Patriots clinch playoff spot by breaking away from Bengals

CINCINNATI – The New England Patriots were indeed on to Cincinnati.

After a week of controversy, which some are dubbing "Spygate 2," the Cincinnati Bengals wouldn’t get any revenge on Bill Belichick and the Patriots. A week after the Bengals were reportedly furious as a Patriots production video crew was caught filming the Cincinnati sideline in Cleveland, the only team that played angry on Sunday was the Patriots.

It wasn’t perfect inside Paul Brown Stadium, but this Patriots team — which clinched its 11th consecutive playoff berth with the win — never took its foot off the gas pedal.

This game played out like many other Patriots contests this season — the defense and special teams units stood up and forced turnovers to lead the way. Meanwhile, the Patriots offense played a blend of inconsistent football against this 1-13 Bengals team. But the effort on Sunday was more than enough as the Patriots handed the Bengals a 34-13 loss.

By the late fourth quarter, chants of "Brady! Brady! Brady!" filled the stadium as the Patriots improve to 11-3.

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Brady completed 15 of 29 passes for just 128 yards to go with two touchdowns to N’Keal Harry and James White. Sony Michel also ran for 89 yards. Of course, in this game, the Patriots defense led the way with four interceptions, two by Stephon Gilmore, who returned one for a touchdown, and two by J.C. Jackson.

It didn’t take Brady long to get going on Sunday. In the first drive, the Patriots traveled 75 yards down field in just 3:16 to take a 7-0 lead. Brady’s only two completions of the drive went to White. The first was a gain of 22. The last, on third-and-10, was a 23-yard touchdown pass to the running back, who caught the ball in the flat and scampered past multiple Bengals defenders for the score at 11:44 of the first quarter.

The Bengals ran all over the Patriots defense on the next drive. Cincinnati averaged 8.4 yards per carry on the nine-play, 75-yard drive to tie the game, 7-7. The Bengals ran the ball on the first eight plays of the series before Andy Dalton hit Cethan Carter for an 8-yard touchdown, on third down, at 6:13 of the first quarter.

After the Patriots went three-and-out, the Bengals took a 10-7 lead. Once again, the Pats defense couldn’t stop the run. They also struggled to defend the pass as Cincinnati easily went downfield to set up a 34-yard field goal from Randy Bullock with 14 seconds left in the first quarter.

The Patriots were close to field goal range on their third drive. Instead of attempting a 53-yard field goal, the offense stayed on the field for fourth-and-4. The gamble didn’t work as Brady’s pass went through the tips of Mohamed Sanu’s hands for a turnover on downs.

The Bengals made the same gamble on their next drive, going for it on fourth-and-1. The plan didn’t work as Danny Shelton stuffed Joe Mixon for no gain and a turnover on downs. The Patriots came back to tie the game, 10-10, with Nick Folk hitting a 40-yard field goal at 3:51 of the second quarter.

The Patriots offense looked bad to end the half – allow a sack on each of the last two third down plays. Fortunately, the Pats special teams unit stepped up.

At 1:45 of the second quarter, Matthew Slater forced a fumble on Bengals punt returner Alex Erickson. Justin Bethel recovered the ball. Brady and the offense went nowhere, they moved back five yards, but Folk hit a 46-yard field goal with five seconds remaining in the first half to take a 13-10 lead.

The Patriots defense stepped up to start the second half with Stephon Gilmore intercepting Dalton in at 14:21 of the third quarter. Brady made the most of the turnover, hitting rookie N’Keal Harry for a 7-yard touchdown at 11:17 of the third to extend the Patriots lead to 20-10.

Gilmore continued to terrorize Dalton. On the next series, the Patriots cornerback intercepted the Bengals quarterback and returned it for a 64-yard touchdown. This marked Gilmore’s second pick-six of the season as the Patriots led 27-10 at 7:21 of the third quarter. The Patriots secondary wasn’t done, either. With 30 seconds left in the third quarter, J.C. Jackson intercepted Dalton.

Following a 48-yard field goal by Bullock, the Bengals nearly got the ball back when Sanu fumbled at 5:50 of the fourth quarter. However, the Bengals also committed three penalties on the play so the Patriots kept the ball. On the very next play, Rex Burkhead ran in for a 33-yard touchdown with 5:31 left and the Pats held a commanding 34-13.

Jackson notched his second interception of the game at 3:54 of the fourth quarter.