{"id":32105,"date":"2025-09-07T23:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T23:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32105"},"modified":"2025-09-07T23:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T23:38:11","slug":"breaking-news-missed-kicks-plague-browns-in-opening-loss-to-bengals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32105","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS : Missed kicks plague Browns in opening loss to Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Missed<\/p>\n

CLEVELAND \u2014 DJ Turner and the Bengals defence heard the narrative throughout the off-season that they were mainly the reason why Cincinnati missed the playoffs last season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On a day when Joe Burrow and the high-powered offense struggled against the Cleveland Browns, it was the defence that came up big and propelled the Bengals to their first Week 1 victory since 2021.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Turner and Jordan Battle came up with two huge interceptions in the second half as Cincinnati held on for a 17-16 victory on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt was great. We did exactly what we wanted to do,” Turner said. “All the outside noise we don’t care about. We’ve known the entire time what the defence can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Bengals \u2014 playing their first game under new defensive coordinator Al Golden \u2014 got the huge plays on a day when the offence had only seven yards in the second half with five of their six possessions resulting in a three-and-out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe found a way to win. Like somebody said earlier, we didn\u2019t win any of these games last year,” said Burrow, who completed 14 of 23 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Usually when you can win a game like this, that\u2019s a recipe for success and that means you are going to be a good team if you can find a lot of different ways to win and we did today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Browns outgained the Bengals 327-141 and had the ball for nearly 36 minutes, but it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cincinnati also benefitted from new Cleveland kicker Andre Szmyt missing a pair of second-half kicks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Szmyt, won the kicking competition from Dustin Hopkins in the preseason, was wide right on an extra point after Cedric Tillman’s five-yard TD reception midway through the third quarter put Cleveland up 16-14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Szmyt was wide right again on a potential go-ahead 36-yard attempt with 2:25 remaining in the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cCan\u2019t be minus-2 (on turnovers) versus a good football team. That\u2019s the story of this football game,\u201d Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. \u201cWe obviously missed a field goal, missed an extra point. Those are points, and in these types of games, you have to come away with points.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Joe Flacco \u2014 the eighth quarterback age 40 or older to start an opener \u2014 was 31 of 45 for 290 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Both of the picks were the result though of the ball going off the hands off Browns receivers and the Bengals defensive backs making great plays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI felt like we did a lot of good things, but we also did a lot of things that get you beat. You know, we just kind of felt we kind of played like an inexperienced team a little bit today,” Flacco said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Evan McPherson\u2019s 35-yard field goal off the right hashmark with 2:48 remaining in the third quarter put the Bengals up 17-16. It was set up after Battle intercepted Flacco\u2019s pass at the Browns 36.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ball went off Jerry Jeudy\u2019s hands and knees while he was on ground, but Battle dove, came up with the ball and returned it two yards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cleveland got the ball at its 33 with 1:50 remaining, but Tillman had a pass go off his hands and into the arms of Turner at the Browns 47 and returned seven yards for his first NFL interception.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cFor our guys just to find a way to win in the end. I\u2019m proud of them,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “The best outcome of this game is 1-0. Forget about the stats. Forget about the score. Forget about how it all played out. The best the outcome could have been was 1-0 and we\u2019re proud of that.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tough day<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 113 passing yards were the third fewest of Burrow’s six-year career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, who signed lucrative extensions in the off-season, also struggled. Chase had only two receptions for 26 yards and Higgins had three receptions for 33 yards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tight end Noah Fant, signed the second week of training camp, had a team-high four receptions for 26 yards, including a one-yard TD catch with 4:18 remaining in the first half.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe stole one today, we\u2019re going to have to do better,\u201d Burrow said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Long time coming<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Chase Brown’s five-yard score marked the first time since 2015 that the Bengals had a touchdown on its first possession of the season. Brown had seven carries for 29 yards on the first drive and finished with 43 yards on 21 carries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Raheim Sanders gave the Browns only their third touchdown on its season-opening possession since their return in 1999 with a one-yard dive off right tackle to tie it at 7-7 early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Injuries<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bengals: Guard Lucas Patrick left with a calf injury in the second quarter and did not return, LB Logan Wilson was evaluated for a concussion in the third quarter but came back in the fourth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cincinnati’s defence came up with two second-half turnovers, including DJ Turner’s interception with 1:24 remaining, and the Bengals held on for a 17-16 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cleveland-browns"],"yoast_head":"\nBREAKING NEWS : Missed kicks plague Browns in opening loss to Bengals - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32105\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING NEWS : Missed kicks plague Browns in opening loss to Bengals - 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