Bills not see the Bengals white jerseys because of the snow
— Dustin (@DPernitsky) January 22, 2023
Can the Bills not see them the Bengals in these white jerseys? They’re wide open
— dal (@dalsweatshirt) January 22, 2023
Apparently the white Bengals jersey means defense forgot how to cover #Bills
— Big Rock (@MikeSamol) January 22, 2023
Maybe Bills defenders can't see the Bengals white jerseys lol
— New York Sports Biz (@NYSportsBiz) January 22, 2023
Another open TD this time Burrow to Hurst. Are the #Bills losing them in the white jerseys? #Bengals on top 14-0.
— Tristan Bates (@TWBTalks) January 22, 2023
Maybe the white jerseys is making it hard for the bills defenders to see r bengals receivers to cover them?
— corey buhrman (@coreybuhrman) January 22, 2023
