Seahawks Finally Get a Victory : Pro football: Fenner has three touchdowns again as Seattle shuts down Cincinnati, 31-16.

Dave Krieg and Derrick Fenner found the path to the end zone. Rufus Porter found the path to Boomer Esiason.

The combination worked well Monday night to give Seattle its first victory of the season, a 31-16 defeat of Cincinnati that knocked the Bengals from the NFL’s unbeaten ranks.

“I figured if we played hard enough, sooner or later we’d beat somebody,” Coach Chuck Knox said after Fenner scored three touchdowns, Krieg threw for two and Porter inspired a defense that entered the game ranked next-to-last statistically in the NFL.

Porter, who had two of Seattle’s three sacks, was all over the field as the Seahawks continually thwarted Esiason and the Cincinnati offense. The Bengals were limited to three field goals by Jim Breech until Mitchell price returned a punt 66 yards for a score in the fourth quarter.

“They just shut us down,” said Esiason, who completed 10 of 23 passes for 128 yards. “They literally dominated us in every aspect of the game.”

One of those aspects was Krieg, who even threw a key block on a 22-yard run by John L. Williams during a touchdown drive.

Krieg directed the Seahawks to be 17-9 lead after three quarters as Fenner scored on runs of three and four yards.

Then, on the first play of the fourth quarter, Krieg suddenly found Tommy Kane deep on the left sideline behind Rickey Dixon and hit him in stride for the clinching score. Krieg had thrown only one touchdown pass in his three previous games and his longest completion had been 28 yards.

He later h it Fenner from two yards out with 3:50 left in the game -- Fenner’s sixth touchdown in the last two games.

Krieg finished with 17 completions in 24 attempts for 217 yards, but porter played just as big a role as the Seahawks (1-3) became the last team in the league to win and Cincinnati dropped to 3-1.

On a single series with Seattle leading, 10-6, early in the third quarter, Porter deflected two passes and sacked Esiason, incurring a personal-foul penalty for throwing the Cincinnati quarterback to the ground.

But even the penalty helped, firing up the Kingdome crowd of 60,135 to a noise level that made it almost impossible for Cincinnati to get a play off.

“He had an outstanding game,” Esiason said of Porter. “He made some great plays, even if some were questionable.”

On the next series, the Seahawks went 54 yards in five plays, scoring on Fenner’s three-yard run to make it 17-6. The drive was marked by Williams’ run, in which he reversed his field and got a block from Krieg, among others, in getting the ball to the Cincinnati 16-yard-line. After Breech kicked a 43-yarder to make it 17-9, Krieg found Kane, who turned Dixon around before making the catch.

Then, after Price’s return, Krieg marched the Seahwks 80 yards in 11 plays for the final score.