The Bengals and quarterback Joe Burrow became the first team to beat
the Patrick Mahomes Chiefs three times Sunday before the third largest
crowd in Paycor Stadium, 27-24.
Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt forced the game's first turnover
and it was huge. The Chiefs were leading, 24-20, with 13:52 left
and looked they were salting it away when tight end Travis Kelce grabbed
a 19-yarder, but Pratt muscled it out of Kelce's hands at the logo
and Burrow took them 53 yards and got the go-ahead touchdown with 8:54
left in the game as he hit wide open running back Chris Evans underneath
for eight yards on Evans' third catch of the year.
Perine was just huge, grabbing two passes for 24 yards and broke two
tackles on one converting a third down, and wide receiver Tyler Boyd
atoned converting a third-and-two.
With Bengals edge Trey Hendrickson needing a breather on third down,
Joseph Ossai came off the bench to make a shoestring sack of Mahomes
and Harrison Butker missed a 55-yarder.
It was left for Burrow to make a huge third-and-11 completion to wide
receiver Tee Higgins to the clock. Perine racked up 106 yards on 21 carries
for his first 100-yard game since he was a rookie in 2017.
Burrow was seamless on 25 of 31 for 286 yards and a 126.6 passer rating.
And welcome back Ja'Marr Chase with 97 yards.
As it did in both Bengals wins over the Chiefs last season the red zone
was red hot. Only on Sunday early in the second half it was to the Chiefs
' advantage against a Bengals offense that had scored 19 touchdowns
on their last 22 trips inside the 20. That included punching in their first two
forays on Sunday to take a 14-3 lead. But when they couldn't get
a touchdown on their next three trips, the Chiefs took a 24-20 lead in the first
minute of the fourth quarter.
With the Bengals trailing, 17-14, it looked like Burrow had just dropped
an 18-yard touchdown pass on third-and-three to the always reliable wide
receiver Tyler Boyd. Boyd was wide open at the left pylon, but dropped it
and the Bengals had to take Evan McPherson's field goal to tie it with 7:16
left in the third quarter at 17.
Down the other end of the field, the Chiefs went for it on fourth down from
the Bengals 3 and Mahomes, feeling pressure, stormed up the middle,
launched himself in the air, and stretched the ball over the goal line before
Bengals rookie cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt jarred the ball loose to give
the Chiefs a 24-17 lead.
With Perine immense in his biggest game since his rookie year, the Bengals
drove again to the Chiefs 18 and had a third-and-one, but left tackle Jonah
Williams
was called for being illegally downfield. On third-and-six, the Chiefs dropped
eight and linebacker Willie Gay tipped a pass to force another field goal
and make it 24-20.
The Bengals flipped the script on the Chiefs and this time took a halftime
lead at 14-10, but like the AFC championship game it was the team that
trailed that bolted into the locker room with the momentum after a big
defensive play in the low red zone.
Thanks to Chase's 40-yard torch one-on one job of rookie cornerback
Joshua Williams as Burrow beat the blitz, the Bengals had a third-and-one
from the Kansas City 4 with 55 seconds left. But they got no push
on a quarterback sneak on third down and on fourth-and-one they tried
a jet sweep to wide receiver Trent Taylor and old friend Carlos Dunlap shot
the gap and dumped him for a three-yard loss.
A huge play for a Chiefs defense ranked last in the league giving up
touchdowns in the red zone against a Bengals offense ranked second
in converting red zone.
It was Burrow's third-and-eight touchdown pass to wide receiver Tee Higgins
in the red zone that gave the Bengals a 14-3 lead in the first two minutes
of the second quarter. That jacked Burrow's numbers to nine touchdowns
and no picks on third down and nine touchdowns and no picks in the red
zone.
It was a monstrous play by Higgins taking a slant from the 12-yard line
, beating Williams and running over safety Juan Thornhill.
Burrow hit his first five throws for 53 yards on one of those brisk, bountiful
seven-minute opening drives consisting of six passes, five runs
and Burrow's four-yard draw that gave them a 7-0 lead. It was Burrow's fifth
rushing touchdown of the season, breaking Jack Thompson's Bengals
quarterback record of five set in 1979.
It was quite a productive series for his tight ends. Hayden Hurst had two
catches for 12 yards and a block on linebacker Nick Bolton, the Chiefs
leading tackler,that opened up Perine's 11-yard catch-and-run. Mitchell
Wilcox had his first catch in a month, a 13-yarder over the middle, and added
a crushing trap block on the NFL's hottest defensive lineman, Chris Jones,
on Perine's ten-yard bolt up the middle.
But Hurst injured his calf soon after and was out for the game.
After Mahomes tried to tie the game at seven with a just-as-brisk drive into
the red zone, nose tackle D.J. Reader came up with his third tipped pass
in two weeks a third-and-three pass headed to Kelce, to force a field goal.
The Bengals then went up 14-3, thanks to two massive penalties on the Chiefs,
a roughing the passer on tackle Taylor Stallworth and a pass interference on
first-round cornerback Trent McDuffie covering Chase.
Chase announced his return in the drive, making his first catch
on third-and-two over the middle. He also picked up a taunting penalty,
but it didn't come back to bite.
The game turned a bit with the Bengals up, 14-3, and six minutes left
in the half. On fourth-and-four from the Bengals 37, Mahomes hit a quick
pop to wide receiver Ju-Ju Smith-Schuster running in the flat and Bengals
rookie cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt had him in his sights.
But he tried to tackle him high and Smith-Schuster went low for the five
yards he neeed and it let Mahomes off the hook. A big jet sweep to rookie
wide receiver Skyy Mopore and a slashing run by running back Jerick
McKinnon set up Mahomes' 30th touchdown pass on a two-yard flip
to the wide-open McKinnon with 2:23 left in the half that cut it to 14-10.
How much better could the Bengals defense play in the first half?
The Chiefs offense came into the game the universe in everything, including
29.6 points per game. Tight end Travis Kelce didn't have a catch on two
targets and Mahomes and his season passer rating of 105.3 passer rating
was ten points below on eight of 14 for just 74 yards.
Burrow was brilliant on 10 of 13 for 128 yards and a touchdown that gave
him a 132.9 passer rating while Chase had three catches for 54 yards.
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