Bengals’ Joe Mixon claims Cincinnati is ‘the big dog of the AFC’ ahead of Bills showdown

Bengals running back Joe Mixon has thrown down the gauntlet to the Buffalo Bills ahead of their Monday Night Football showdown at Paul Brown Stadium.

Beyond a titanic quarterback duel between Joe Burrow and Josh Allen, the game will help decide the No. 1 seed in the AFC come playoff time.

Buffalo currently occupies the coveted position, though it’s no bigger than Mixon’s.

Joe Mixon had an air of confidence when talking about the Bengals MNF game against the Bills.

“At the end of the day, what people realized and understood, we’re the big dog of the AFC and that’s what it is,” he said after practice Saturday. ‘For something to happen, it goes through us.’

The Bills have a 12-3 record and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the 12-win Chiefs. Close behind are the 11-4 Bengals who can be fully inserted into the conversation for the top spot in the conference on Sunday.

That’s not lost on Mixon.

“We know what our ultimate goal is and to get to that ultimate goal we have to go through Buffalo,” he said. “We have to maintain a week at a time and everything else takes care of itself.”

Josh Allen should present a huge problem for the Bills, both on the ground and in the air.

Allen and Stefon Diggs will naturally cause problems for the Bengals’ secondary, but Mixon sees Burrow and Co. creating problems for the Bills’ backend throughout the tempting game.

“Best of all, they’re going to have to play us honest,” Mixon said. ‘If you want to cheat, whatever you want to do, we’re going to make you pay.

‘As you want to do it. That’s up to you, how you want to play it.’

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow could improve his MVP chances with a stellar performance