Another outstanding day from Bills' Christian Benford puts rest of NFL on notice

Even with the snowy conditions, it’s no real surprise that a born-and-bred Midwestern thoroughbred like Joe Burrow was surgical in the first half against the Buffalo Bills. He and the Cincinnati Bengals drove the field on three touchdown drives in the first half to take an early lead.

However, it came without much production from all-star wideout Ja’Marr Chase, who had just one target in the first 30 minutes of play, catching it for a 13-yard gain. Chase didn’t get his second catch until the fourth quarter on a pop-pass jet sweep. Chase got back into the game with a few plays in the fourth quarter, but Bengals head coach Zac Taylor had to get creative to make that happen.

For the most part, that was due to the stellar play of cornerback Christian Benford, who lined up across from Chase for most of the game, once again putting together a strong performance that should begin to put the rest of the league on notice.

Buffalo Bills' budding star Christian Benford set the tone early against Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals

It’s not much of a surprise to Bills fans at this point. Coming into the game, Benford allowed just 57.1% of passes in his coverage area to be caught. Last week, he put together a magical performance, scoring on a fumble recovery out of halftime and hauling in his first interception of the season on the following drive. 

He grabbed his second interception in the fourth quarter to give Buffalo its first lead of the game, leaping at the line of scrimmage off a corner blitz and taking Burrow’s would-be dump-off pass to Chase 67 yards to the house.

Benford also recorded the lone sack on Burrow in the contest, executing another well-timed corner blitz to blindside Burrow in the pocket. That play helped shut down the Bengals’ final drive of the first half after the Bills turned the ball over on downs, keeping the game well in hand leading into halftime.

Still, the success that Burrow found in the passing game came almost exclusively away from Benford. Benford locked down Chase, so Burrow looked Tee Higgins and Mike Gesicki’s way more often, and for a time, that worked.

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Benford’s clutch interception, though, sparked a second pick on the following drive by A.J. Epenesa. Much like last week, Benford helped spark the Bills to victory, giving the offense just the extra bit of help it needed to get past Cincinnati.

Benford is playing his best football when the Bills need it most. They need that from more players more often, certainly, but after Benford's slow start to the campaign, his surge in the closing weeks of the regular season is one of the brightest spots on the roster.