ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. _ After the Bengals and Bills were done romping in the snow with all their missed tackles, the endless challenges, the gutty play from the injured, the blown technique that won the game, the magical third downs and killer fourths, it came down to Joe Burrow and Josh Allen.

If your moms and dads tell you about Marino and Kelly in the snow and your grands spin the legend of Anderson and Fouts in the ice, then on Sunday you had Burrow and Allen floating through the flurries.

It's a small world at the top.

The guy who called the corner blitz that turned the game, the one where Bills cornerback Christian Benford used the wrong technique to intercept Burrow and gut the Bengals with 5:25 left on a 63-yard pick-six, was Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich. An old cornerback who played for Burrow's dad at North Dakota State when Joey Burrow was just starting school in Fargo.

"Obviously, we have the best quarterback in the world," said Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki after Burrow had thrown him open through an all-out blitz to seemingly end it and put the Bengals up 28-18 with 8:44 left. "Go get open and he'll get you the ball."

But that was enough time for Allen to rip off a 40-yard touchdown run past the Bengals' own blitz and then, at the end of a day Burrow dominated third down, Allen converted the most improbable of all on a third-and-15 scramble that killed the clock, the Bengals' hopes for a fifth straight winning season, and probably the playoffs, 39-34.

"The plays that he makes is really like some Madden stuff that you would do playing against your little brother or something," Benford said of Allen. "He creates those plays in real life, and it's really awesome. And it's really I guess unique."

Well, not all that unique. While Allen was racing for 78 yards to go with a 139.7 passer rating, here was Burrow, in his second game back from toe surgery, sifting the Bengals to a 21-11 halftime lead with three touchdown drives consuming 28 plays and seven-for-seven in third-down perfection.

"We knew what it would be like," said Bengals defensive tackle B.J. Hill, who once found himself trying to mirror Allen in fourth-and-four space on the edge before Allen zipped an 11-yard touchdown pass from nowhere.

"They've got one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. We've got the best quarterback. We have to make plays that are there for us. That's me included. Top down. Just make the plays."

If Allen doesn't make that play and the Bengals do, Cincy is up 14-3 midway through the second quarter with the ball. What the Bengals were saying about Allen in their locker room after the game is what the Bills were saying about Burrow in theirs at halftime.

Can't let the great ones off the hook. The play before Allen's 40-yard run, just a few snaps after the Bengals, had taken that 28-18 lead, Bengals safety Jordan Battle shook his head over his near interception as he converged with Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid over the middle to bat away an incompletion.

"That's the one I'd like to have back," Battle said.

Then Allen saw the Bengals bring it with a second-and-10 blitz from the Cincy 40. The Bills opted to block blitzing linebacker Oren Burks while Allen ran past the unblocked edge Cedric Johnson.

"We know he's a big guy who is going to scramble if nobody is open," Battle said. "He's fast when he gets out, and you have to get him down any way."

Bengals defensive end Myles Murphy was also left to wonder of Allen's gifts. On that ending third-and-15, Murphy says he was in on a stunt with tackle Kris Jenkins. Murphy consumed two men, and for most quarterbacks, that would have been quite enough. Suddenly, Allen vanished from the pocket.

"I should have gone vertical and got in Josh's face," said Murphy, but he wasn't the only one wondering what else could have been done.

That's how this one went. It was one of those games where a loss eclipsed the heroic subplots.

Coming into the game at 4-8 and needing to win out to win the division, they got some gutty last stands. Saying, "I'm a soldier and soldiers take hits," wide receiver Tee Higgins kept coming off the sidelines Sunday after missing the last game with a concussion for two indescribable touchdown catches and an ungodly third-down conversion despite taking shots over the middle in that drive that put them up 28-18.

Edge Joseph Ossai forced a fumble, ran around for five tackles (one of them for a loss), and enveloped Allen on the next-to-last play despite a gaping wound in his shin that would require stitches.

But, in the end, Burrow vs. Allen.

In his four starts this season, Burrow hadn't thrown an interception until he threw two on consecutive passes in the last 5:25, a wild stretch where he also feathered a 25-yard touchdown pass to the one-handed Higgins to keep them in it.

Babich, the defensive coordinator who started calling the corner blitzes to counter Burrow's third-down success, played for Jimmy Burrow when Burrow's dad was the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State. Last week, Jimmy Burrow recalled his cornerback as "a smart player," and on Sunday he needed those brains on the corner to beat Jimmy's kid.

"The next spin of the dial was to pressure," said Bills head coach Sean McDermott. "There is only so many things that you can do. A couple of those worked, in particular the play before half and obviously CB's (Benford's) interception for a touchdown there."

Another Benford blitz got the Bills' only sack of the game late in the first half when they finally stopped Burrow's touchdown skein. Burrow never saw him from the back side on second-and-10, and the fact he didn't fumble was one of his best plays of the day.

Benford surfaced again as the clock ticked to five minutes, and the Bengals facing third-and-three from the Bills 33. Three yards from at least an Evan McPherson sealing field goal.

But Babich lined up Benford in the slot on Burrow's front side, basically inside wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase.

"Cat blitz. A corner blitz," Chase said. "That was the first time they blitzed my side."

Burrow not only saw Benford, he saw the linebacker getting ready to get involved, so he didn't want to swing it any higher to Chase along the line of scrimmage.

"Good play by them," Burrow said.

Benford leaped, took it virtually out of Burrow's hand, and went to the house before disappearing in the sound.

"I actually didn't do my technique right, if I'm being honest," Benford said. "I was peeping, and then he said 'Go.' He hiked it. And I went for a blitz. I was expecting run. So I was expecting to tackle, but I saw him like crank back, and look for the now throw.

"And I wasn't supposed to jump. Like the technique is don't leave your feet. But I don't know. God just gave me something for me to leave my feet. I'm sorry, but then the rest was history. "

Burrow seemed to sense he and Allen had just been a part of NFL history. That was Allen's first win over Burrow in three games during Burrow's six years in the league. How many more do they get before they're wearing Gold Jackets in Canton?

"We knew what kind of game it was going to be," Burrow said. "Obviously, he's a great player and makes plays in all kinds of situations. I think the last play was the epitome of who he is as a player. You've got to account for everything with him. He did a great job today."

If that last scramble was the epitome of Allen, then Burrow's 12-yard touchdown pass to Gesicki to put them up 28-18 was the epitome of Burrow. He could have told you on Friday it would happen.

An all-out blitz, the back-end unable to cover the turf against Burrow's lethal vision. He sensed the pressure, flew up into the pocket, and found Gesicki easily beating cornerback Taron Johnson in man coverage.

Like he told Gesicki Friday.

"That's something we talked about in practice Friday," Gesicki said. "I was supposed to run a 10-yard sit over the ball. In practice, I kind of turned it into a high cross. Joe was like, Hey, if it's man, do what you want. Get open.' That's kind of what happened."

It was the last question of the day, but Burrow couldn't help smile.

"That was a fun one. We saw a look in practice, talked about it after," Burrow said. "It was just like, 'Mike, if you get that look, go ahead and do that.' That's what he did and that's exactly how it played out in practice, slightly different, but very similar. To be able to execute, that was fun."

History says there was just too much clock left for Allen to execute.