The Cincinnati Bengals took down the AFC North rival Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football, 31-10. Andy Dalton threw three touchdowns and the Bengals finished with 154 rushing yards, more than enough to hold off Johnny Manziel and the Browns.
Manziel didn't have a bad game for Cleveland, but he didn't play well enough to lead the Browns to an upset victory over the unbeaten Bengals, who now move to 8-0 on the season. Cleveland still has more questions than answers and fell to 2-7 on the year.
Dalton's tight end, Tyler Eifert, had a fantastic game, catching three touchdowns from his quarterback. Eifert is having a breakout year and just added to it on Thursday. Three of his five catches on the day were touchdowns. He finished with five catches for 53 yards and the three touchdowns.
Manziel finished 15-of-33 passing for 168 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. He was sacked three times and only got 38 yards from running back Isaiah Crowell. He rushed for 38 yards himself.
It was a competitive first half, though the Browns took a bit to get going. They punted twice before they found the end zone, but find it they did, when Manziel led the team on a 10-play, 92-yard drive resulting in a touchdown as the first half expired. It was a good drive, and Manziel finished the first half having completed 11 of 18 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown, a 12-yard pass to rookie running back Duke Johnson.
But the Bengals looked great on offense, with Dalton leading them on two touchdown drives, one in the first quarter and one in the second. Dalton threw for 77 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the first half, finding his tight end Tyler Eifert on touchdowns of 9 and 2 yards.
Unfortunately for the Browns, they were unable to take their late-half momentum and turn it into second half points. The Bengals managed a field goal ate in the third quarter, and then piled it on when Mohamed Sanu took a touchdown in from 25 yards out. The game was essentially over when Dalton found Eifert for his third touchdown of the game with under eight minutes to go, putting the Bengals up by three scores.
3 things we learned from Thursday's game
Yes, Manziel can throw touchdowns
Josh McCown has been better than expected under center for the Browns, so much so that at one point, the chants for Manziel were eventually silenced, for the most part. But McCown is banged up and Manziel made the start on Thursday. Manziel is in a very weird position with the Browns. Originally drafted to be their franchise quarterback, he had the issues with rehab and everything else, and fell behind on the depth chart.
But ...
That's a real solid touchdown from Manziel to Johnson, and if he can do that more often, then he'll be in good shape on the Browns.
Cincinnati's balanced offense is working
The Bengals finished Thursday's game with three passing touchdowns and over 150 yards rushing. Heading into the fourth quarter, when they had a multi-score lead over the Browns, the Bengals had attempted 21 passes with 27 rushing attempts, five of which came from Dalton. If you factor in just running back carries, the Bengals has 21 carries.
That includes Giovani Bernard picking up 51 yards on nine carries and Jeremy Hill picking up 50 yards on 12 carries. Going into Sunday, Bernard had 439 yards and two touchdowns while Hill had 292 yards and five touchdowns. Alternating running backs is working very well, and not forcing Dalton to throw the ball 50 times per game is also working.
Burfict is not a fan of cameras
Cameras are stupid, did you know that? Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict isn't a fan of cameras, or at least it appears that way after he demolished one after a Browns touchdown on Thursday. No, seriously, look at him run into this thing and then push it down:
Or maybe the little push at the end was actually Burfict trying to catch the camera ... or maybe not. Whatever the case, the operator stays on it like he's filming whatever that pile of stuff is the lens of the camera actually crashed into. Whatever the case: Burfict 1, Camera 0.