{"id":39269,"date":"2025-12-08T15:39:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39269"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:39:23","slug":"breaking-news-josh-allen-made-bengals-pay-for-al-goldens-critical-crunch-time-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39269","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS: Josh Allen made Bengals pay for Al Golden&#8217;s critical crunch time mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The gut punch to end all gut punches&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_265,y_122,w_2604,h_1464\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/GettyImages\/mmsport\/59\/01kbxcrzn34z8244zw29.jpg\" alt=\"Cincinnati Bengals v Buffalo Bills - NFL 2025\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Cincinnati Bengals v Buffalo Bills &#8211; NFL 2025 | Jamie Schwaberow\/GettyImages<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-0\">For all the deserved praise Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden deserves for banding his unit together to improve in recent weeks, Sunday&#8217;s 39-34 loss to the Buffalo Bills seemed to prove that spike in form was an aberration.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\">While it does come down primarily to how players execute on the field, Golden didn&#8217;t put Cincinnati in enough good spots in Buffalo to emerge victorious.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\">In fact, if not for DJ Turner forcing a James Cook fumble for a touchback on the goal line, the final score probably would&#8217;ve looked worse. Containing Bills quarterback Josh Allen is almost impossible, but Golden didn&#8217;t help himself or his defense at all with one awful blunder in particular.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-3\">Bengals DC Al Golden made Josh Allen&#8217;s game-winning run way too easy<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/media\/motion\/2025\/1207\/963ec9563df044a3a75e7dca4fdd10db957\/963ec9563df044a3a75e7dca4fdd10db957.jpg\" alt=\"Bills 39-34 Bengals (7 Dec, 2025) Final Score - ESPN (UK)\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\">Joe Burrow threw two interceptions on as many pass attempts in the fourth quarter. One was a pick-six that continued a disturbing trend of the Bengals surrendering touchdowns <em>without<\/em> their defense on the field. That was the fourth in as many games.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\">However, Burrow stormed back, tossed a long TD to Tee Higgins prior to the two-minute warning, and the Bills got the ball back as Cincinnati had two stoppages in tow.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\">After one run by Cook and a great sack of Allen, Buffalo faced a third-and-15 in their own territory. Golden dialed up Good Ol&#8217; Country Man Coverage, without anyone to spy Allen.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\">The result was an 18-yard run by the Bills&#8217; dual-threat QB to mark a fitting, effective end to the season in early December.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JOSH ALLEN SEALS THE GAME ON 3RD &amp; 15 \ud83d\ude24 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/26NwXV4NQm\">pic.twitter.com\/26NwXV4NQm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL\/status\/1997774957024281075?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\">Just baffling to not have anyone marking Allen, or simply dropping in zone coverage on such a long third down. Allen was looking to check it down to the flat, but instead, the seas parted before him and he took full advantage.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\">Not that rookie linebackers Barrett Carter or Demetrius Knight Jr. spying Allen, or dropping into zone might&#8217;ve helped the Bengals fare much better. It&#8217;s just sad that they can&#8217;t be coutned on for such simple tasks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hard to even blame the rookie LBs, either.<\/p>\n<p>They had Day 3\/Late Day 3 profiles. <\/p>\n<p>Shouldn\u2019t have been drafted where they were and shouldn\u2019t have been relied on as starters as rookies.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Gridiron Grading (@GridironGrading) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GridironGrading\/status\/1997776073837117804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\">I praised Golden earlier this week for attacking opponents harder, courtesy of a recent surge in Cover Zero blitzes. Those were few and far between from Allen.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\">Baffling that Golden didn&#8217;t lean on that part of his play sheet more in the snow, where the Bills&#8217; suspect receiving corps struggled to separate. Instead, Buffalo exploited Carter, Knight, and Cincinnati&#8217;s linebacker corps all day by targeting tight ends Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox, and even Jackson Hawes for a decisive 3-yard TD.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\">Bringing more all-out pressure would&#8217;ve given Allen less time to release the ball, not to mention closed down his rush lanes. A six-man rush did lead to Allen&#8217;s 40-yard TD run, but that third-and-15 call will stick with me for a long time. Well, until the next defensive meltdown us Who Dey Heads have to endure.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"inline-text-15\"><\/h3>\n<figure><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the game hanging in the balance in Buffalo, the Cincinnati Bengals&#8217; defense collapsed again, as Al Golden didn&#8217;t put them in position to stop Josh Allen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING NEWS: Josh Allen made Bengals pay for Al Golden&#039;s critical crunch time mistake - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=39269\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING NEWS: Josh Allen made Bengals pay for Al Golden&#039;s critical crunch time mistake - 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