CLEVELAND _ Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, who has lost openers despite racking up 429 yards in Seattle, watching Joe Burrow throw for 338 yards against the Steelers in overtime, and seeing his offense march down the field against the Chargers in the last two minutes only to have a penalty wipe out the winning touchdown, held Sunday's 17-16 victory over the Browns here at Huntington Bank Field like a spoil of the AFC North.

"There's always adversity in week one. There's always adversity when we play Cleveland," Taylor said after his defense rescued their 141-yard day with two second-half interceptions. "There's always adversity when we play on the road in Cleveland.

"The best thing out of this game is 1-0. Forget about the stats. Forget about the score. Forget about how it all played out. The best the outcome could have been 1-0, and we're proud of that."

Burrow took home his first road opener despite an 87.8 passer rating: "We found a way to win."

It was their first winning road opener since 2018 and their first here since rookies A.J. Green and Andy Dalton sparked a 2011 win.

The backbreaker came with 1:24 left, about a minute after Browns rookie kicker Andre Szmyf wide right-ed a 36-yard field-goal try. Third-year Bengals cornerback DJ Turner II got his first NFL interception and the win when he caught Joe Flacco's dropped pass bounding off the hands of Browns wide receiver Cedric Tillman at the Browns 40.

"It was a deep curl route, a stop route," Turner said. "We got physical at the top of the route. He bobbled the ball. I saw it and made a play."

HAVEN OF HEROES

There was Turner, who bounced back from an early pass interference call. There was S Jordan Battle. All three of his career interceptions have come against the Browns. But it was a long list of game ball nominees.

Start with punter Ryan Rehkow, who dropped the ball on the 1 with 19 seconds left and end with first-year safety P.J. Jules making a bit of a gamble in his NFL debut to down it.

There was Dalton Risner, who got to the Bengals last week without a sweat droplet of training camp and the seven-year vet promptly replaced right guard Lucas Patrick when he left with a calf issue early in the second series early in the second quarter.

After it was over, left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and center Ted Karras shook their head as they thought of the intricate pass-protections Risner had to execute against the Browns' feared front.

"He was one-on-one from the jump," Karras said.

Burrow said, "We have a lot of different silent cadences, and I thought he handled it well." He tried to screw his head around to show how tough, "That right guard spot has to be a smart player, especially on the road to handle all of those cadences and turn his head around and get a quick snapshot of the defense and know what to do quicker than anybody else because he's not looking at the defense so."

Brown and Karras have won praise for setting the tone in the O-line room and it sounds like Risner has already fit in.

"I'm not surprised," Brown said. "He came in from day one ready to go. He's just pumped up to be here. He already loves the city of Cincinnati. Kudos to him for handling business."

There was tight end Noah Fant, who caught Burrow's lone touchdown pass of the day in his Bengals debut. There was rookie linebacker Barrett Carter, who came off the bench to play a few series when Logan Wilson was evaluated for a concussion. And Tycen Anderson when safety Geno Stone needed a rest.

"I'm just watching to see their body language," Taylor said. "Didn't miss a beat. I think there are a lot of guys that fit that description."

And there was second-rounder Demetrius Knight Jr., the starting linebacker who racked up 10 tackles, the most by a Bengal in his debut since linebacker Keith Rivers had 10 in the 2008 opener in Baltimore. Knight came out flying with six on the first drive, and also finished with a pass defense.

The Bengals stoned the Browns on two yards per 24 rushes and held 1,200-yard wide receiver Jerry Jeudy to 66 yards.

"I think we put our identity out for exactly the way we want to be," Knight said. "We want to be a nasty defense."

SACK ARTISTS

It was a battle of the two best sackers in the game, and they didn't disappoint. Defending NFL sack champion Trey Hendrickson walked tackle B.J. Hill into Browns quarterback Joe Flacco for a red-zone, third-down sack that set up the field goal miss, and he added a sack of his own and three hits on Flacco. Garrrett, a Defensive Player of the Year, racked up his 11^th and 12^th sacks of Burrow in his tenth game against him. They came on back-to-back snaps with nine minutes left and prevented the Bengals from putting it away.

"It's tough to find anybody better than that guy," said Burrow, who finished 113 yards, the third lowest of his career.

Burrow led the Bengals on touchdown drives in the first and second quarters before it slowed down.

"We'll take it, we'll take it," Burrow said. "Anytime you can win like this, you kind of steal one. We stole one today. We're going to have to do better."

His longest pass of the day went 20 yards down the seam to Ja’Marr Chase, who began defense of his NFL receiving triple crown with 26 yards on two catches, his fewest yards since the '23 finale against the Browns.

"I left two plays out there," Chase said. "I dropped one and I didn't get my feet down on the other. Not bad, but I feel like I left something out there."

It's been a tough club for everybody. Sunday marked the fewest yards in the Taylor Era, one fewer than the '23 opener here.