The Cincinnati Bengals travel to Orchard Park this Sunday to battle the Buffalo Bills. The two teams have developed a bromance of sorts, which began when the Bengals knocked off the Ravens last season, paving the way for the Bills make the postseason for the first time in 17 seasons. Then came the offseason trade for Gordy Glenn, as well as the swapping of players (not in trades): the Bills signed Russell Bodine and AJ McCarron, the Bengals signed Preston Brown.

And so this bromance continues into week 3 of the preseason (otherwise known as the dress rehearsal) when the Bengals face the Bills. The Bengals starters, on both offense and defense, looked lackluster last week against the Cowboys, so they have a lot to prove at New Era Field. Because we’ll be seeing so much more of the starters this week as opposed to the last two, there are some important things to keep an eye on.

With that said, if the Bengals want to come out on top, these are three key matchups that could make the difference in Sunday’s game

1. Bengals offensive line vs. Bills front seven

Last week, the starting offensive line couldn’t open up any lanes for the running backs. Joe Mixon had 8 yards on 4 carries, Giovani Bernard had 2 yards on 1 carry, Mark Walton had -9 yards on 3 carries, see the pattern here? I know it’s preseason and the coaches want to keep it vanilla, but I want to see more power, discipline and explosiveness up front this week.

The Bills are not at full strength, with DT Kyle Williams out indefinitely due to a knee injury. Even so, they have a solid defensive line which includes DE Trent Murphy, who had 9 sacks in his last season with the Washington Redskins (he was injured for all of 2017 and is considered day to day at this point after re injuring his groin earlier in TC), and DE Jerry Hughes, who has posted double digit sacks in 2 of his 8 seasons. They also have a 1st rounder in Tremaine Edwards manning the middle linebacker position, as well as Matt Milano and Lorenzo Alexander manning the outside linebacker positions. Overall, even with Edwards, their linebacking corps is average at best.

With the absence of Williams and maybe even Murphy, the Bills current front seven is one the Bengals should run through. Hughes isn’t necessarily known for his run defense, and if Murphy doesn’t play (50-50 chance), his backup Shaq Lawson, is no world beater.

The Bengals need to show that they can run and enforce their will against a team missing some of their key players on the front seven. If the Bengals offensive line can win their matchups against the Bills, I’ll consider that a win regardless of the final score.