Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd capped the team’s opening drive of the game Sunday afternoon with his first touchdown reception of the season, sparking the team to a third consecutive win with an upset of the San Francisco 49ers.
Speaking on the postgame radio show from the visitors locker room at Levi Stadium, Boyd was clear about what the 31-17 victory means:
“We’re the team to beat, and we’re gonna continue to be that team.”
“It just let everybody know that we’re back,” Boyd added. “They were one of the top teams, if not the top team in the NFC. It’s high alert now.”
Bengals Confidence Exploding After Upset of 49ers
Fueled by quarterback Joe Burrow’s near-record day, the Cincinnati offense that has been a shell of itself had its most impressive showing of the season, and it did so against one of the league’s top defenses.
Burrow completed 19 passes in a row to end the first half, finishing one shy of the franchise record of 20 set by Ken Anderson at Houston in 1983 and six shy of the single-game NFL record shared by Nick Foles and Philip Rivers.
Announcing himself fully recovered from the calf injury that was at the heart of the team’s early struggles, Burrow completed 28 of 32 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing six times for 43 yards.
“He’s back,” Boyd said. “That’s the Joe Shiesty that we’ve been missing.”
The Bengals have won three in a row, four of five, and moved into a second-place tie with the Steelers and Browns, both of whom lost Sunday, in the AFC North.
MORE: Cincinnati Bengals Depth Chart
“The players understood the assignment,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “They responded exactly as we knew that they would.”
Ja’Marr Chase caught 10 passes for 100 yards and a touchdown, Tee Higgins added five catches for 69 yards, and Boyd snared three balls for 40 yards and a score.
On top of all that, running back Joe Mixon had his biggest game of the year, rushing 16 times for 87 yards and a touchdown while also catching three passes for 23 yards.
“This was probably the best complete game the whole this year for everybody,” Boyd said. “Everybody contributed. Everybody made plays. This is that time.”
The Bengals entered the game as 5.5-point favorites against a San Francisco 49ers team that had won 11 consecutive games at home.
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They left with a convincing win that they believe should put the rest of the NFL on notice.
“To come out here and against this team, the San Francisco 49ers are not a joke,” left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. said. ” They will be in the playoffs. They will probably be in the NFC Championship and possibly in the Super Bowl. But that’s who we are. We’ve got that mindset that they’ve got to play us.
“You saw today what we able to do.”
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