Bengals News (10/29): Andy Dalton manages to hold off Ryan Fitzpatrick’s magic finish

Defense Manned Up With Injuries and History
For the first time in four years they picked the ball off four times in a game and when rookie safety Jessie Bates celebrated the last one with his first NFL pick-six with a defensive picture selfie in the end zone and 2:10 left in the third quarter, the Bengals had chased Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston to the bench and perhaps oblivion with a 34-16 lead.

Another Green-Dalton Houdini Escapes FitzMagic
The Bengals offense has been wildly inconsistent this season, lurching from game to game, half to half, even from series to series with giddy highs and crushing lows. But the one constant has been the Fountain Square reliability of A.J. Green and Andy Dalton in the fourth quarter and Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium another one of their last drive Houdinis was enough to escape the ever intoxicating spell of FitzMagic.

Postgame Quotes: Buccaneers at Bengals
“It’s good to win, but disappointing to allow a football team back in the game with the two big touchdowns and the drives. We’re still growing through some things, and we’ve got to continue to do it. We went through a lull there on offense in the second half, and with running, and being able to grind and dedicate ourselves to run the football, we weren’t getting done. We’ve got to keep getting better, as we know. We’ve got a lot of work to keep doing.”

Quick Hits: Green's Suggestion; History Haunts Defense; Corners Like To Travel; C.J. Was Franks About Call
They did it again the next week against Pittsburgh at PBS when Dalton found Green for two late plays that set up running back Joe Mixon’s four-yard TD and a 21-20 lead over the Steelers with 78 seconds left. Pittsburgh wiped out that come-back win with its own comeback, but Sunday at PBS the CPR team of Dalton and Green struck again and held on for a 37-34 win on Randy Bullock’s 44-yarder at the gun.

Bullock Kick Lifts Bengals Past Bucs, 37-34
Joe Mixon ran for a career-high 123 yards and two touchdowns, while Tyler Boyd added nine catches for his career-high of 138 yards and a score as the Bengals head into the bye week at 5-3 overall.

Bucs-Bengals: The horrible position Jameis Winston has put his team in
CINCINNATI — Dirk Koetter almost went to the bullpen sooner. Jameis Winston had already thrown two of his four interceptions and trailed 21-0 to the Bengals when the Bucs head coach first considered benching his erratic starter.

It’s emergency-trade time for Bengals after another rash of injuries
Sunday’s last-second win saw the Bengals lose defensive end Carl Lawson for the season. Left guard Clint Boling left the game with a back injury. Tight end C.J. Uzomah and cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick left with injuries but returned. A.J. Green was on the sideline during the game-winning field goal try getting his bare foot looked at by trainers after limping off.

Bengals limp into bye week with mixed feelings about win
There was happiness about the Week 8 win, eagerness to get out the door for the Week 9 bye, sadness about the loss of defensive end Carl Lawson, and general puzzlement about what to take away from the game.

Cincinnati Bengals: 5 takeaways from 37-34 win over Buccaneers
Jameis Winston’s turnover troubles continued to derail the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and that was the only thing that allowed the Cincinnati Bengals to stay in the game as they rebounded from their worst loss of the season.

Paul Daugherty on Cincinnati Bengals win over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bengals won, kind of. They sort of beat the Tampa Bay Bucs on Sunday. The newest Bengal, Jameis Winston, was highly appreciated by the intimate gathering of fans at Paul Brown Stadium. How often can a team play nearly an entire game with 12 men on the field and never get whistled for it?

Report: Carl Lawson out for year with torn ACL
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Carl Lawson went down early in Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs and was quickly labeled as doubtful to return.

Random Bytes

Vikings QB Kirk Cousins Already Looking Like an $84 Million Flop
The statistics from Cousins' game against the Saints will look respectable in retrospect. He was 31-of-41 for 359 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. The numbers were roughly in line with what his numbers looked like his last few years in Washington.

The Ideal Trade Target for Each NFL Team
The Oakland Raiders dealt wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Dallas Cowboys for their first-round draft pick next year. The New York Giants sent cornerback Eli Apple to the New Orleans Saints in exchange for a 2019 fourth-rounder and a 2020 seventh-round pick and then traded nose tackle Damon Harrison to the Detroit Lions for their fifth-rounder next year.

Rodgers doesn't get chance at Hollywood ending
Standing on the opposite sideline was Aaron Rodgers, a quarterback he'd once idolized as a young Cal fan whose parents are proud alums, and one he later emulated as a Golden Bears star turned NFL standout -- a notorious dream-wrecker whose Green Bay Packers trailed Goff's Los Angeles Rams, 29-27, with 2:05 remaining in Sunday's game and were about to receive the ball.

Drew Brees, Saints Cruise to 30-20 Road Win vs. Kirk Cousins, Vikings on SNF
Drew Brees only totaled 120 passing yards, but Alvin Kamara scored twice to lead the Saints to their sixth straight victory. After a Week 1 hiccup, the squad is now 6-1 and clearly one of the best teams in the NFC.

Todd Gurley Is the Rare Running Back Capable of Being the NFL MVP
This is a league in which nearly 60 percent of plays are passes, barely 40 percent are runs. Per Spotrac, each of the top eight and 17 of the 20 highest-paid players in the NFL are quarterbacks, while there isn't a single running back ranked among the top 50. Twelve of the last 15 Super Bowls have been won by legendary quarterbacks named Manning, Brady, Roethlisberger, Rodgers or Brees.