The Bengals bring home another win against the Browns to make their season 3-4 

The home stadium of the Cleveland Browns has been a house of horrors for these Cincinnati Bengals. 

For all their recent success in the Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase era, these Bengals have never been able to walk off the field in Cleveland as victors. Most of the trips to Cleveland have resulted in slaughters with the Bengals serving as victims in another painful bloodbath. 

With Halloween approaching and their season still remaining somewhat on the brink, the Bengals were hoping to avoid another repeat of the Cleveland horror show. The golden age of horror cinema was the 1970s, which delivered iconic staples of the genre including “The Exorcist,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Jaws,” “Carrie” and “Halloween.” The sounds of the 70s set the soundtrack for this edition of the playlist.  

 “And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time ‘til touchdown brings me ‘round again to find” 
“Rocket Man” by Elton John 
 
It had been a long time since the Bengals had returned a kickoff for a touchdown, but the Bengals’ rocket man, Charlie Jones, brought the opening kickoff against Cleveland ‘round again to find the endzone. 
 
Jones dashed 100 yards for a touchdown on the game’s opening play to give Cincinnati an early 7-0 lead over the Browns. Jones got hit around Cleveland’s 10-yard line, but he was able to pirouette down the sideline, stay in bounds then dive into the endzone to complete the play.  Jones’ score was the longest kickoff return by any player yet this season. Jones also etched his name in the franchise history book as he joined company with Lemar Parrish as the only Bengals players to score touchdowns on both a kickoff and punt return.   
 
It was exactly as Bengals long-time special teams coordinator, Darrin Simmons, had drawn it up. While watching film, Simmons saw something in the Browns kick coverage he thought he could exploit. All season, the Bengals had two returners back deep to receive kickoffs. 
 
Against the Browns, Simmons only sent Jones deep then called upon blocking extraordinaire, tight end Drew Sample, to disguise himself in his traditional formation then slowly creep backwards to position himself in front of Jones. It was Sample who threw the key block, blowing open the hole the sprung Jones on his journey to the endzone.

“It’s a play we haven’t run before,” Simmons said. “We put it in this week to try to take advantage of what they do. Fortunately, it worked just like we drew it up.” 
 
“We put Drew [Sample] out there, and it could not have been a better block on the play,” said Jones. “He made the hole huge and really made the return easy for me. Everybody did their job in front of me, and it was awesome.” 
 
Jones ignited the scoring for Cincinnati; unfortunately, those 7 points would be the only points the Bengals could muster in the first half. 
 
“And pain is all around. LIke a bridge over troubled water” 
“Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel 
 
All of a sudden, the Bengals high-scoring offense seems to have encountered some troubled waters. 
 
The Cincinnati offense had been scorching hot over a 3-game stretch, averaging 35 points per game and 417 yards of offense against the Commanders, Panthers and Ravens. Against the Giants and Browns, their offense has cooled down considerably in consecutive games by averaging 19 points on 264 yards per game. In the first half against Cleveland, Cincinnati’s offense completely stalled. 
 
The Bengals could only muster 86 yards of offense in the games first two quarters and went a miserable 0-6 on 3rd down while also failing to convert on their only 4th down attempt of the half. 
 
Cincinnati corrected things in the second half by scoring on their opening possession of the half with Burrow finding Chase on a familiar back shoulder throw in the corner of the endzone. 
 
Burrow found Tee Higgins for another score later in the quarter. Higgins caught a short Burrow crossing pass across the middle and shredded a defender to bound another 20 yards to the endzone. Once again—when pain is all around—it’s the Bengals returning to the triumvirate of Burrow-Chase-Higgins that breathes life into this offense.  
 
“Obviously, we would have liked to move the ball a little better in the first half, but we made the plays when we needed to,” Burrow said. 
 
Are the Bengals recent offensive struggles less about Cincinnati’s troubles and more about the defenses they’ve recently faced? Both the Giants and Browns rank in the top half of the league in terms of yards per game. Burrow wasn’t surprised that it took the Bengals some extended time to find their rhythm against Cleveland’s defense. “Not surprising, that’s just a really, really good defense,” he said. “The best one we have played all year.” 
 
