One week after getting shut out, Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals offense thrived early and often in a 45-21 road victory over the Miami Dolphins. Cincinnati outscored Miami 21-0 in the third quarter.

The Bengals’ offensive stars all shone Sunday, as Burrow finished 25-of-32 with 309 yards and four touchdown passes, peppering Ja’Marr Chase for 109 of those yards, while running back Chase Brown finished with three scores.

For the Dolphins, Quinn Ewers’ first NFL start looked promising in the first half, as he started 10-of-12 for 109 yards. However, the rookie threw two costly second-half interceptions, finishing 20-of-30 for 260 yards and two interceptions.

The Bengals opened the scoring in the first quarter with a seven-play, 91-yard touchdown drive capped off by Tee Higgins’ 10th touchdown catch of the season. Miami immediately responded with a De’Von Achane 48-yard touchdown run, setting the theme of a back-and-forth first half.

In the third quarter, Cincinnati forced three Miami turnovers. After a forced fumble by safety Jordan Battle, Burrow connected with Brown from nine yards out to make it 24-14. On the ensuing possession, Ewers was picked off by Barrett Carter. Two plays later, Brown cashed in with a nine-yard touchdown run to make it 31-14. Cincinnati added two more second-half scores to make it 28 unanswered points in the second half.

With the loss, the 6-9 Dolphins clinched their second straight losing season. The Bengals, who were also eliminated from playoff contention, improved to 5-10.

This is how Cincinnati was supposed to look

Oh, what could have been. After an off week and shutout in single-degree temperatures, Burrow and the offense spent Sunday heating up and showing off all the weapons. Burrow played the hits, throwing high-point go balls to Higgins, off-script explosives to Chase, Houdini escapes for big gains, Mike Gesicki up the seam for a score and Brown as a knockout weapon when focusing on all the other stars.

This was how it the Bengals offense was supposed to look in December with Burrow back and Cincinnati making a charge to the postseason. Instead, due to an inexplicable embarrassment of midseason defeats, it ends up an aesthetically pleasing reminder of the capabilities of this offense when given support from the rest of the team. — Paul Dehner Jr., Bengals senior writer

Disappointing debut for Ewers

Any evaluations of Ewers will require more than one game. The first impression, however, didn’t provide much optimism.

He could have used more help from his teammates, but threw too many ill-advised passes as the game unraveled. There were moments of solid play, and most of the throws were safe, but when Ewers was forced to look downfield, the ball ended up in harm’s way too often. This wasn’t the style of game Ewers and McDaniel wanted him to be in, but that was also partially his fault. — Dehner Jr.

Bengals’ defense steps up

Incremental improvement has been the theme of the second half of the season for the Cincinnati defense. Since the bye week, the Bengals have created opportunities each week for the offense to seize a win. That was the case again Sunday when the unit opened the second half on four consecutive dominant possessions: They forced a fumble, intercepted Ewers, stuffed a QB sneak on fourth down and then intercepted him again.

There’s a large asterisk on the degree of difficulty in facing a rookie seventh-round pick under center and plenty of shortcomings that still exist (linebackers, pass rush), but this was another example of the defense taking a step forward and finding confidence over the last six weeks.

The lack of complementary football has been a weekly trend while dissecting what has gone wrong for the Bengals this season. Sunday’s win — specifically the third-quarter explosion — provided the club’s best stretch of complementary football this year. Turning five straight stops (three turnovers) into five touchdowns, often utilizing short fields put the game out of reach in a blink. The Bengals even got a punt downed inside the five and explosive returns from special teams in the process. One more example of what 2025 could have been. — Dehner Jr.