The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns 21-14 on Sunday. The story of the game was DeShaun Watson, who was carted off the field with an Achilles injury. While the Browns' season completely changes, Cincinnati's season is finally looking up. Joe Burrow and the Bengals won in Cleveland for the first time since 2017 and he gave a very simple reaction to it.

Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer captured this part of the post-game press conference.

“Defense stepped up today. we made plays when we needed to, big win for the Bengals.”

The Bengals started this game with a bang before Burrow even hit the field. Charlie Jones took the opening kick to the end zone and put Cincinnati up 7-0 early. The offense got into a rhythm in the second half, as Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase both found paydirt. While it was not a high-scoring performance, it was a win that they desperately needed.

To say the Bengals got off to a slow start would be a dramatic understatement. They lost at home to the Patriots in Week 1, a loss that looks worse each week and fell to the Chiefs in Week 2. After Jayden Daniels smoked their defense for 38 points, they were 0-3. A cupcake win over the Panthers got them into the win column before they dramatically lost to the Ravens.

The Bengals must continue to string together wins\

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The Bengals have now won back-to-back games after that overtime loss to the Ravens. A 17-7 win over the Giants and a 21-14 win on Sunday are not the way many thought they would start winning. Their defense had struggled through five weeks but now, as Burrow mentioned, have stepped up in back-to-back weeks. That all converges at a difficult point in their schedule.

The Eagles have also won back-to-back games and are headed to Cincinnati for a big game next week. After a Week 9 matchup with the Raiders, they have games against the Steelers and Chargers. The difficult schedule is not what the Bengals want to be looking at, as they desperately need to get on a roll.

The biggest highlight of this game for Cincinnati is the dueling touchdowns from Higgins and Chase. They have one of the best wide receiver duos in the league when healthy and they proved that on Sunday. As long as they are both with the Bengals, Burrow has to take advantage of the mismatches they create.