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Cincinnati
Bengals…
Bengals get
first win of the season
CINCINNATI- Cornerback Adam Jones jump-started the Bengals Sunday's
Paul Brown Stadium opener with an 81-yard punt return and wide receiver
Andrew Hawkins finished it off with an electrifying Road Runner
twisting 50-yard touchdown catch on third down as the Bengals
celebrated their first victory of the season, 34-27, over the Browns
before a sold-out 63,036 gathering of the faithful.
Quarterback Andy Dalton, piloting his first 30-point game at PBS while
hitting 24 of 31 throws for 318 yards and 128.2 passer rating, also
threw touchdown passes to Hawkins' fellow wide receivers A.J. Green and
Brandon Tate with the 44-yarder to Tate coming on third-and-six on the
first drive of the second half.
But his biggest third-and-six completion came with just under four
minutes left when he hit tight end Jermaine Gresham's back shoulder for
a 22-yard completion on the left sideline. Gresham juggled the ball,
but caught it on the rebound just before he stepped out of bounds and
the play help up under the Browns' challenge.
That set up Mike Nugent's 37-yard field goal with 2:09 left for the
10-point pad they needed because the Browns brought back all the ghosts.
Running back Trent Richardson, becoming the first Browns rookie to rush
for 100 yards in a game since Lee Suggs put 186 on the Bengals in the
2003 finale, shredded them for 104 yards in the first three quarters
and his remarkable 23-yard touchdown run off a dump pass on the last
play from scrimmage in the third quarter cut the lead to 24-17.
On the play four Bengals missed Richardson inside the 10: linebackers
Rey Maualuga and Vontaze Burfict and cornerbacks Leon Hall and Nate
Clements.
But enter Hawkins. After old friend Frostee Rucker dumped Dalton for a
10-yard loss, the Bengals were staring at third-and-long from the 50.
Dalton got chased out of the pocket toward the right sideline. But he
saw Hawkins in the middle of the field working in space against
cornerback Tevin Wade and threw it back across his body. Hawkins caught
it for the first down coming across the middle to the sideline and then
he took off up the side and made a hellacious cut at about the 20 back
to the middle of the field to finish it off with 10:44 left in the game.
Weeden, who went into the last drive with 119 passer rating and 265
yards of his own, had his way against the Bengals secondary and cut the
gap to 24-17 when no one covered Browns wide receiver Greg Little on a
24-yard touchdown pass with 7:11 left.
The Browns drove for a field goal after Nugent's field goal to make it
34-27 and,
The Bengals took a 17-10 half-time lead, but it could have been more.
With the clock ticking under four minutes in the first half, Browns
running back Chris Ogbbonnaya beat Maualuga in the middle of the field
on a dump pass over the middle and he turned it into a big play before
Bengals cornerback Terence Newman lowered his shoulder and popped the
ball loose and right end Michael Johnson recovered it at the Cleveland
43 with 3:42 left in the half.
But Gresham, flagged for a false start on the Bengals' first snap of
the game, was called for a hold this time and the drive ended in a punt.
That came on the heels of a Bengals' foray into the red zone when
rookie wide receiver Marvin Jones took off on a go route and drew
a pass interference call on cornerback at the Browns 18.
But right tackle Andre Smith's false started on the first snap
following the P.I. flag and the Bengals had to settle for Nugent's
39-yard field goal with 4:45 left in the half to make it 17-10. On
second and third down, Dalton had Green and Hawkins breaking open from
the middle of the field to the right corner of the end zone and
overthrew them.
That's how it looked for both the Bengals offense and defense in the
first half. Sometimes very good and sometimes not. Dalton led a crisp
touchdown drive early in the second quarter ignited when he floated a
beauty down the left sideline on second-and-11 to wide receiver Armon
Binns working inside against cornerback Buster Skrine for a 20-yard
gain to the Browns 45.
The Browns, without starting cornerbacks Joe Haden (NFL suspension) and
Sheldon Brown, did a great job in the first half shadowing the Bengals
receivers down field and forcing Dalton to hold the ball in the pocket
and blanking the Bengals on all five third-down tries in the half.
But after the 20-yarder to Binns, Dalton hit Green for his first catch
of the day with 12 minutes left in the second quarter on a 12-yard
slant over the middle.
Then running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, following a big block by left
guard Clint Boling, ran the ball to the Browns 10 for a 19-yard gain.
On the next snap Green, lined up wide right, stopped short and caught a
quick ball in front of cornerback Dimitri Patterson and when he made a
move inside he beat Patterson to the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown
with 10:27 left in the quarter that made it 14-3.
The Bengals defense that had been so good in the first quarter then had
a blip. Browns rookie running back Trent Richardson, held to 39 yards
in his debut last week with a long of nine, got 32 yards all at once on
a touchdown run with 8:05 left in the first half that cut Cincinnati's
lead to 14-10. Richardson took a delayed handoff behind his right guard
untouched and he didn't have a linebacker near him at the second level
and all Richardson had to do was outrun everybody into the end zone.
Dalton, the victim of three coverage sacks in the half, went nine of 14
for 102 yards with the TD for a passer rating of 109.8. Weeden, so much
better Sunday than he was last week in his four-pick debut, didn't
throw one in the first half and was nine of 15 for 121 yards and was
greatly helped by Richardson's 83 yards on 13 carries.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Bengals' showdown with
Cleveland special teams Pro Bowler Josh Cribbs when the forgotten Adam
Jones knocked off six-year-old cobwebs and returned a punt 81 yards for
a touchdown in the game's first 1:47 to give the Bengals a 7-0 lead
with the sellout crowd barely in the seats.
Jones made anywhere between five and seven tacklers miss up the left
sideline and accelerated the last 20 yards behind a pancake block from
safety Jeromy Miles for his fifth NFL career punt return touchdown and
first since he had three in the 2006 season.
Jones had been hurt all preseason with tight hamstrings and quads and
didn't do any returning except in rehab and wide receiver Brandon Tate
took all the returns in Monday night's opener. But after right end
Michael Johnson's sack working against Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas,
Jones trotted out to take Reggie Hodges' punt.
With WILL backer Thomas Howard suffering a season-ending knee injury in
Thursday's practice, the Bengals showed the Browns a different look.
Vincent Rey lined up in Howard's spot to start the game.
Plus, Miles moved into Taylor Mays' safety spot and rookie Vontaze
Burfict rotated with Rey. Burfict, the slowest linebacker at last
February's NFL scouting combine, showed how far he's come when he went
step for step with tight end Alex Smith and forced an incompletion
despite a good pass byWeeden.
The new look held up early. A blitz by cornerback Leon Hall forced a
third-down incompletion and the Browns had to settle for Phil Dawson's
50-yard field goal that cut the lead to 7-3 midway through the first
quarter.
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