CINCINNATI — Joe Burrow touchdown passes to Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Andrei Iosivas and the defense forced a key early turnover to lead the Cincinnati Bengals to a 24-6 win over the visiting Cleveland Browns Sunday in Cincinnati and keep their slim playoff hopes alive.
Burrow finished 23-of-30 for 252 yards while Chase Brown carried the ball 18 times for 91 yards for Cincinnati (7-8), which won a season-high third straight game an completed a season sweep of the Browns for the first time since 2017.
It was a milestone day for the Bengals on a number of fronts. Ja’Marr Chase broke his own single-season franchise receiving yards mark with an 11-yard gain in the second quarter. Joe Burrow passed Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson for the NFL lead in touchdown passes and kicker Cade York matched a franchise-long with a 59-yard field goal.
Burrow surpassed 4,000 yards and threw for three touchdowns for the seventh consecutive game.
Chase, who had six catches for 97 yards, entered the game needing 43 yards to pass his own single-season franchise receiving yards mark of 1,455 in 2021. He is now four catches shy of T.J. Houshmandzadeh’s 2007 record of 112.
Cleveland quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, making his fourth career start and first this season, completed just 20-of-34 passes for 157 yards, was sacked five times and threw two fourth-quarter interceptions, including on in the end end zone for Cleveland (3-12), which lost its fourth straight. Jerome Ford scored on a four-yard run for Cleveland, and finished with 92 yards on 11 carries.
The game opened explosively for Cleveland as Ford, who had a 62-yard touchdown run against Kansas City last week, ripped off a 66-yard run off the right side on the game’s first play. Two plays later, the Cincinnati defense looked in complete disarray, needing a timeout to sort out personnel inside their 5-yard line.
With the Browns on the verge of punching the ball in, Vonn Bell came to the rescue, punching the ball free from running back D’Onta Foreman as he was about to cross the goal line. Bell also recovered the ball. The play was reminiscent of Bell’s game-saving play nearly two years to the day on Christmas Eve when he forced a fumble by New England’s Rhamondre Stevenson.
The Bengals began their first drive backed up against their goal line and marched 99 yards in eight plays, capped by a two-yard touchdown pass to Higgins as Joe Burrow was falling to the ground.
Tee Higgins on Joe Burrow falling TD pass to him “MF’er looked like Superman when he threw it. I’m calling him Superman from this point forward. F-Batman. Superman.” pic.twitter.com/dHNoj6buxw
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) December 22, 2024
Burrow made it 14-0 in the second quarter with his second touchdown pass of the day, a six-yard strike over the middle to Andrei Iosivas. The pass gave Burrow 38 touchdowns on the season, one more than Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson for the NFL lead.
York, filling in for the injured Evan McPherson, drilled a 59-yard field goal at the halftime gun to give the Bengals a 17-0 lead at the break. McPherson also hit from 59 yards in the 2022 season opener against Pittsburgh.
Myles Garrett sacked Burrow in the second quarter, allowing the star pass rusher to reach the 100-sack milestone in just his 115th career game.
Bengals offensive line coach Frank Pollack and starting right tackle Amarius Mims got into a heated argument on the sidelines in the third quarter and Mims shoved Pollack’s hand away before being restrained by teammates. Mims injured his left ankle in the second quarter, returned for one snap in the third quarter before missing the rest of the game.
