Cincinnati Bengals Defense Posts Milestones While Stepping Up Big In Second Consecutive Road Victory

Jay Morrison | 3 Hours Ago

Oct 20, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bengals safety Geno Stone (22) and teammates celebrate his interception during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Browns at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Scott Galvin-Imagn Images / Scott Galvin-Imagn Images

The Cincinnati Bengals defense is arguably the biggest reason the team has a losing record heading into the final game in October.

That same defense largely is responsible for the fact that the Bengals still have something to play for, carrying the team to back-to-back road wins while the offense looked sluggish and ineffective for long stretches.

Sunday in Cleveland, Lou Anarumo’s defense adjusted on the fly while facing three different quarterbacks to lead the Bengals to a 21-14 victory at Huntington Bank Field, snapping a six-game road losing streak against the Browns.

“I thought out defense gave us a chance,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “The defense really fought them off, gave us a chance to get things sorted out on offense a bit.”

The Bengals failed to score an offensive touchdown in the first half, with the team’s only points coming on Charlie Jones 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the game.

Five of their next six possessions ended in punts, and the one that didn’t fizzled on a failed fourth-down conversion.

But thanks to the Cincinnati defense, the Bengals played with the lead for the entire first half.

Two of the Browns’ first three possessions were three-and-outs, and the fourth ended in a missed field goal.

It wasn’t until starting quarterback Deshaun Watson went down with an Achilles injury that the Browns reached the red zone, and that came courtesy of a 22-yard pass interference penalty against DJ Turner II on backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s first pass.

Cleveland converted that into a 1-yard touchdown run by Nick Chubb in the running back’s return from a 13-month leg injury, but Dustin Hopkins missed the extra point, and the Bengals led 7-6 at the break.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and the offense were able to find enough success to put together a pair of touchdown drives to take some of the pressure off the Cincinnati defense.

“The last two weeks have been big for our defense, getting healthy, making plays, causing turnovers,” Burrow said. “That's what our defense is all about. (And) rushing the passer. So that was big.”

The Cincinnati defense recorded a season-high four sacks – doubling its previous best.

Defensive end Trey Hendrickson had two of them to raise his team-leading total to seven, which is a half sack shy of the NFL lead Aidan Hutchinson brought into Week 7.

“I’m very blessed to rush with an elite group of guys,” Hendrickson said. “And the back end, you can't say enough about the coverage we had. It's rush and coverage together.”

The coverage part of the Bengals defense equaled its season high in pass breakups with eight, which the unit also had in last week’s 17-7 road win against the New York Giants.

One of the eight passes defended was defensive end Sam Hubbard’s first career interception on a Thompson-Robinson pass that went off the hands of Cleveland receiver Cedric Tillman in the third quarter.

Safety Geno Stone added his first interception as a member of the Bengals near the end of the fourth quarter, just a few minutes before suffering a lower left injury that forced him to leave on a cart.

The last time the Bengals had at least two interceptions, four sacks and eight passes defended in a game was a 27-16 win against Baltimore in the 2022 season finale.

Hubbard also had a sack to go along with his interception, and offseason acquisition Sheldon Rankins recorded his first sack with the Bengals.

The last time a Cincinnati player had a sack and an interception in the same game also came against Clevleand when safety Jordan Battle did it in last year's season finale.

For Hendrickson, it was the 10th game with the Bengals with 2+ sacks. Only Carlos Dunlap (12) and Geno Atkins (11) have more.

“The defense did a great job,” Taylor said. “They really deserve a lot of credit for keeping us in there until the second half when the offense was able to get those two touchdown drives.”

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