Joe Burrow threw three touchdown passes and the Bengals’ defense intercepted Brock Purdy twice as visiting Cincinnati beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-17 Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif.
Burrow finished 28-of-32 passing for 283 yards with touchdown passes to Tyler Boyd, Andrei Iosivas and Ja’Marr Chase. At one point of the first half, Burrow completed 19 straight passes for the Bengals (4-3).
The Bengals won their third straight while the Niners (5-3) lost their third in a row after winning their first five games. San Francisco also had its 11-game home winning streak (regular season and postseason) snapped.
Chase ended with 10 catches for 100 yards while Joe Mixon ran for 87 yards and a score.
Purdy went 22-of-31 passing for 365 yards and touchdown and led San Francisco in rushing with 57 yards.
Christian McCaffrey caught a touchdown pass and ran for one to extend his scoring streak to 17 straight games (including playoffs), matching Lenny Moore of the Baltimore Colts (1963-64) for the NFL all-time record.
George Kittle finished with 149 yards on nine catches while Brandon Aiyuk had five catches for 109 yards.
The Bengals marched 85 yards in 10 plays on their first drive, highlighted by one of the plays of the year from Burrow. On third-and-10 from the Bengals’ 31, Burrow escaped a rush from Nick Bosa, spun around, scrambled 10 yards to his right and fired a first-down strike to Tee Higgins before taking a brutal shot from Fred Warner.
Later in the drive, Mixon broke free for a 20-yard run up the middle. Then Burrow threw a perfect 6-yard fade pass to Boyd for a touchdown while absorbing another hit.
The Niners responded by going 75 yards in eight plays, scoring on McCaffrey’s 2-yard run up the middle.
Burrow finished the first half with 19 straight completions, but the last one resulted in a brutal turnover as Irv Smith Jr. fumbled the ball at the San Francisco 5 with 30 seconds left as the Bengals were poised to take a 21-10 halftime lead.
Evan McPherson made it 17-10 Bengals with a 56-yard field goal during the fourth quarter.
Burrow found Chase for a 17-yard touchdown early in the fourth. San Francisco responded with a 10-play, 75-yard drive culminating in McCaffrey’s 4-yard TD reception, but Mixon’s 5-yard run at the end of the ensuing 78-yard Cincinnati drive capped the scoring.
–Field Level Media