CINCINNATI — The Bengals are hitting their stride.

And the timing is perfect.

Cincinnati’s 24-18 win over Buffalo on Sunday Night Football, the team’s first win on a Sunday night since 2004, comes two games after the bye week.

Last week, Cincinnati (5-3) traveled to San Francisco — and came back with a huge ‘W’ after knocking off the favored 49ers 31-17.

Over the past two seasons, Cincinnati is 12-2 after the bye week — and will host Houston on Sunday at The Jungle.

On Sunday night, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow picked apart the Bills defense — and threw for 348 yards while completing 31 of 44 attempts with two touchdowns and a passer rating of 108.9.

In the win over the 49ers, he fired three TDs — and completed 28 of 32 passes for 283 yards.

He’s red hot.

He’s throwing with accuracy and for touchdowns, and also running for first downs.

“Our coaches came up with a great script early on to attack,” Burrow said after the win. “We just felt good coming into the game. We just have to keep that going into next week.”

The defense is also making plays when it counts, like it did last year down the stretch.

On SNF, linebacker Germaine Pratt forced a fumble that defensive back Nick Scott recovered to stop a Buffalo drive at the Cincinnati 13-yard line to protect the 21-10 lead.

That play led to a 12-play, 85-yard drive that featured several Burrow completions, and ended in a 20-yard Evan McPherson field goal and a 24-10 lead in the final quarter.

During that drive, Burrow connected with tight end Tanner Hudson for a 17-yard gain, to Ja’Marr Chase on a 32-yarder, and Tee Higgins for an 18-yard slant play inside the red zone.

Higgins has also found his stride, and had his first game with more than 100 yards receiving.

The Clemson product had eight catches for 110 yards on the night.

“It was about time,” Higgins said. “About time. I was due for one. It came at the right time, and I couldn’t ask for a better moment.”

Higgins has been nursing a rib injury and got off to a slow start, but has bounced back.

“Another guy I’m not surprised about,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said about Higgins. “He’s a victim of circumstances the way his season has gone with injuries. He stepped up big time, won a lot of one-on-ones, made big plays. That slant route he won that got us into the red zone before the field goal was big to Tee.”

Burrow said he had a feeling it was going to be good night for his No. 2 wide receiver.

“I told Tee coming into the game — he was feeling good — so I was going to feed him the ball today,” he said. “And he came up big for us. He stepped up big for us. He’s going to continue to do that. He always does. I have a lot of faith in that guy.”

The Bengals have the Bills number.

Last year in the AFC Divisional playoffs, Cincinnati dismantled Buffalo 27-10 on Jan. 22 in New York.

The SNF crowd of 66,965 at Paycor Stadium watched the Bengals defense hold quarterback Josh Allen to 248 yards passing with one interception.

It also caused that one crucial Bills fumble.

Burrow’s Bengals are playing with confidence when the game is on the line.

But he also knows the season is only at the midway point.

“We are in a great spot right now,” he said. “We are 5-3 now. We are 1-0 this week and that’s all that matters. Next week, we have to go 1-0 again.”

One part Burrow likes is that the team is finishing games strong with wins.

“We are closing out games with the ball,” Burrow said. “That’s important. I had time to do what I needed to do tonight, and the line was great.”

After the frustrating 1-3 start, the Bengals are 5-3 — and gearing up for a strong second half of the season.

They host the Texans on Sunday, and then travel to Baltimore (7-2) for Thursday Night Football.

“The character of this team, these are the stages they want to be on,” Taylor said. “They don’t shy away from it. That confidence is earned, it’s not anything phony. They’ve worked for this, and they trust their teammates to be next to them making those winning plays. The team was ready, the fans were ready for the environment. It was the second biggest crowd in Bengals history, and we could feel them.”

It’s way too early to make reservations for Las Vegas — the site of the Super Bowl.

But, it’s not too early to think about it — with the way the Bengals are playing right now.

Who Dey!