Browns Game Recap: Team beats down Bengals in unified effort (3 Good/3 Bad of Week 9)
By Chad Porto
The Browns handed the Bengals their backsides in dominating win.
The Browns needed a huge win coming off of the Odell Beckham Jr. saga finally ending. Facing off with the Bengals in a pivotal game for the future of the season, people were deflated coming into the game. The drama of the preceding week made for colorful entertainment but miserable expectations. The Browns needed a big game to infuse the team with hope. They got that with their 41-16 beatdown of Cinncinatti.
The first drive of the game was looking like it’d be a backbreaker. The Browns had two offside penalties in one drive, and the secondary couldn’t handle anything that the Bengals were throwing at them. It looked like Ja’Marr Chase was going to do all sorts of illegal and awful things to the Cleveland secondary. That wouldn’t end up happening, as the rookie had only 49 yards on the day. That’s not how it started, however. The Browns were bailed out last minute by Denzel Ward, that picked off Joe Burrow for the just sixth turnover on the season. An interception that went 99 yards for a touchdown.
The Browns would go back on defense right away and the offense would end up having just nine plays from the first to the second quarter. The Browns ended up going into halftime up 24-10 and the Bengals never really mounted much of a comeback after that point.
Mayfield was accurate most of the night and pinpoint at times, dropping in two beautiful passes to Donovan Peoples-Jones, one for a touchdown, one to set up a touchdown. Mayfield threw two on the day, and the second came in the fourth to David Njoku, breaking the spirits of the Bengals once and for all. In the four seasons of play against Cinncinati, Mayfield is now 6-1.