Written by Geoff Hobson at Cincinnati Bengals.com
On Sunday after it was over the Bengals were talking about defensive coordinator Paul Guenther playing Semisonic’s “Closing Time,” in the meeting room, a hit from the late ‘90s that he uses to emphasize his search for closers at the end of games.
But the 20-16 victory over the Bills was a much more recent vintage from Paul Brown Stadium Collection Best of 2013-2015, back when the Bengals lost just four games by suffocating the best quarterbacks in the NFL. On Sunday they took Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor’s triple-digit passer rating and twisted into 63.6 with a relentless pass rush that sacked him three times in the fourth quarter and allowed the Bills just one touchdown for the day.
How much more can this Bengals defense do? On Sunday they survived three turnovers and not only is it on pace to allow the fewest points in a 16-game season in team history, but with 1,314 it has allowed the fewest yards in the first five games of a Bengals season since 1976.
“I don’t know how many turnovers we had, but if they would have scored on every turnover — I don’t think we would have been in the game,” said Vontaze Burfict, the Bengals’ ubiquitous linebacker. “We cherish turnovers. Even if they are in the red zone, we cherish them, and I think it lights a fire in us, too. You have to be ready for a sudden change as a defense. You can’t be sitting on the sidelines thinking we are going to score, we are going to score, we are going to score.”
Taylor, along with running back LeSean McCoy, had also emerged as a dangerous runner, particularly on third down, to lead the Bills to a 3-1 start. But the Bengals spied him into just one carry for three yards and forced Buffalo’s first turnover in 18 straight quarters when safety George Iloka caught one in his chest with 2:14 left.
“We knew what we had against us. We had to stop McCoy and Taylor,” Burfict said. “We did a good job of talking about the scheme, and who had the quarterback and stuff like that.”
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