One would argue that great offenses still find a way to remain consistent against good defenses. But Joe Burrow doesn’t seem too concerned. “Well, we scored over 30 and we lost” he said. “Now, we’ve won two in a row. No, I’m not concerned about [the offense].”

“Spread the word around. Guess who’s back in town?” 
“The Boys Are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzy 
 
Against the Ravens and Commanders high-powered offenses, the Bengals defense could not register a single stop when it mattered. The defense received the brunt of the blame for being primarily responsible for the early season losses. The Bengals defensive players called a players only meeting following the Baltimore loss. 
 
Over these last 2 games, the Bengals defense is back. A unit that had surrendered 29 points per game through the first 5 games of the season has only given up 21 points combined the last two weeks. 
 
What’s changed? The health of their defensive line, for one thing. 
 
In the Kansas City loss, the Bengals sustained injuries to their two starting interior defensive linemen, B.J. Hill and Sheldon Rankins. Without their veteran starters and without depth at that position to create a steady rotation of fresh players to pressure the quarterback and present a barrier to the running game, opposing offenses gashed the Bengals over 3 consecutive games. 
 
The full complement of defensive linemen was finally back in the fold the last two weeks. 
 
Leading the charge to no surprise is Trey Hendrickson. When the Bengals defense was undermanned due to injury, Hendrickson was a singular threat, and offenses were able to game plan away from him. 
 
Now that the defensive line has returned to full strength and offenses can’t simply key on him anymore, Hendrickson has exploded for 4 sacks in the past two games. Against Cleveland, Trey was a man possessed compiling 2 sacks, 2 tackles for loss, 5 quarterback hits (including one that resulted in an intentional grounding penalty) and 1 pass defense. 
 
Hendrickson is currently 4th in the NFL at 7 sacks on the season. This season is just another example of how Hendrickson is so brutally underrated. Consider this: there are only 3 NFL players with at least 60 sacks since 2020. Two of them have won NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors: the Steelers’ T.J. Watt (66.5 sacks) and the Browns’ Myles Garrett (62 sacks).  The other player is Hendrickson with 60 sacks since 2020. 
 
Trey isn’t a one man show, though. B.J. Hill had one of his best games ever against his former team, the Giants. Sam Hubbard had 2 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, 5 QB hits and an interception over the last 2 games. Sheldon Rankins registered his first sack of the season against the Browns. Germaine Pratt was a tackling machine. DJ Turner made a huge play late in the game on 4th down to preserve the win against the Giants. Mike Hilton is back making plays. Geno Stone came up with his first interception of the season. Now, fully healthy, the Bengals defense is starting to put it together. 
 
“We are facing so much adversity and so much noise from the outside,” Sam Hubbard said. “It builds your character as a team. It forms your identity to go through that together. See how people will react. Nobody switched up. Nobody turned on each other. We just found solutions.” 
 
“Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’ and we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive” 
“Stayin’ Alive” by The Bee Gees 
 
At 1-4 following the Ravens defeat, the Bengals needed to start stacking wins to preserve the season. They’ve now put together a two-game winning streak to move themselves to 3-4 and set up a huge game against the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend in the Jungle that can return them to .500 on the season. 
 
The Bengals have yet to really play complimentary football in all 3 phases. They will need to do so in order to become a great team. 
 
“Great teams find ways to win,” Burrow explained. “I think we have a chance to be a great team. We are not that yet. Lots of season left to play.”  
 
One thing is for sure: Wins over the last two weeks have allowed the Bengals promise of a successful season to stay alive. Piece together two more wins at home over the next two weeks against the Eagles and a struggling Las Vegas Raiders team and the Bengals will find themselves at 5-4 going into a crucial division rematch against the Baltimore Ravens. 
 
Repositioning itself firmly back into the AFC North Division race and the AFC playoff chase, these Bengals will have everybody in Cincinnati shakin’ again and the city will be breakin’ with renewed Bengals fervor. 
 
Who-Dey? 

Jon Bunch is an avid life-long Bengals fanatic. Raised in the 740. West Pointer, Army and Iraq War veteran. Passionate evangelist of the Who-Dey spirit. @WhoDeyBunch