MADRID _ Joe Burrow went Joey Matador here Sunday and turned stately Bernabeu Stadium into his personal bull ring with three more touchdown passes as the Bengals kept rolling in a 34-17 victory over the Falcons that was their fourth straight win with all coming on at least 31 points.

Their first international victory before a decidedly Bengals-friendly crowd in a soccer palace that seats more than 83,000 put them in a tie for first place in the AFC North with Pittsburgh at 6-2 and sets up Sunday night's showdown with the Steelers at Paycor Stadium.

Behind Ja’Marr Chase’s 142-yard first half, the best half by a Bengals receiver since 1988, and two more touchdowns from wide receiver Tee Higgins, the Bengals flipped the logistics of an overseas trip with their best start of the season as they eased to a 24-10 halftime lead just three days after landing here for two practices.

Chase, who finished with 155 yards on 10 catches, and Higgins, who scored his 50^th career touchdown, knew right away that Burrow would spin one of his beauties.

"In pregame, Tee and I were saying, 'He's feeling it," said Chase, while Higgins offered, "he was throwing it long."

Burrow, who scored a touchdown himself on a quick-snap sneak, rose to the big-stage moment on the scoreboard as well as on the European marquee. He celebrated the score with a wave of his hands next to his ears emulating celebrations from his FIFA games as a kid. And the crowd roared.

"I love playing in the stadium. It was a great atmosphere. I loved putting on a show for the people of Spain," said Burrow, the NFL completion percentage leader who took his spice-and-dicer overseas to hit 83% of his passes (24-of-29 for 271 yards) and a 140 passer rating (140.8) for the second time in three games.

Burrow came in torrid and left just as hot. Last week he became the first Bengal to throw for 20 touchdowns in the season's first seven games (and that includes NFL MVPs Ken Anderson and Boomer Esiason, kids), He not only arrived as the NFL leader in scoring passes, but also completion percentage, and yards per game as he guns to become the fifth player in the Super Bowl era to lead the NFL in all those categories.

"Joe is playing at unbelievably high level right now," said Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. "Joe doesn't force the ball; he takes the ball where it needs to go based on the looks. And even if sometimes they're leaning into a guy or doubling a guy, he's still going to give him an opportunity. And some of those opportunities came up big for us. So that's just something we're used to."

The Drive

How about this drive when the Bengals put the dagger in at 21-10 on their third straight touchdown drive to open the game?

The Bengals moved Chase all over the formation, and the Falcons never found him as he caught five balls for 69 yards and forced a holding call that wiped out a sack.

Higgins did the honors with his classic reach-and-score touchdown when he outmuscled cornerback A.J. Terrell at the right front pylon for a four-yard touchdown that put the Bengals up, 21-10, with 4:03 left in the half.

But it was all Chase. He ignited the drive at the Bengals 12 with a whiplash-quick catch-and-run that made him look like one of the storied footballers of the past with his feet gliding over the Bernabeau grass for 31 yards.

Then Chase made two fabulous catches to convert third downs. On third-and-one, Burrow escaped the rush, and as he headed to the left sideline, he flicked it across his body, and Chase came back in the middle of the field to make a sliding 11-yard catch. On third-and-nine, with people in his face, Burrow lobbed it up right for Chase, and Chase skied just before he went out-of-bounds and came down with both feet and the ball in.

When Chase ran a Higgins-like slant for 12 yards to get them in the shadow of the goal line, he finished the half with eight catches for 142 yards for his season-high right then.

"When he's playing like that," Burrow said, "you just have got to throw him the ball and let him go and make plays and just try to get it in his hands."

Bullish Offense

With Taylor giving director of operations Jeff Brickner the game ball for the seamless travel and shouting out the support staff while Burrow praised director of performance Joey Boese's staff, it was Chase who assured them they would get off to a fast start when they tied the game at 7-7 on their fifth snap.

It also set up the best TD celebration of the day (maybe the year) when Chase made like a matador, Higgins acted like the bull and Chase heard the 'Ole,' he wanted from the crowd.

