Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap celebrates after sacking Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel on Thursday night.(Photo: The Enquirer/Sam Greene)
An important change in the game Thursday night, which went a long way in the Cincinnati Bengals beating the Cleveland Browns 31-10 and improving to 8-0, was a halftime adjustment to keep Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel in the pocket.
Easier said than done, but the Bengals managed it.
Its just the latest in a series of in-game and week-to-week improvements the Bengals have made to get off to a historic start.
After several after-the-whistle penalties in Oakland at the start of the year, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said those infractions would disappear. They have. After the secondary was victimized for long touchdowns, Lewis said those issues would be corrected they have been since the bye.
And after Sundays victory in Pittsburgh, when the offense struggled and routinely set itself back with penalties and mistakes, that group came out and did not commit a single penalty or turnover.
I hope this group has special abilities, special qualities, Lewis said of that mindset to fix whats broken. I think theyre smart enough to understand, theyre professional enough to understand it. Its being reinforced and they get it. Were talking about these things that are critical to winning and losing and they want to win. If we can do these things then we make winning a higher probability.
Eight is not enough
The Bengals have the weekend off to rest thanks to a mini-bye the Thursday night game allowed, but even at 8-0 the first team in the NFL to reach that mark Lewis wasnt ready to dole out any mid-season high fives.
Eight is not enough, he said, along with a smile. Weve done what weve been handed (schedule-wise) but weve got a lot of work still to do. Nothings been decided. We have a chance to get ourselves refreshed a little bit. We had two tough division games, which we knew (they) would be, and now weve got Houston coming here on Monday night which we know is going to be a very tough, physical game. Theyre coming off their bye, so theyll be ready to go.
The Bengals will vie to become just the 29th team in NFL history to start 9-0, according to STATS LLC. The last to do it were the 2013 Kansas City Chiefs. The feat has been accomplished eight times by six different teams in the last 10 years.
Burfict to call cameraman
Lewis said Vontaze Burfict has asked to call the Jungle Vision cameraman whose face was injured in the first quarter of Thursdays game when the linebacker knocked it off the podium it was placed on.
The incident occurred after a pass by Johnny Manziel fell incomplete out of the end zone, and Burfict and safety Reggie Nelson were in pursuit of the play. Nelson avoided the camera podium, but Burfict knocked it to the ground.
Lewis said the cameraman felt that was an unnecessary request, and the coach said the organization was happy he didnt suffer more serious injuries.
Broadcast numbers
According to the NFL Network, Thursday night"s broadcast averaged an overnight rating of 7.3, which was a 43 percent improvement over the week 8 broadcast of a year ago, which featured New Orleans and Carolina.The NFL Network also said the game drew more than 1.5 million live streams, which is the biggest number of any Thursday night game this year.
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Source: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/nfl/bengals/2015/11/06/cincinnati-bengals-adjust-success/75300786/
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