Cincy rallies past depleted Atlanta
ATLANTA — Andy Dalton threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Green with seven seconds remaining, lifting Cincinnati to a 37-36 win over the Falcons on Sunday.
Dalton moved the Bengals 75 yards in about four minutes. He completed two passes on fourth down to Tyler Boyd, who had 11 catches for 100 yards, to keep the drive alive.
Green, the Georgia alum, made a diving catch in the right side of the end zone to cap the drive. He had four catches for 78 yards.
“Every time we were in the huddle, we were encouraging each other and saying, ‘We’ve got to find a way,’ ” tight end C.J. Uzomah said. “We made it happen.” Giovani Bernard ran for 69 yards and two touchdowns for Cincinnati (3-1).
Matt Ryan continued his resurgence with three scoring passes, two to rookie Calvin Ridley, for the Falcons. Just like the previous Sunday, when he had his first career game with five touchdown passes in a loss to New Orleans, Ryan was hurt by his injury-depleted defense.
The Falcons (1-3) topped 30 points for the third straight week. Ryan, the 2016 NFL MVP, has thrown eight touchdown passes in his past two games and has 10 through four games after throwing 20 in 2017.
He said he can’t let the struggles on defense put more pressure on the offense.
“I don’t put any more or any less pressure on myself,” Ryan said. “I just have that mind-set we have to get the job done, and we haven’t been doing that and that’s disappointing.”
The Atlanta defense also faltered in the 43-37 overtime loss to New Orleans. Atlanta head coach Dan Quinn said his team must play better when the game is on the line.
“Those are the moments when it’s time to close the door and shut it, we’re going to develop that instinct,” Quinn said. “We do not have it as we need it right now.”
The Bengals have enjoyed a strong start despite playing three of their first four games on the road. They play six of their next eight at home.
Atlanta’s Matt Bryant, who kicked three field goals, including a 55-yard field goal in the second quarter, was good from 32 yards to give the Falcons a 36-31 lead with 4:15 remaining.
That was too much time for Dalton, who completed 29 of 41 passes for 336 yards and three touchdowns and one interception.
Cincinnati tight end Tyler Eifert had four catches for 38 yards, including a 15-yard TD in the first quarter, before suffering a gruesome lower right leg injury early in the third period.