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When Marv Levy’s Bills were dominating the AFC in the early 1990s, amazingly, his teams would take criticism from the local media if they won games, but the wins weren’t convincing enough. He used to routinely say “It’s hard to win every week in the NFL, it takes everything you’ve got, it’s physically and emotionally draining.”  The 2011 version of the Bills learned that lesson on Sunday in Cincinnati, letting a 17-3 halftime lead evaporate before losing on a game-ending field goal by Mike Nugent as time expired. There was a lot of talk about the Bills possibly taking this game for granted, especially after rolling over the Bengals last year, but I don’t think the loss had anything to do with overconfidence. In fact, looking closely at both teams, the Bengals’ win isn’t really that surprising. The Bills had gone 3-0 on the strength of their offense being able to put points on the board almost at will, but without a doubt the Bengals’ defense was going to be the strongest the Bills faced and it was going to be difficult for Ryan Fitzpatrick & Co. to keep up the pace of the first 3 weeks. It was going to take improvement by the defense to win this game, and that improvement should have been expected considering the Bengals were starting a rookie QB, Andy Dalton, had a running back facing suspension, Cedric Benson, and a rookie receiver as their main weapon, A.J. Green. The Bills’ defense did supply points in the first half on a heads-up interception by Bryan Scott, who grabbed the ball off the shoetops of a Bengal receiver and ran it in for the score. However, when they needed to make stops in the second half to slow down Cinci’s momentum, they couldn’t get the job done. They couldn’t stop Benson, who racked up 100 yards in a game he shouldn’t have even been playing in (he appealed his suspension and got a 1-week reprieve), and they allowed the rookie Dalton to look like a seasoned veteran as he led impressive drives when it counted most. For the second time this season, Leodis McKelvin was skewered by a rookie receiver as Green had a 100+ yard day, mostly making big plays over McKelvin. It’s a shame that Aaron Williams was hurt last week, since he most likely would have progressed to the point where he pushed McKelvin to the bench. Unfortunately his progress will be stymied. Maybe rookie 7th round pick Justin Rogers should be given a shot to start in McKelvin’s spot – he certainly can’t do any worse. Another player the Bills have to  make a decision on is LB Shawne Merriman, who has been invisible. He was credited with a sack against the Bengals when he chased Dalton out of bounds for a loss while he was scrambling, but otherwise has been a non-factor. Both Danny Batten and Arthur Moats have made plays in limited chances, and it may be time to give both of these guys more playing time. Not only has Merriman done nothing to help the pass rush, which is supposed to be his strength, but Benson got most of his yards rushing to Merriman’s and Dwan Edwards’ side of the line. One thing is for sure – the Bills will be facing their second loss this week against Michael Vick and an angry Eagle team if they stand pat on defense.