Bengals edge Browns 17-16 as defense and missed kicks define tense opener

A one-point win built on defense and missed kicks

The Bengals walked out of Huntington Bank Field with a 17-16 win that looked nothing like a box-office opener but counts the same in the standings. Cincinnati’s first Week 1 win since 2021 came with a strange stat line: the Browns outgained them 327-141 and hogged the ball by nearly 36 minutes. And yet, when the night demanded poise, Cincinnati’s defense delivered takeaways while Cleveland’s kicking game blinked.

It started clean for Cincinnati. The visitors marched on their first possession and finished, grabbing a quick 7-0 edge. Cleveland answered with a tone-setting reply. New running back Raheim Sanders capped a fourth-down-heavy series with a 1-yard dive off right tackle early in the second quarter to make it 7-7. That opening-drive touchdown was a rarity for the Browns—just the third since the franchise returned in 1999—and it showed Kevin Stefanski’s intent: stay on the field, be aggressive, and force the Bengals to win a trench fight.

Cincinnati nudged back in front late in the half. Joe Burrow, who spent most of the day bottled up, found tight end Noah Fant from a yard out with 4:18 left in the second quarter for a 14-7 lead. Cleveland grabbed three back before the break on Andre Szmyt’s 45-yarder, trimming it to 14-10 at halftime and setting up a second-half tug-of-war.

After halftime, Cleveland seized control of the flow. The Browns opened the third quarter with a deliberate drive, and Joe Flacco—steady throughout—hit Cedric Tillman on a five-yard slant for a 16-14 lead midway through the period. Then came the pivot: Szmyt pushed the extra point wide right. It felt small in the moment. It was anything but.

From there, Cincinnati leaned into what it had: a defense in its first game under coordinator Al Golden that mixed coverages, disguised pressure, and waited for windows to close. The Bengals didn’t win the yardage battle, and they didn’t win the aesthetics, but they owned the margins. Cleveland moved the ball into scoring range multiple times in the second half and came away with pain—two turnovers and one missed kick that carried the weight of the game.

The first giveaway short-circuited a promising Browns march. The second ended it. With 1:24 left and Cleveland hunting the go-ahead points, DJ Turner read Flacco and jumped an outside break for the interception that sent the Bengals sideline roaring. One play earlier, the stadium still felt like Cleveland’s. One snap later, it was Cincinnati’s night.

The miss that will haunt Cleveland came a couple of minutes earlier. Down 17-16 with 2:25 to go, Szmyt hooked a 36-yard field goal wide right—same miss, same direction as his PAT. In a one-point AFC North game, that’s the difference between relief and a long, quiet locker room.

Burrow’s line tells the truth about the kind of afternoon this was. He finished 14-of-23 for 113 yards and one touchdown. The Browns’ corners squeezed windows, the pass rush collapsed pockets, and Cincinnati never found the explosive play. Ja’Marr Chase, usually the game-breaker, was held to two catches for 26 yards. Fant was the security valve, catching four for 26 and the short score. The Bengals were forced to play field position, avoid the killer mistake, and hope their defense could make one more play than Cleveland. That’s exactly how it went.

Flacco’s stat line—31-of-45 for 327 yards—looked like the winning one. He was sharp on intermediate throws, kept downs on schedule, and fed a rotation of targets. But the Browns didn’t cash in enough. Fourth-down boldness produced early points; later, red-zone and fringe-red-zone trips stalled under the weight of one turnover too many and a special teams unit that left four points on the board.

The trench story leaned Cleveland. The Browns drove the tempo with a physical front, stayed out there for long stretches, and dictated snap counts. That’s how you get a 36-minute time-of-possession advantage. But Cincinnati’s front played its best snaps in the high-leverage moments: late down, late quarter, late game. Winning those downs is often more important than winning all the others.

Injuries nudged the chessboard. Cincinnati lost guard Lucas Patrick to a calf injury in the second quarter, forcing changes inside and making the run game even harder to establish. Linebacker Logan Wilson was evaluated for a concussion in the third but returned in the fourth, then helped marshal the middle in Cleveland’s final pushes. The Browns lost right tackle Jack Conklin to an eye injury in the second quarter, a hit to their protection plan as the Bengals varied pressure looks in the second half.

