What we learned as Bengals beat Browns to keep postseason hopes alive
With two weeks remaining in the 2024-25 NFL season, the Cincinnati Bengals are still alive.
December started with a loss that dropped the Bengals to 4-8, but the team kept its long-shot playoff hopes alive on Sunday with a 24-6 win against the Cleveland Browns at Paycor Stadium before a crowd of 65,734.
The victory sets the Bengals up for a make-or-break home game Saturday (4:30 p.m., NFL Network) against the Denver Broncos as both teams push for the final AFC Wild Card berth.
For Cleveland, Sunday's loss made a bad season worse as it fell to 3-12.
Bengals' quarterback Joe Burrow made mostly clean work of the game against the in-state rival Browns, although a fourth-quarter red zone fumble and turnover untidied his day. Other than that, Burrow went 23-of-30 passing with three touchdowns and 252 yards, surpassing the 4,000 passing yard threshold on the opening drive of the contest.
Burrow made another memorable, acrobatic play to open the scoring and cap a 99-yard drive, too. While falling to the turf on a scramble, Burrow completed a two-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins to open the scoring. Burrow said afterward he sensed his body was parallel to the ground when he made the throw.
"That one was crazy," Burrow said afterward, smiling. "I thought me knee might be down because I'd never been in that position throwing a football before, but I was able to keep it up."
That Bengals' score was preceded by Vonn Bell punching the ball out and recovering the ensuing fumble as Cleveland attempted to run in a score on the opening possession of the game. It was the first of several turnovers on the day, but it might have been the most important.
"It's the game right there," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. "There's a good chance that we're fighting uphill the rest of the way, and it's a 14-point swing. Not only did it take the life out of them a little bit, getting that stop on the one-yard line, getting the ball and then going 99 (yards), you know, the defense gave us a lot of confidence and set the tone."
Later, Burrow found Andrei Iosivas on a six-yard pass for a touchdown in the second quarter.
The bulk of the Bengals' scoring occurred in the first half, and backup kicker Cade York drilled a 59-yard field goal on the final play of the half as Cincinnati blanked Cleveland and led, 17-0, at the intermission.
With the Bengals working on what would have been their first shutout in years, the Browns finally got on the board in the third quarter via a four-yard touchdown run by Jerome Ford, formerly of the Cincinnati Bearcats program. The point-after attempt was missed.
On a day when Cincinnati's defense forced three turnovers and repeatedly sacked Browns quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson (20-of-34 passing, 157 yards, two interceptions), Cleveland wasn't able to manage another score.
The Bengals finally closed the door on Cleveland at the 1:44 mark in the fourth quarter when Burrow hit Ja'Marr Chase for a 32-yard touchdown hookup.
Bengals winning streak
Cincinnati lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers Dec. 1 at Paycor Stadium coming out of the bye week, falling to 4-8. Phrases like "lost season" and "wasted season" were defining the narrative of the 2024 Bengals.
Fast forward to the Sunday. The Bengals won their third straight game, and played themselves back into truly meaningful football at 7-8 and playoff hopes still alive.
It wasn't pretty getting to this point, and it's debatable as to how impressive Cincinnati's been during this three-game run. The list of quarterbacks they beat along the way − Dallas' Cooper Rush, Tennessee's Will Levis and Thompson-Robinson − doesn't read like hall of fame ballot. Not surprisingly, the meter of public perception didn't feel like it had moved a ton regarding the 2024 campaign.
But what's next for the Bengals has a chance to upend the old narrative. On Saturday, Cincinnati faces the Denver Broncos as both teams continue to battle for the last AFC Wild Card spot.
A Cincinnati win would apply a lot of pressure on Denver heading into the teams' respective Week 18 season finales.
"We've just got to win this week and go from there," Burrow said. "That's what we've got to do from here on out, try to let everything else play out but we've just got to go take care of business, take care of what we can control and see where we stand."
Broncos quarterback Bo Nix is a different caliber than the last three signal-callers Cincinnati has faced the last four weeks (four signal-callers if you factor in Levis' benching in the win over the Titans). Saturday's game is a matchup that won't be won easily, and the margin for error will be more narrow.
Nonetheless, the Bengals have earned a late-December home game with real stakes. Win that one against a team with a winning record and actual playoff bona fides, and this late-season turnaround could start to reshape how we think about the Bengals' 2024.
A divisional win, and a win at Paycor Stadium
Divisional wins and wins of any kind at Paycor Stadium had been hard to come by in 2024. Cincinnati had one of both entering Sunday's game but added another in defeating Cleveland.
Bengals fans continue to turn out in large numbers to support the team, and giving them a second victory to enjoy was long overdue.
In defeating the Browns, Cincinnati locked up a season sweep of Cleveland, too.
"You've got to win divisional games to be able to do things you want to do in this league," Taylor said. "I don't care what (the Browns') record says. They're well-coached. They've got great players. They don't give you anything easy."
Taylor asked for the fans to come out and try to disrupt Nix in the final home game of the season next weekend.
"I'm just in disbelief that they just show up every game. I know what our home record is this year, but they show up, they support, they're loud, they give us that extra boost," Taylor said. "This is it. We're counting on that crowd to show up next Saturday, be as loud as ever and make this a tough environment for a rookie quarterback and a team coming in here and give our guys the confidence and energy they need."
Triple-crown watch continues for Ja'Marr Chase
By his lofty standards, Ja'Marr Chase had a relatively quieter day compared against some of his more memorable outings this season. On Sunday, he caught six balls, and racked up 97 yards and a touchdown, although 32 of those yards and the score came with victory in-hand with under two minutes to play.
Chase won't mind the late stat-padding as he continues his pursuit of the receiving triple crown, or leading the NFL in catches, receiving yards and touchdowns. His late touchdown catch also pushed him over 1,500 receiving yards for 2024.
Chase entered Sunday leading the league in all of those statistical categories with 102 catches, 1,413 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Chase also gets his flowers for besting a franchise record he already owned. At about the 10:30 mark in the second quarter, Chase hauled in a catch, bounced off a tackler and dove to pick up 11 yards. That play lifted him to 1,463 receiving yards on the season and surpassed the franchise single-season record of 1,455 he set in 2021.
Bengals kicker Cade York sets personal best
Cade York gets some recognition this week, even though he suffered a rare blemish. The backup kicker pushed a 47-yard field goal attempt wide left, but then bounced back to nail a 59-yarder on the final play of the first half.
The kick tied a Bengals franchise record for longest field goal (McPherson also owns a 59-yard field goal).
York is 3-of-4 on field goal tries over his three games with Cincinnati, and 7-of-8 on point-after conversions. That's serviceable production from a player that wasn't attached to a team three weeks ago.