“Last week wasn’t my best performance,” said Green, who had a combined 10 catches for 115 yards in the last two games.
“I hold myself to high standards, and I know what I’m capable of,” Green added. “I was just trying to make plays. They tried to challenge me, and eye of the tiger, man. That’s what had to happen.”
Green had 123 of his yards in the first half to personally outgain the Dolphins, who had just 122, 74 of which came on their second offensive snap when Ryan Tannehill hit Kenny Stills for a long touchdown.
But it was all Bengals, and mostly Green.
He had three catches for 77 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown, on the drive that gave the Bengals the lead for good with 3:19 left in the first quarter.
Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton was 22 of 31 for 296 yards with one touchdown, which was the only one the Bengals would get in an otherwise dominating performance.
Five times the Bengals had to settle for Mike Nugent field goals as he tied his career high with boots of 42, 22, 43, 22, 47 yards.
Though not ideal, it was more than enough production for the Cincinnati defense, which was sparked by linebacker Vontaze Burfict’s return from a three-game suspension.
“I didn’t want to try to do too much this game and just get my legs under me and get my wind,” said Burfict, who had three tackles and a pass defensed while playing 34 of 62 plays. “It was just great to go out there and get the win and compete with my teammates.”
The Bengals held the Dolphins to 222 yards and 2 of 11 on third downs while sacking Tannehill five times and intercepting him once.
Carlos Dunlap had two of the sacks, the first of which forced a fumble that Domata Peko recovered at the Miami 25 just before the two-minute warning. But the offense wasn’t able to convert, and Nugent hit a 43-yarder to send the Bengals into halftime with a 16-7 lead.
“Besides the touchdown we gave up early in the game, I think defensively we played a pretty solid football game and took care of the things we need to,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said. “It seemed like we got good pressure tonight other than the one third down conversion they had. We played pretty well on third down.”
Offensively the Bengals were not good on third down, continuing a season-long trend. The team converted only 3 of 15 as the run game continued to struggle with 34 rushes for 80 yards (2.4 average).
The inability to run the ball led to Nugent’s fourth field goal after the Bengals had first and goal at the Miami 2 with 4:16 left in the third quarter.
“We need to do a better job of finishing those drives,” Lewis said. “We did a good job taking care of the football, but we need to do better on third down.”
The Bengals lost cornerback Josh Shaw to a stinger in the fourth quarter, and left guard Clint Boling suffered a left shoulder injury in the third quarter. Boling returned for a couple of plays in the fourth before leaving for good and being replaced by Jake Fisher.
Shaw’s replacement, Chris Lewis-Harris, picked off Tannehill at the Bengals 30 for his first career interception with 4:53 left in the game.
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