Give the 5-0 Bengals this. They were never done and scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and overtime to take down two-time NFC champion Seattle in overtime at rollicking sold-out Paul Brown Stadium at 27-24 before 65,004 believers.
Who else? After exchanging punts to open overtime, cornerback Adam Jones returned a punt 19 yards to the Bengals 43 with seven minutes left in OT. Quarterback Andy Dalton, enjoying his biggest comeback win ever and the Bengals’ second biggest of all-time, then hit another star of the day, tight end Tyler Eifert for 12 yards and then running back Giovani Bernard ran them into field-goal range on a 13-yard bolt to the Seattle 32.
Three Bernard carries for eight yards later, Mike Nugent used the left upright for a 42-yard field goal with 3:36 that made the Bengals 5-0 for the first time since 1988.
Trailing Seattle, 24-7, in the middle of the third quarter thanks to largely to their own doing, they rallied to cut it to 24-21 with 3:38 left on two fourth-quarter touchdowns when Dalton snuck in from five yards out and then turned it over to his defense and Geno Atkins delivered a three-and-out with his third-down sack of Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson.
The Bengals took their last timeout with 2:30 left before Jon Ryan’s punt to cornerback Adam Jones. Jones ran it back 25 yards to the 45, but, much to his disagreement, he was called for making a fair-catch signal and he appeared to argue he was simply waving away a teammate and so they started at the 18.
But a 27-yard pass interference call on cornerback Cary Williams working on wide receiver Marvin Jones put them at the Seattle 45 and Eifert’s diving one-handed fingertip grab for 25 yards set up Nugent’s tying 31-yard field goal as time ran out.
Eifert was huge with with two TDs and led all receivers with 90 yards on eight catches on a day Seattle Pro Bowl tight end Jimmy Graham had just three cacthes for 30 yards. And although Dalton’s season streak of triple digit passer rating games ended, his 95.9 (331 yards, two TDs, one pick) bested Wilson’s 91.4, and his 15th game-winning drive marked the seventh time in the last 23 PBS games the Bengals had taken down a Super-Bowl-winning quarterback.
But it was Adam Jones gave the Bengals the jolt they needed early in fourth quarter. Despite dealing with last week’s groin injury, Jones began to take punt returns when the Bengals got down in the second half and when cornerback Darqueze Dennard gave Jones some room on a returned when he blocked the gunner at the last instant and Jones took off on a 35-yard return to the Seattle 33 with 13:56 left in the game.
Suddenly, the Bengals’ dormant running game rustled with Bernard ripping off three runs of 23 yards that set up Dalton’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Eifert for Eifert’s second touchdown of the game when he beat Cary Williams down the seam with 12:18 left to cut it to 24-14.
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