The defense continued its season-long dominance at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday and Andy Dalton pumped four touchdowns to became the second Bengals quarterback in history to reach 30 in a season as Cincinnati wrapped up its third straight playoff appearance and second AFC North title in five years with a 42-14 victory over the Vikings before a sellout crowd of 61,555.
Scoring at least 40 points for the fourth straight home game, the 10-5 Bengals won the title four hours later when the Patriots routed the Ravens in Baltimore. New England can clinch the second seed with a win over Buffalo in next Sunday’s finale even if the Bengals beat the Ravens on Sunday at PBS.
The win guarantees the Bengals their first home playoff game since 2009, a heady perk for a team that won its eighth straight at PBS and in this season’s 7-0 run is averaging 34 points per game.
The Bengals need a win and a Patriots loss to get the second seed and a bye. They probably need a win to keep the third spot, too, and host either the Ravens, Dolphins, Chargers or Steelers, pending what happens next week. Both the Colts and Bengals are 10-5, but Cincinnati would get the third seed because it beat Indianapolis back on Dec. 8. If the Bengals lose and the Colts beat Jacksonville, they would flop seeds and the No. 4 Bengals would host the Chiefs.
In becoming the first Bengals head coach to ever make it to three straight postseasons, Marvin Lewis was hesitant to embrace the moment as he seeks his first playoff win in five tries.
“That’s a credit to the guys in there and it’s an awesome thing,” Lewis said. “It’s one more checkmark we can get off the wall and now is a chance to get another one. I look forward to that. Until you do people can always take shots at you and now that that’s done we can move on to the next one.”
Dalton hit 27 of 38 passes for 366 yards and a career-high passer rating of 136.5 while converting eight of 14 third downs. He became just the fourth starting quarterback in history to reach the NFL playoffs in each of his first three pro seasons.
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