Two Bills Drive

'Currently, Leslie Frazier's unit boasts a red-zone DVOA of -24.2 (negative is better for defense), the second-best in the NFL. Splitting that, Buffalo is third in red-zone pass defense DVOA and 13th in red-zone run defense DVOA.'

'"You can replace Dalton," the billboard read, referencing the Bengals' quarterback. "You can't replace Harambe."'

'The Sunday morning tailgate party will be held in a free parking lot under the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge in Covington, Ky. Chili, wings, and Sahlen’s hot dogs with Weber’s mustard will be served, along with whatever is cooking on the hood of the famous Red Pinto. Tailgaters will be able to take a $1 shuttle ride to Paul Brown Stadium for the game.'

'Defensive line coach Mike Waufle loves working with Hughes, and he said his numbers don’t do his performance justice. He has three sacks, but he has been a nightmare for opposing offensive lines to deal with. Last week against the Falcons, for instance, Hughes had one sack and it resulted in a forced fumble and a touchdown for Buffalo, plus he had five other pressures on Matt Ryan.'

'Which Andy Dalton will show up? The Bengals quarterback is a wildly polarizing player. There are some observers who think he’s been a career-long mediocrity, and other believe he’s been a solid NFL quarterback for most of his six-plus years in the league. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle, and this season, he has been the very definition of polarizing.'

'This will be the 31st regular-season meeting, and the Bills lead the series 16-14. For a stretch between 1989-2010, the Bills won 10 consecutive games against Cincinnati, their longest winning streak over one team ever, and also the longest losing streak for the Bengals against one team. Buffalo did lose three in a row when Andy Dalton arrived in Cincinnati, but Buffalo won the most recent game, 16-12 in 2016. Oddly, Buffalo is 4-1 in five games at Paul Brown Stadium.'

'“They have a lot of challenges. Everybody knows they have (wide receiver) A.J. Green, a guy who can take the top off a defense. They’ve got (wideout Brandon) LaFell who does a lot of things underneath. They’ve got a lot of weapons, the three-headed monster running back (Jeremy Hill, Giovani Bernard and rookie Joe Mixon) as well. They’re doing a lot of things well, and as soon as they got that new offensive coordinator (former quarterback coach Bill Lazor), they’ve been scoring a lot more points. You have to take the first two games out of it, and just watch what they’ve been doing the last two.”'

'“You have to continue to trust the process and stay focused,” he said. “I’ve been a part of teams that have started 6-2 and not made the playoffs … it can happen and turn on you quickly. That happens when guys lose focus or start reading the press clippings, start making everything become routine and not being committed and trying to figure out ways (to) get better and really dissecting their own game. We all have a little bit of weakness in our game from week to week that teams try to exploit the following week.”'

'Every week, Northtown Auto has a billboard aimed at the Buffalo Bills' next opponent. In Week 5, Buffalo will take on the Cincinnati Bengals, so Northtown Auto decided to make a reference to Harambe, a gorilla that was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a three year old boy fell into his exhibit back in 2016.'

'The Bengals have been rock solid on defense. With Vontaze Burfict back, Cincinnati has not been an easy team to run it. The pass defense is the strength of this group, however. The Bengals are second in the league in opposing quarterback rating. Tyrod Taylor will be without top wide receiver Jordan Matthews in this game, so the Bills could struggle to move the ball through the air.'

'"I can just tell you that there was zero shock in Buffalo watching him play the last few weeks," Breer said. "The guys who are there, who have coached him, who have played with him, are not surprised at all from what they've seen. In fact, I'll tell you what one source in Buffalo said to me about him. 'Loved to blame everyone else, he sucked last year. We were all surprised when he got a big deal. Not a competitor. He has no dog in him.'"'

'But people forget that Frazier’s defenses also ranked in the top eight in yards allowed three times when he was Vikings defensive coordinator. They also led the league in run defense twice.'

'Mabin's promotion to the active roster comes with the Bills listing three defensive backs as questionable to play. Starting cornerback E.J. Gaines is nursing a groin injury, while backup Shareece Wright has a back injury. Staring safety Micah Hyde is dealing with a knee injury.'

'QB Tyrod Taylor passed for TD last week. Aims for 3rd in row with 100+ rating.'

'Reluctantly, I take the Bengals to win the game — even after selecting the Bills to win on the latest episode of the Bills Beat podcast. The difference between now, and when we recorded it on Thursday afternoon, was that the injury status to starting cornerback E.J. Gaines was not known. '