There’s a massive, earned groundswell of hype building for the Cincinnati Bengals hosting the Buffalo Bills on “Monday Night Football” in Week 17.
It’s not hard to see why, either.
The Bengals and Bills are top-three teams in the AFC and Super Bowl contenders sparring for playoff seeding. Cincinnati is 11-4 and winners of seven in a row, Buffalo is 12-3 and winners of six in a row.
Buffalo and MVP candidate Josh Allen average 28.0 points per game. Cincinnati and MVP candidate Joe Burrow average 26.1. A strong Buffalo defense only allows 17.5 points per game. A strong Cincinnati defense only allows 20.4.
The similarities go on and on, with the quarterbacks obviously contributing the biggest chunk to the hype, as noted by ESPN’s Ben Baby:
Bills QB Josh Allen and Bengals QB Joe Burrow have combined for 78 passing and rushing TDs this season. That ties the most combined TDs for two starting quarterbacks entering a game in NFL history.
(via @ESPNStatsInfo)
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) December 29, 2022
There’s also this, from NFL Network’s Andrew Siciliano:
Bills – Bengals might be the best MNF game EVER.
The two teams have combined for 23 wins, tied for the most (SF/DEN '97) EVER since we started playing on Monday nights in 1970.@NFLResearch
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) December 28, 2022
Call it some fun notes about what has been circled on the calendar as one of the potential games of the year since the schedule’s unveiling. Maybe it doesn’t end up matching the hype, but the path here has justified the buzz anyway.
Bills-Bengals is arguably the most anticipated game of the season.
The get-in price of $281 (no fees) is the *most expensive* Bengals regular season price on @TickPick’s record (since 2012) and up from $43 before the season.
Going to be an epic MNF clash. #Partner
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) December 30, 2022
