CLEVELAND – Here in the land of misery, they’re saying the Cleveland Browns did the most Browns thing in Sunday’s season opener.
They beat themselves.
In Cincinnati, they’re saying the Browns won the game for the Bengals.
They’ll take it.
The Bengals won the season opener, 17-16. They won a season opener for the first time since 2021. They don’t have to face an uphill slog right out of the gate after season-opening losses the last two seasons set them on a bad course, shrunk their margin for error and ultimately cost them a playoff bid.
One-point win. 20-point win. Whatever. Doesn’t matter that it was U-G-L-Y, ugly, ugly. Doesn’t matter that the Bengals’ offense wasn’t ready to play a season opener – again. Yay! There’s a new narrative in town after Week 1.
“We’ll take it,” Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said. “We stole one today, and we’ll have to get better.”
Stole one? It was highway robbery. An offense with Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Chase Brown mustered all of 141 yards, the fewest in offensive-minded head coach Zac Taylor’s tenure. And 68 of those yards came on the opening drive of the game.
The Bengals had seven yards in the second half. Seven! That’s the fewest second-half yards any NFL team has recorded and still won in a quarter-century. What if the Browns’ kicker hadn’t missed an extra point and a short field goal? What if the Browns’ receivers didn’t drop passes that hit them square in the hands at critical times? And what if both Bengals interceptions hadn’t first ricocheted off Browns receivers’ hands?
Stop!
Why go down that rabbit hole of negativity? Why call talk radio and moan and groan? Why doomscroll on Twitter? Why dwell on everything that went wrong? Leave the fixin’ to the coaches and players. Let the stat nerds stress over this game.
Enjoy this one, Bengals fans.
Because when it’s late December and the Bengals are fighting to get into the playoffs or have already clinched a postseason berth, the season opener won’t come back to haunt them. The Bengals missed the playoffs each of the last two seasons by one game. How long did everyone dwell on that ugly, 24-3 season-opening loss here in Cleveland two years ago? How long did everyone stew over that disastrous loss at home against New England to open last season?
Good news: The standings don’t discriminate today or at playoff time. The standings don’t judge whether it was a thing-of-beauty win or an ugly win. And banking this win could be big if the Bengals continue their recent trend of playing well late in the season.
But Burrow only threw for 113 yards. And old timer Joe Flacco threw for almost 300 yards. The Browns are supposed to be one of the worst teams in the NFL.
Stop! Why go there?
The Bengals won in a place that has been a house of horrors during Taylor’s seven seasons. Some of Burrow’s worst games have come in Huntington Bank Field. Thing is, the Bengals lost games when they played horribly here in 2022 and 2023. Taylor’s team has now won two straight games in Cleveland after starting his Bengals’ tenure 0-5 here.
“There’s always adversity Week 1,” Taylor said. “There’s always adversity when we’re on the road at Cleveland. It’s never simple. And so for our guys to find a way to win it there in the end, I’m proud of them. The best outcome of this game was 1-0. Forget about the stats. Forget about the score. Forget about how it all played out.”
But the Bengals gave up a sack on three consecutive plays, almost allowing a safety in the fourth quarter. That was embarrassing. Isn’t their offensive line supposed to be better? Hard to tell if the Bengals are actually improved after that game.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
How many of these tight games didn’t go the Bengals’ way last season, especially early on? The gut-wrenching one-point loss at Kansas City in Week 2. The five-point loss on Monday Night Football vs. Washington in Week 3. The overtime home heartbreaker against Baltimore in Week 5. How many silly mistakes the Bengals make in critical moments of those games?
“Everything didn’t go our way,” Taylor said. “But I truly believe our guys didn’t do anything to beat ourselves.”
Contact columnist Jason Williams at jwilliams@enquirer.com
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Williams: Joe Burrow struggled? So what. Ugly win a thing of beauty for Cincinnati Bengals
Reporting by Jason Williams, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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