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On January 2, 2023, the Buffalo Bills traveled to Ohio to take on the Cincinnati Bengals in a Monday Night Football matchup with incredibly high stakes in relation to the AFC playoff picture. The Bills came into the game with a 12-3 record, while the Bengals were 11-4. Buffalo was on a six-game winning streak; Cincinnati’s was at seven. Both teams were guaranteed to finish as a Top-3 seed in the AFC, but both teams still had a shot at the No. 1 seed.
Then, tragedy struck. Ten minutes into the game, Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed after making a seemingly routine tackle on Bengals wideout Tee Higgins. Hamlin had gone into cardiac arrest; he was resuscitated on the field, and play was suspended indefinitely, with the game eventually being ruled a no contest.
Hamlin has since made a miraculous recovery, to the point that he is back at his home in the Buffalo area, spending some limited time with his teammates, and live-tweeting through games. He’ll get to watch his Bills take on the Bengals this coming Sunday, January 22, at 3:00 p.m. EST in Highmark Stadium — in a rematch of the game that wasn’t.
The winner of this game, featuring two AFC powerhouses, will advance to the conference championship game next weekend.
Buffalo is a five-point favorite over Cincinnati as of Tuesday morning, per DraftKings Sportsbook. Before the two teams were scheduled to meet on January 2 in Cincinnati, the Bills were narrow one-point road favorites.
The Bills are 4-0 all-time under head coach Sean McDermott in home playoff games, and they’ll look to keep that record unblemished this weekend. Bills-Bengals kicks off at 3:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, January 22. All of our pre-game, in-game, and post-game coverage from the divisional round is below.