Both coaching staffs made clear choices. Stefanski embraced early aggression, converting two fourth downs on the Sanders touchdown drive, and trusted a veteran quarterback to manage the game. Zac Taylor accepted a grind. With the offense stuck in second gear, he leaned on field position and a defense that kept the ball in front and rallied to the tackle. Golden mixed zone shells and late rotation to bait throws like the one Turner picked. On a day when Burrow didn’t have his A game, complementary football was the play.

The backdrop matters, too. The AFC North is a yearly rock fight, and Week 1 is often messy. Cincinnati hadn’t opened with a win since 2021, and it showed in how they celebrated a game that, on paper, they had no business taking. When you’re outgained by almost 200 yards and still win, it usually comes down to turnovers and kicks. This was textbook.

There’s also the Browns’ rare Week 1 touchdown nugget—just the third opening-drive touchdown since the franchise returned in 1999. It should have been a tone-setter for a full afternoon. Instead, it became a footnote underlined by the two misses wide right and two second-half giveaways that flipped the script.

Player to player, the contrasts were stark. Burrow was careful; Flacco was productive. Chase was bracketed; Tillman found space in the low red. Fant became a short-area lifeline; Sanders was the hammer on the goal line. And on defense, Cincinnati’s DJ Turner authored the snap that will live in this rivalry’s memory until they meet again.

Special teams will get the heat in Cleveland. Szmyt hit from 45 before half, then missed the routine ones—an extra point and a 36-yarder that professionals expect to make. Lakefront venues are tricky, and pressure is real, but these were not low-percentage kicks. In one-score division games, that’s the difference between starting 1-0 and explaining 0-1.

Hidden yards mattered. Cleveland’s length-of-field marches drained the clock, but without touchdowns, all that control just kept the Bengals within one swing. Cincinnati’s defense flipped that field with takeaways, and the offense did just enough—capitalizing on one short field before halftime and protecting the ball afterward. No style points, just a cleaner sheet in the turnover column and a scoreboard that favored the guys in white.

For Cincinnati, the win is more than a sigh. It’s proof the defense can close, and that when the passing game stalls, they can still grind out a result. For Cleveland, there’s a lot to like on tape—movement, structure, a quarterback who distributed the ball—and one glaring thing to fix: finish drives and finish kicks.

What decided it, and what comes next

If you’re looking for the three plays that swung it, they’re simple: Fant’s 1-yard touchdown that salvaged a shaky first half, Szmyt’s missed point-after that turned a two-point edge into a one-point margin, and Turner’s interception with 1:24 left that put the game on ice. Everything else—the yardage pile, the time of possession—was real but secondary.

There’s a tactical story here, too. Golden’s debut leaned on disguise more than blitz volume. Cincinnati made Flacco throw short and outside, then rallied to the ball. The Browns answered with underneath rhythm throws, a commitment to early-down efficiency, and fourth-down aggression. On most days, that recipe works. On this one, the small mistakes outweighed the steady gains.

Numbers to chew on, even without diving deep: 327-141 in total yards to Cleveland. Nearly 36 minutes of possession for the Browns. Burrow under 120 passing yards. Chase at 26. And still, the team that won the turnover and kicking battle won the game by one.

The injuries are watch items going forward. The Bengals will monitor Patrick’s calf and Wilson after his concussion check. The Browns will hope Conklin’s eye issue is nothing long-term, because their line depth will be stress-tested in September. Health shifts game plans fast, especially in a division where every snap is heavy.

The calendar doesn’t give either side time to brood. Cincinnati hosts the Jacksonville Jaguars next Sunday in a test of whether the passing game can level up against a fast defense. Cleveland hits the road to face the Baltimore Ravens, where special teams focus will be under a bright light and finishing drives won’t be optional. September doesn’t decide divisions, but it sets the tone. On Sunday in Cleveland, the tone was clear: the margins will decide this race, one swing at a time.