Bengals defense ended an embarrassing streak that lasted more than four years

For years, the Cincinnati Bengals have lived by a fairly simple formula: Joe Burrow and the offense better score enough points to win.

Sunday's 20-6 victory over the Houston Texans offered perhaps the strongest evidence yet that those days might finally be over.

For the first time since Week 3 of the 2022 season, Cincinnati completed an entire game without allowing a touchdown. That ended a franchise-record 65-game streak in which the Bengals had surrendered at least one trip to the end zone.

According to NFL Research, it was also the longest active streak in the league. That's an ugly statistic to finally put in the rearview mirror.

But what happened in Houston was about much more than ending an embarrassing streak.

Bengals defense finally gives Joe Burrow a different way to win

Cincinnati didn't need Burrow to throw for 400 yards. Didn't need Ja'Marr Chase to completely take over the game.

Instead, they played defense.

The Bengals didn't even force a turnover. Houston accumulated 374 yards and C.J. Stroud threw for 353, so this wasn't necessarily a vintage defensive performance between the 20-yard lines. The Texans moved the football. They just couldn't finish.

Houston's only points came on a pair of field goals, while Cincinnati repeatedly made the plays that mattered most.

None was bigger than Dexter Lawrence's fourth-and-inches stop in the second quarter.

With Houston threatening at the Bengals' 18-yard line, Lawrence blew through the middle and dropped David Montgomery for a one-yard loss. Cincinnati responded by driving 81 yards for the game's first touchdown.

That sequence perfectly represented what this version of the Bengals defense is becoming. Don't worry about making every play. Make the important ones.

The rebuilt defensive front also made life increasingly difficult for Stroud as the game continued.

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Cincinnati generated 27 pressures on 62 dropbacks, a 43.5 percent pressure rate and the most pressures the Bengals have generated in a game since Al Golden became defensive coordinator.

Even more encouraging was where that production came from.

Jonathan Allen and Boye Mafe each generated seven pressures. Cedric Johnson added six, Cashius Howell had five and Lawrence finished with four.

Five different Bengals producing at least four pressures is exactly what Cincinnati hoped for when it rebuilt its defensive front. And eventually, all that pressure turned into sacks. The Bengals got to Stroud four times in the fourth quarter, including sacks from Shemar Stewart and Johnson on Houston's final possession.

This wasn't one superstar carrying the defense. It was wave after wave of fresh pass rushers, which has the potential to completely change the math on Cincinnati's margin for error.

Burrow was sacked five times Sunday. The offense managed only 267 total yards. Cincinnati committed 12 penalties. In recent seasons, that combination could have easily resulted in a loss.

Instead, Burrow threw two touchdown passes, protected the football, Evan McPherson supplied six points from beyond 50 yards and the defense handled the rest.

Burrow noticed the difference.

Afterward, he compared the feeling to early 2021, when Cincinnati could play more conservatively offensively because it trusted its defense to help win games. That's significant.

The Bengals still have one of the most talented quarterbacks and receiving groups in football. There will be afternoons when Burrow, Chase and Tee Higgins have to carry them.

But they may no longer need to do it every week.

Cincinnati forced four fumbles and recorded four sacks in its season-opening win over Tampa Bay. Against Houston, the turnovers disappeared, but the defense responded by keeping the Texans out of the end zone entirely.

Two games. Two very different defensive performances. Two wins.

It's far too early to declare Cincinnati's defensive problems completely solved. However, after 65 consecutive games of watching opponents reach the end zone, Bengals fans finally saw something Sunday they hadn't witnessed in more than four years...

A defense capable of winning the game itself.

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