MIAMI _ Two vignettes after the Bengals' 31-24 win over the Dolphins Sunday in historic heat left them a game back in the broiling AFC North where everyone has a winning record.

Two vignettes that tell you the Bengals know exactly the formula they need to win it all once this bye week ends.

One vignette on offense. One on defense.

After his team had smoked out a season-high 117 rushing yards on 31 carries against a winless but legit and stubborn Dolphins defense, here is left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. recalling the Saturday walkthrough before they got on the plane.

How he wanted to send a message by wearing the No. 28 jersey of Bengals Ring of Honor member running back Corey Dillon. How 23 yards on 15 carries the week before against Jacksonville wasn't going to cut it in the playoff chase. How his offensive line had to grind to give them the confidence to call it.

"The all-time running back here," says right tackle Amarius Mims, who celebrates his birthday this week 24 years after Dillon was in the middle of his third straight 1,300-yard season.

"I knew O.B. was going to ball when I saw he had that jersey on.  I know O.B. I feed off his brain. I just connect to O.B. I knew he was going to ball. I'm like his fourth brother that he didn't have."

Brown wants to see the tape before pronouncing how good the running game had been. But he knows it was the formula head coach Zac Taylor covets. Get the lead from quarterback Joe Burrow and his playmakers on big passes set up by a running game luring defenses out of those two-deep zones. Then grind it the rest of the way.

"Our group fought hard. We responded well to the challenge this week," Brown said. "But I've got to see the tape to give you a quality answer."

Exhibit A: Another ridiculous 45-yard catch of a Burrow touchdown heave by the All-Pro Ja’Marr Chase to lock it up with 16 minutes left at 28-10. If it wasn't a Dan Hoard "coffin nails," it was at least a Dave Lapham 'Bam, Bam, Bam."

"They're trying to give you some underneath stuff and let you run the ball a little bit, when you're in the (shot) gun there. You've got to take advantage of it and get some yards there," Taylor said. "And take advantage of the shots when you get the favorable looks for them.  Which we did with Ja'Marr on the one. Eventually, they got to come up if they're going to be in those shells."

The other vignette is safeties coach Jordan Kovacs getting off the plane Sunday night and going through the notes he took off the film he watched during the two-hour flight.

One of his starters, Jordan Battle, was the defensive star with two interceptions, but here is Kovacs looking at the chronology of his two hugely impressive tackles after a week Battle manned-up to the press about how he needed to improve his tackling.

Both plays are of the same variety. Battle bolting out of the middle of the field to make a solo tackle on a big running play that he prevents from getting bigger.

The first one comes on the play before his second interception late in the second quarter that set up the Bengals' 21-7 halftime lead. On second-and-11 from the Dolphins' 22, Miami runs it up the middle, and Jaylen Wright gets seven as he breaks into the clear before Battle cuts him down.

Third-and-four. Battle then picks the scrambling Malik Willis.

The second one comes with the game still 21-7 as the Dolphins get to the edge of the red zone early in the second half. Running back Ollie Gordon, a 225-pound load at 6-2, ripped one up the middle, and he was gone until Battle stroked him to hold it to a 10-yard run at the 13. The Bengals held to force a field goal.

"Very important. Those are the plays coaches see," Battle is saying after taking a national radio interview over the phone. "Coming out of the middle of the field on those is the toughest play as a safety. And to be able to get a guy on the ground and give the defense a chance to bend but don't break and force three, that's big for us.

"I told you guys. I have to shoot lower and aggressively wrap."

Two vignettes. On defense, three points and sure tackling translates into wins. On offense, at least with Burrow in the last five seasons, 30 carries means a win.

After running back Samaje Perine led the way with 68 yards on 14 carries and Chase Brown added 38 yards on 13 carries with Burrow throwing in a nifty 11-yarder on a bootleg he wasn't touched, the Bengals moved to 9-1 since 2022 when Burrow quarterbacks 30 rushes.

Make it nine straight. The only loss was in overtime to the Steelers in the '22 opener. Burrow and Taylor like the balance. They know the best way to do it is to jump out fast.

"I haven't seen the stats or the play breakdowns, but it certainly felt like it when we ran it," said Burrow when asked if it was an ideal attack to go with his 32 passes that produced four touchdowns. "We were getting four or five, six yards, putting us in third and manageable, and a lot of times converting on that second down. So on first glance, I think so. "

After Brown and Mims shut down any semblance of an outside pass rush (they combined to allow just three pressures, via Pro Football Focus on a day Burrow wasn't sacked) as the Bengals missed on just four of 13 third downs, they felt the formula.

"We just want to win, and we know if we run the ball and get yards for Chase, Samaje and Tahj (Brooks), then we have a strong chance of winning," Mims said.  "We knew we got challenged last week, and it wasn't good enough. We knew we had to make a stand and have a better outing than last week."

Those 32 passes? Burrow zinged 23 of them as the NFL's all-time accurate passer hit 72% for 190 yards with a frigid efficiency under the 90-degree blanket in the hottest road game the Bengals have ever played.

Taylor also showed adept use of his bench in the sweltering weather after a week Chase (concussion) and Tee Higgins (groin/neck) fought through injuries. They played a number of snaps below their average (Chase 89%, Higgins 69%) as Taylor showed off their versatile, complementary depth.

(After what he called a challenging week of the concussion protocol, Chase was so tired he asked Higgins not to jump on him after the touchdown.)

Tight ends Drew Sample and Erick All Jr. each played more than half the 63 plays. Tight end Tanner Hudson spiced his usual 30% with two huge catches (one for a first down to keep his own touchdown drive alive), tight end Mike Gesicki had his fourth touchdown in five games and Perine, Sunday's MVP, took an unusually high amount of plays with 51%.

Forget his powerful, 4.9 per runs for a second. Perine had a massive block on Dohnte Meyers' opening 81-yard kick return and schooled Dolphins rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez on his third-down touchdown catch that put him in no-man's land on a deadly choice route with Burrow.

"The offensive line," said Perine simply of the reason for his success. "Coach challenged the line, challenged us to make somebody miss, move the line of scrimmage. That was a step in the right direction."

Taylor did such a good job handling his personnel Sunday, but he wasn't pleased with how his personnel handled it with two 15-yard-after-the-whistle penalties and a roughing call that gave Miami a touchdown instead of a field goal.

Burrow wasn't feeling it either when they couldn't slam the door shut after defensive tackle Jonathan Allen recovered a fumble at the Dolphins 10 with 2:19 left and they could only get a field goal.

"We've got to be smarter," said Burrow, voicing the terse mood in a locker room set by Taylor.  "We've got to be smarter. Two fumbles in the red zone. A couple of personal fouls that hurt us, hurt our field position, gave them points on the board. We've got to be smarter."

But here are two vignettes that have them thinking.

"We're in a good spot to me," said Orlando Brown of the bye. "The best part is we still have a lot of room to grow. We've got to get rid of some of the bonehead mistakes so we can get to the point we're playing our best ball for four quarters and play with a lead and continue to grow that lead. We're getting closer. We're getting better."