Bengals defeat Browns in battle of Ohio

For one half, you might’ve thought another possible primetime meltdown was possible.

By contrast, Manziel managed only one good half.

Johnny Manziel’s start in prime time wasn’t a disaster, but the outcome was the same for the Browns.

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The Steelers second sack of the game came with 9:58 remaining in the second quarter.

“We settled down”, said defensive end Carlos Dunlap, who had a pair of sacks in Thursday’s game.

After the Browns held on fourth-and-2 at the 6-yard line, an offside penalty gave the Bengals a first down.

His performance in the 31-10 loss to the Bengals wasn’t exactly reassuring, but we’ve seen worse from him. The Browns played three games in 12 days and are entering a stretch where they will play just one game in 24. He caught 39 passes and had two touchdowns as a rookie in 2013. The Bengals were up 14-3 and the game was shaping up to be a lopsided affair. They took advantage of what was given to them and engineered a methodical drive that ended with Andy Dalton connecting with Tyler Eifert for the go-ahead touchdown.

Eifert was back at it, again. That led to another Dalton to Eifert strike.

The tight end now leads the National Football League in receiving touchdowns with nine. All have come in the red zone. And if the Chiefs can continue to win, they will likely find their way into the middle of that. That was on display on the goal line late in the first half.

His touchdown pass throwing across his body to Duke Johnson displayed significant arm strength. He continued to play the best football of his career and add to his best year in stripes. Johnny Manziel went on to win the Heisman that year as the first freshman to ever win the Heisman!

My co-host on Beyond The Stripes, Lindsay Patterson, shows off the special nature of Eifert’s season, while also taking a dig at our columnist, Paul Daugherty.

Now, as Eifert not-so-silently emerges as one of the NFL’s best non-Rob Gronkowski tight ends, Eifert is not trying to offer anything in the way of an assessment of where he ranks among his peers. He avenged that disaster in a convincing manner. Passer rating this year: 139.8.

Run the ball effectively: The Bengals can check this box. The accomplishment comes with a caveat. Jeremy Hill, chipped in with 15 carries for 52 yards. He started in Week 15 against the Cincinnati Bengals and was absolutely horrendous.

Stack defensive victories: Check.

This is another lost season for the Cleveland Browns, but they might get something out of it by sticking with Johnny Manziel as their starting quarterback. Both of the first downs came in the final three minutes, when the Bengals had their 21-point lead. That touchdown gave Cincinnati its largest lead of the night to that point, and was perhaps the strongest indication all evening that something was different about this year’s Bengals. The Cincinnati Bengals moved to 8-0 with their 31-10 home victory over the Cleveland Browns.

That’s in stark contrast to what Dalton did against Cleveland on a Thursday night last November. The duo that built the Lions’ now underachieving roster exits Detroit with a record of 41-63 over six-and-a-half seasons. Finally, it dawned on him and he reared back with his right arm and then slammed the ball to ground, a spike reminiscent of Gronkowski’s trademark punctuation after his scores. Dunlap and company backed off from a blitzing, pressuring first half and then slowed down their pass rush with the idea of hemming Manziel in the pocket.

Though proud of their 8-0 mark, to a man the Cincinnati players acknowledge that they still have a long way to go to truly exorcise their past demons with a deep playoff run.

Eifert scored again in the second quarterback when, seeing the scrambling Dalton in trouble, he found an open crease in the Browns end zone defense and gathered in the 2-yard TD toss.

Jackson has played these mind games all year. McCown has passed for 1,897 yards and 11 touchdowns with four interceptions this season.

You just never know how these guys are going to beat you on either side of the ball.

Randy Starks leveled Bengals’ running back Gio Bernard after a 1-yard gain, but couldn’t just let his play speak for itself.