Bengals Hold Off Browns

The Cincinnati Bengals, using trick plays on offense and tough goal-line plays on defense, defeated the Cleveland Browns, 21-14, Monday night at Riverfront Stadium.

The Bengals opened Coach Sam Wyche’s book of tricks to score three times on passes by Boomer Esiason before the second half was 5 minutes old.

But in keeping with their tradition, they couldn’t put the Cleveland Browns away.

And into the void stepped Bernie Kosar, the Cleveland quarterback who twice drove his team inside Cincinnati’s 10-yard line in the fourth quarter.

There, however, the Browns died quietly on two drive-ending fourth-down plays, the first on a run that was stuffed on fourth and one.

Then, on the most dramatic play of the night, the Bengals deflected a pass by Kosar on fourth and three when Bengal cornerback Eric Thomas got to the ball ahead of Cincinnati wide receiver Reggie Langhorne.

“I couldn’t believe Bernie threw that one,” Thomas said. “As Langhorne came into my flat, the ball came right to me.”

And as fast as that, the Browns fell for the first time this season under their new coach, Bud Carson, leaving the Denver Broncos as the only undefeated team in the American Football Conference.

The two Ohio teams, rivals for 20 years, now share the top spot in the AFC Central with 2-1 records.

It was a strange sort of game in which, for three quarters, Kosar seemingly had to stand off the Bengals by himself.

The Browns could gain only seven yards running in the first three quarters. And they couldn’t stop Cincinnati’s big plays out of Wyche’s no-huddle formations. All they had was Kosar, whose picture passes kept him even with Cincinnati for 30 minutes, 14-14, before a capacity crowd.

Every time Esiason scored in the first half, Kosar came back promptly to get the Browns even.

That ended in the third quarter, when he couldn’t match Cincinnati’s last touchdown. Thus, Esiason won it with his third scoring pass, which he completed down the middle to halfback James Brooks for 19 yards.

Like everything else they did of importance Monday night, the Bengals put a spin on that play, spreading the Cleveland defense and forcing the Browns to single-cover the elusive Brooks with a bulky linebacker, Clay Matthews.

A former USC All-American, Matthews said: “(The Bengals) have good people across the board--four or five who went to the Pro Bowl. You can’t double all of them, and the Boomer just hits whoever gets open.”

On passes from Esiason to tight end Rodney Holman, the first two Cincinnati touchdowns had been even trickier.

On second and goal at the Cleveland eight-yard line, the Bengals sent out a decoy to pick off the defensive back covering Holman, who thereupon scored with ease.

Then on a first-down pass at the Cleveland 16, as Esiason rolled right to draw the Cleveland defense that way, Holman, by design, blocked a Cleveland end, then got up and raced into the open to his left, scoring again with ease.

One reason for the Bengals’ success on these plays was the effectiveness of its running attack with a new fullback, rookie Eric Ball of UCLA, who, replacing injured Ickey Woods, was the game’s leading rusher with 78 yards. On fast up-the-middle-runs, Brooks added 67 yards.

The Browns, by contrast, could run with no consistency at all.

Repeatedly, Ball and Brooks broke away on 12- to 14-yard runs. Repeatedly, Cleveland runners were jammed at the line of scrimmage.

The Browns had lost a big part of their fine ground game between seasons when they dealt Earnest Byner to Washington and when Kevin Mack was suspended for substance abuse.

In other years, Byner had been said to keep Mack in line, but in one trade Kosar lost two superior ground gainers, leaving him without enough help.

His touchdown passes were well thrown to a rookie, Eric Metcalf (five yards), and a fullback, Tim Manoa (six yards), ending long aerial drives.

And Metcalf made the run of the night on his scoring play, faking one Cincinnati tackler one way and a second tackler the other way. His problem is that as a long holdout this summer, he doesn’t yet know the Cleveland plays.

This was all right with Wyche, who said: “It was a must game--not that the whole season was lost if we didn’t win it. But we’re in a totally different posture if (Cleveland) wins and goes ahead (in the standings) by two games. We’re all even now.”

Of Eric Ball, Wyche said: “He’s a slasher with a big pro future.”

With Woods gone for the season, Ball is just in time.