The proud Bengals defense dared Denver quarterback Trevor Siemian to beat them with his arm in the first road start of his career at Sunday’s sold-out Paul Brown Stadium opener and he shocked the crowd of 63,850 with four touchdown passes in a stunning 29-17 victory that dropped the 1-2 Bengals to under .500 for the first time since the morning of Nov. 18, 2012.
The loss came five years to the day of the Bengals’ last September loss at PBS and that’s the last time they’ve been 1-2 and lost a home opener.
Siemian came into a building where only Andrew Luck has thrown for four touchdowns in the last 28 regular-season games and sifted the Bengals for 312 yards. In becoming the first man in NFL history to throw for four touchdowns and 300 yards in his first road start, the kid hit them for touchdown passes of 41 and 55 yards, the last one with 4:23 left and sealing it. And this is a guy who came into the game with no completions on balls thrown 20 yards down field.
Siemian, channeling his best T.J. Yates, came into the fourth quarter down, 17-16, and then proceeded to go 7-for-7 on the go-ahead touchdown drive against the Bengals’ look that usually crowded the box with eight men. The killing play came on wide receiver Demaryius Thomas’ short catch on third-and-six and he made cornerback Darqueze Dennard miss.
Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, en route to a 117-yard game, then made cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick miss on the other side on another short flip for 17 yards and it set up Sieman’s one-yard touchdown pass to tight end John Phillips to make it 22-17 with 6:56 left in the game.
When Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green dropped a third-and-three pass on the sideline, Siemian went for the kill on the first snap despite being backed up at his 17. His 28-yard seed to tight end Jeff Heuerman working on safety George Iloka for his first NFL catch set up the 51-yarder to Thomas working against cornerback Chris Lewis-Harris for his 100-yard game. Lewis-Harris was in the game with Adam Jones on the sideline with cramps.
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