Joe Burrow made just enough plays, and the struggling Bengals defense stepped up to secure a much-needed win, giving Cincinnati some hope after a rough start.
Burrow scored on a career-long 47-yard run during the first drive, and Chase Brown sealed the game with a 30-yard touchdown run right after his fumble thankfully rolled out of bounds, leading to a 17-7 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday night.
“We really needed it,” Burrow said after the Bengals improved to 2-4. “I don’t want to say we would have been out of it if we lost, but we’d be scratching and clawing for the rest of the year.
We still really are, but it was good to get a win. Great to see our defense step up like that. They’ve taken some heat the last couple of weeks. They played awesome tonight.”
Evan McPherson kicked a 37-yard field goal to give the Bengals the lead in the third quarter after a bad snap and hold caused him to miss a possible game-winning kick the week before.
Rookie Tyrone Tracy scored a 1-yard touchdown for the Giants (2-4), who are still winless at home in three games and have scored just one touchdown. They failed to take advantage of a Bengals defense that was ranked 31st in the league for scoring.
The Giants punted four times in the first half. In the second half, they turned it over on downs twice, and Greg Joseph missed two field goals.
The high-scoring Bengals were coming off a tough 41-38 overtime loss to Baltimore, their second defeat this season where Burrow and the offense scored more than 30 points. McPherson’s missed kick played a part in that loss, but the Bengals also struggled to stop the Ravens and Lamar Jackson.
This time, Cincinnati’s defense was led by Trey Hendrickson, who had two sacks, and linebacker Germaine Pratt, who intercepted Daniel Jones near the goal line in the first quarter after former Giant B.J. Hill hit Jones while he was throwing.
“We just knew we had to come out and play our type of football,” Hill said. “We were better at it. We’re still not perfect, still got a long way to go, but we can build off this win.”
After Tracy’s touchdown run tied the game, the Bengals quickly took the lead again as Burrow moved around in the backfield to find Ja’Marr Chase with a 33-yard pass to the Giants’ 37-yard line. McPherson kicked a field goal to put the Bengals ahead with 41 seconds left in the quarter.
New York had a chance to tie the game soon after, but Joseph missed a 47-yard attempt when the ball veered left as it approached the goalposts.
The Giants had one last opportunity to even the score late in the fourth quarter, but a pass to Darius Slayton was knocked away by DJ Turner.
The Giants, who hadn’t scored a touchdown in their first 10 quarters at home this season, finally reached the end zone with Tracy’s 1-yard run with 5:48 left in the third quarter. This capped a long 16-play, 79-yard drive that included two fourth-down conversions by Tracy.
Burrow put the Bengals in front with his legs. After scrambling for a first down on the third play of the game, he ran untouched for 47 yards to score a touchdown on third-and-18.
“I saw an opening, saw it was man coverage,” said Burrow, who led the Bengals with 55 yards rushing on four carries. “I was able to squeak through there and find the end zone.”
Burrow’s previous longest run was 23 yards, which he achieved twice since starting his career in 2020.
The Giants played without talented rookie receiver Malik Nabers (concussion) and starting running back Devin Singletary (groin) for the second week in a row, and Nabers’ absence was felt.
“We didn’t score enough points offensively and it starts with me,” coach Brian Daboll said. “It’s hard to win games when you score seven points, and that’s the reality of it.”
