CINCINNATI (WKRC) – While it as an ugly offensive performance from the Bengals on Sunday in Cleveland, it was the defense – and let’s face it the Cleveland Browns doing plenty of Browns-like things – that led to the only stat that really matters: the Bengals are 1-0.
The narrative coming into the 2025 regular-season opener was the Bengals needing to find a way to overcome slow starts that have befallen the Zac Taylor and Joe Burrow eras. The Bengals were 1-5 under Taylor in opening games and 1-4 under Burrow as the starting quarterback.
While Burrow had a downright awful day (14 of 23 for a paltry 113 yards passing, the third-lowest yardage output of his career) and the offense didn’t record a single first down and had minus-18 yards in the fourth quarter, the Bengals still won.
“We’ll take it, we’ll take it,” said Burrow. “Any time you can win like this, you kind of steal one. We stole one today. It was obviously frustrating at times. We made enough plays to win, so it was good.”
They did it thanks to winning the turnover margin 2-0 and also because Browns kicker Andre Szmyt, who had never attempted a regular-season kick in the NFL and has been out of college since 2022, missed an extra point and then a 36-yard field goal with 2:22 left that would have given Cleveland a 19-17 lead.
The Bengals then held on for the 17-16 win when DJ Turner intercepted a Joe Flacco pass that bounced off wide receiver Cedric Tillman’s hands with 1:24 remaining that basically sealed it.
“I thought the defense did a great job of rising up there in the last several possessions of the game,” said Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. “We weren’t putting them in good spots, but they just rose up and got some turnovers, so be able to win the turnover battle right out of the gate, that’s a key, key stat in Week 1. We knew there was going to be adversity. There is always adversity Week 1. There’s always adversity when we play Cleveland. There’s always adversity when we’re on the road at Cleveland. It’s never simple. For our guys just to find a way to win at the end, proud of them. The best outcome of this game is 1-0. Forget about the stats, forget about the score, forget how it all played out, the best outcome was 1-0 and we’re proud of that. We’ll make some corrections and move forward.”
It was also a defensive play that helped the Bengals score their eventual game-winning points. Safety Jordan Battle made a diving interception of a Flacco pass that bounced off the hands of Browns wide receiver Jerry Jeudy as he made a diving attempt to catch the ball, only to have it snagged by Battle. That gave the Bengals the ball at the Cleveland 34, and after picking up their only first down of the second half, it led to Evan McPherson kicking a 35-yard field goal with 2:48 remaining in the third quarter to give them a 17-16 lead.
“Ball disruption – we’ve been working on it the whole camp and it showed up today,” said Battle.
Let’s not forget this was a defense that had huge question marks after its performance in the first two preseason games and after last season when it ranked 25th in the NFL in points allowed and yards allowed per game. Last season was why Lou Anarumo was fired as defensive coordinator and Al Golden was hired to replace him, and Golden’s unit acquitted itself well in his first game.
“You can see it in practice (how well the defense played in training camp), but practice doesn’t matter at the end of the day,” said Burrow. “You can make as many plays in practice as you want, but you go out there on Sunday and don’t make any plays then that’s all that really matters. They made big time plays today in big spots. I thought they stopped the run and put some pressure on Joe in some key spots. The two turnovers were just great plays by our guys.”
While the defense did allow 327 yards and 22 first downs, and gave up a 16-play first half touchdown drive that took 9:50 off the clock and a 13-play touchdown drive to open the second that took 7:40 off the clock, the Browns’ last six drives ended in an interception, turning it over on downs, a punt, the missed field goal, an interception and then the end of the game. The unit also limited the Browns to 49 yards rushing and only 2.0 yards per carry.
“Many times I can think of when we have lost here we were playing from behind,” said Taylor. “They were able to control the game as the game played out. You heard me preach it all last year. We have to play with the lead so we can play the right way in the second half and this is a great example of that.”
Taylor had so much faith in his defense down the stretch that he opted to punt rather than going for the first down on 4th-and-1 from the Bengals 35 with two minutes remaining in the game.
“I felt really good about kicking it away and letting our defense go get the win for us, and they did.”
The next Browns series ended after two plays thanks to Turner’s interception.
Sure, the offense amassed a scant 141 yards, the lowest for a game in Taylor’s tenure, but this is an offense that has proven to be one of the best in the NFL in the Taylor/Burrow era, and there’s no reason to think it won’t be again this season. Perhaps the Browns are just a tough matchup, especially in Cleveland, because in the 2023 season opener at the Browns the offense gained 142 yards and in the seventh game of last season in Cleveland the offense gained 221 yards in a 21-14 win.
“I have a lot of respect for their defensive coordinator (Jim Schwartz),” said Taylor. “He makes things hard. He understands us. They have great talent on defense, great talent on defense. Those guys play hard. They played with a lot of confidence. All the matchups they do a really good job. It’s just always a challenge. You just have to find a way to win, and that’s what our guys did.”
It’s something the Bengals have only done in an opener once previously since Taylor became head coach in 2019, and that season they did win the opener (2021) they advanced to the Super Bowl.
“Everything didn’t go our way on every single play, but I truly believe our guys did nothing to beat ourselves in Week 1,” said Taylor. “They played disciplined, rising up to the occasion on defense. The offense made enough plays, especially early on to build us the lead.”
While it sure wasn’t pretty, Bengals fans can look at the standings after one week and see their team is 1-0 and they won a one possession game. Keep in mind last season the Bengals were 2-6 in games decided by six points or less.
“We didn’t win any of these games last year,” said Burrow. “Usually when you can win a game like this, that’s a recipe for success and that means you are going to be a good team if you can find a lot of different ways to win and we did today.”