"A friend of mine told me what was going on, especially around this time of the month," Chase said. "That's really big right now. So he was telling me the crowd would go all day if I was to do it. So I think that was the biggest part of me trying to get the crowd involved."

Pretty basic. Third-and-two from the Falcons 47 and Atlanta inexplicably put cornerback A.J. Terrell on Chase man-to-man. Double move to the post.

"That's great coaching right there. That was a great play design, and we knew their safeties like to play a little shallow," Burrow said. "So you want to take a shot over the top in that position, and who better than throw it to number one?"

As Chase pointed out, "I'm sure Joe was happy to see man and the safety low."

How good has Burrow been? He threw three interceptions last week and stayed the most accurate passer in the league. The touchdown this week looked a lot like the same route that was underthrown last week for a pick. This was an over-the-shoulder-in-stride thing of beauty.

"When something like that happens, I worked hard on that this week so I don't miss another one like that," Burrow said.

Banging Bijan

Falcons running back Bijan Robinson, the NFL's rushing leader, also came into the game fourth in scrimmage yards. But what concerned the Bengals coming in were his league-leading 400 yards after contact, accounting for more than half his yards.

The Bengals came in trying to cut down on their 43 missed tackles, via Pro Football Reference.

The emphasis on defense could be seen right away when Taylor sent out to the coin toss defensive tackle B.J. Hill, safety Bryan Cook and cornerback DJ Turner II to go along with kicker Evan McPherson.

But Robinson rattled them on  the opening drive through a maze of smoke from the fireworks, racking up 42 yards on three carries on the perimeter with runs of 19 and 21 yards as the Falcons went up 7-0. The Bengals steadied themselves with 10 tackles each from Cook and linebacker Barrett Carter.

Robinson got 58 yards on 16 carries the rest of the way.

"They've got a really difficult run game. Atlanta does, and all the things that come off of that," Taylor said. "I thought after the first quarter, we really settled in and did an excellent job controlling that stuff and trying to stymie the run game and make it harder for them after that."

The Bengals gave up 10 points after that opening drive and defensed four Michael Penix passes.

"We just have to settle in as a whole as a defense and everyone focus on doing their 1/11," Carter said. "We didn't do that coming out the first drive, first couple of drives, but once everyone just honed in on doing their 1/11 and settling in and not letting the moment, not letting the game speed us up, we settled in and we were able to control them a little bit."

Slants and Screens

McPherson's streak is now at an NFL-best 24 straight field goals and two continents when he nailed kicks from 57 and 43 yards …

Taylor and his team were taken by fans still buzzing from Spain's World Cup champs from the summer.

"The biggest cheer of the day was when the World Cup trophy came out there. That's about as loud as the stadium gets. That was pretty impressive," Taylor said.

"Do I know all the people out there? No, but they obviously are well-regarded here. I was about 30 yards from the World Cup Trophy, which I thought he was pretty neat, but I know for all the Spain fans here, that was pretty cool. " …

Carter's interception with four  minutes left and the bulk of running back Samaje Perine's 43 yards rushing in the fourth quarter hammered the game down ...

The Bengals' unsung offensive line sang some more Sunday. In that 24-point first half Burrow was an immaculate 18 of 22 for 239 yards, he didn't get sacked and the Falcons got him only twice on all day on 31 drop-backs...

Carter was brilliantly resilient. On the first series of the second half. Robinson got him on third-and-six  for a 28-yard wheel route. But at the end, Carter was there when Penix tried to hit Robinson over the middle for the pick ...

Rookie edge Cashius Howell (wrist) landed on injured reserve after surgery, but two of the three players lost to injury in last Sunday's overtime win over the Titans made it to the gate in Europe. Turner II (heel) made the two practices at The Soccer City, and backup edge Cedric Johnson (ankle),  a core special teams player, was rated questionable Friday after his only full practice of the week ...

No surprises on the Bengals' inactive list with backup center Connor Lew, backup tackle Myles Hinton and backup defensive tackle Landon Robinson remaining there as they have all season …

The other inactive, safety Kyle Dugger (quad), missed his second straight game after getting hurt in Baltimore. He's played in four of the eight games after suffering his first injury in the third game of the season in Pittsburgh …