Johnson Bounces Back for Bengals

With two reputations on the line -- his team’s and his own -- Chad got the best of Champ and turned the Bengals into a prime-time success.

Chad Johnson left cornerback Champ Bailey face-down in his tracks on a 50-yard touchdown catch that got the Bengals headed toward a 23-10 victory over the Denver Broncos in their long-awaited return to “Monday Night Football.”

The Bengals (2-4) hadn’t played on the Monday night stage for 12 years, the longest current exile in the league. A crowd of 65,806 -- the biggest ever to see a Bengal game in Cincinnati -- was hoping just to avoid embarrassment.

A chatty receiver gave them so much more.

A week after one of the most embarrassing moments of his career, Johnson excelled in a matchup of Pro Bowl receiver versus Pro Bowl cornerback.

“This is something I expect,” said Johnson, who had only three catches and three drops in a 34-17 loss at Cleveland. “I let everybody down last week, so I worked double hard this week.”

With Bailey locked on him man to man, Johnson made one easy catch and several acrobatic ones that positioned Cincinnati for the upset.

“They believe in covering man to man and loading up to stop the run,” quarterback Carson Palmer said. “We were counting on Chad, leaning on Chad to get open and catch balls downfield.”

Denver (5-2) had won its last four games with the NFL’s best running game and a defense that ranks among the leaders in every category. The Broncos couldn’t get nearly enough out of either.

Johnson did the most damage, catching seven passes for 149 yards. He had two 50-yard catches against Bailey in the first half, getting the downtrodden Bengals to believe they could pull it off.

“He made a couple of plays,” said Bailey, a four-time Pro Bowl player. “That’s just the way it is in this league. I’m not afraid of any challenge. That’s the way I roll.”

A week earlier, Johnson had sent Pepto-Bismol to the Cleveland Brown defensive backs, only to play the worst game of his career.

This one more than made up for it.

“A lot of guys would go in the tank,” said Palmer, who completed 12 of 21 passes for 198 yards.

“That’s a true judge of character, having to bounce back from adversity with that whole Pepto-Bismol deal.”

Rudi Johnson also had a breakout game, running for 119 yards and a 36-yard touchdown that put the Bengals up 20-10 late in the third quarter.

It was only the second time all season that an opponent scored so many points on Denver.