MADRID _ The Festival de los Bengalas here Sunday at the cathedral they call Bernabeu Stadium turned into a rollicking 34-17 carnival over the Falcons that celebrated the charisma and craft of the surging Bengals as they grabbed a share of the AFC North lead with the Steelers.
The crowd of 78,660, say 10-1 in favor of Who Dey Nation, treated the Bengals like their soccer royalty.
Before the game, Joe Burrow took a photo with Spanish national team footballer Ferran Torres. After the game, Ja'Marr Chase walked into his news conference with an autographed jersey of Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois and anointed him, "The best goalie in the world." In between, Tee Higgins helped Chase pull off a matador touchdown celebration that channeled the great Spanish Bengal Chad Ocho Cinco.
"It was kind of last-minute. I was asking Joe, should we do like a Vini celebration?" Higgins said. "He gave me one. Joe did it, and Ja'Marr is, like, no, let's do the bull thing."
With two more touchdown catches, Higgins kept his career year going as the "Tee-eee," chants made the trip, too. Then he won them over when he gave his 50th career touchdown ball to a young Bengals' fan whose eyes popped like the sound barrier.
Dan Hoard, the Bengals' irrepressible radio play-by-play voice, even got into the act with his already iconic call of Evan McPherson's 57-yard field Goaaaaal that imitated Andrés Cantor's famous cry of international soccer.
"To be able to put my city on out here in Spain is amazing. Then I brought my family out. It's all our first time going across the Atlantic, so it was a dope experience, and I'm glad they enjoyed it just like me," Higgins said. "I went to the Temple of Debod and watched the sunset. That was actually one of my favorite memories that I did here."
That's the sound of a team coming of age.
Old Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, getting ready to come to Cincinnati Sunday night with the NBC crew for the first Bengals-Steelers game at Paycor in 20 years without him as Pittsburgh head coach, had some advice for his successor.
"It starts first and foremost with a solid four-man rush," Tomlin said of stopping the Bengals. "If you don't have a solid four-man rush, you've got no chance because you need seven guys to deploy in pass defense."
He's got that right. No one dares say this is the best they've seen Burrow play ("Nah," Higgins said, "he's got another step in him"), but look at what the man has done in his last 11 quarters, starting with the second half in Baltimore and including last week's overtime against the Titans:
Try 73 of 95 at 77% for 982 yards and 12 touchdowns.
"I loved playing in this stadium. It is a great atmosphere," Burrow said. "I loved putting on a show for the people of Spain, and I was happy to be here.
International games are supposed to distract, sap energy, tempt injuries, and wrench 5-2 teams out of their rhythm. None of that happened Sunday to a veteran Bengals team that has now won four straight, three of them on the road.
"I'll say our leadership has improved. I think the guys going into the offseason, we did a lot of self-scout, a lot of looking in the mirror on where we need to be better individually and as a team," said sophomore linebacker Barrett Carter, who grew even more Sunday with ten tackles and the sealing interception. "I feel like the leadership as a whole on all sides of the ball just needed to be better. I felt we've really taken that challenge head on, face on.
"I think leadership was the main thing and everyone just staying poised. When the going gets rough and people on the other side start making plays, who is going to step up and make that next play for us, and who is going to calm the team down and make sure we stay steady, stay grounded?"
If last week was a game that the Bengals would have lost at home the last few years, so was Sunday on the road with the Falcons opening each half with scoring drives.
But if the Bengals missed tackles on the opening drive against NFL leading rusher Bijan Robinson, cornerbacks DJ Ivey and Josh Newton swarmed him on a third-and-12 screen at the cusp of the red zone early in the fourth quarter to force a missed field goal and keep it 31-17.
If Carter lost Robinson on a third-down wheel route for 28 yards at the start of the second half, he ended the game with a pick on a pass headed to Robinson.
"I think the biggest thing for us was believing in each other here," Chase said. "We had a curfew. We all followed the same instructions, bonding as a team together, getting a feel for the grass out here, and just knowing how a schedule so tight like this can work for us. I think we just did a good job of just attacking it the right way."
They had a curfew, but head coach Zac Taylor wanted to make sure they saw some of the city. So Burrow took in a museum. Chase walked the streets with his parents, seeking cuisine rivaling their native New Orleans. Higgins saw that sunset. And they still were lights out.
Burrow got out, but when he thinks back to Madrid, 2026, he may end up thinking first about Saturday night, and how he shot the breeze with his offensive line while Bengaldom partied into the night.
"I think just being around the guys all week. I think it was a huge bonding experience for us," Burrow said.
Sunday's fast start vindicated Taylor's decision to leave Cincinnati Tuesday night instead of Thursday night. He was rewarded with a crisp no-turnover effort, scores every time they got the ball in the first half, and no injuries on a foreign surface after a relatively short week.
Taylor also felt so strongly that the trip showed the depth of the organization that he singled out ownership, gave game balls to the support staff, and then called up director of operations and chief planner Jeff Brickner to lead the victory locker room chant.
Taylor is always looking at how they finish. A Burrow knee after a 3:59 drive is as professional as it gets.
"We knew two teams were going to handle the same schedule, and we just wanted to come out and make sure we showed that we've handled it better than anybody," Taylor said. "There might have been a lull here and there in each phase, but the other side picked us up, and we were able to finish the game the right way."
Taylor never misses a chance to put that chip on his team's shoulder. So you already have an idea what he's going to put up on the screen when they start preparing for the Steelers Wednesday.
Sports Illustrated stat czar Jay Morrison has been reminding that no NFL team has ever won a regular-season game immediately following an international trip when facing an opponent coming off a bye week.
With the Bengals waiting to leave Bernabeau (the Falcons got to leave first because they were the home team), Knollman longingly looked at his equipment he won't see until Wednesday. Brickner, still drill- searganting the itinerary, called for boarding the buses to the airport 15 minutes early with the Falcons about to fly.
As the Bengals walked to the buses, there was a Super Bowl vibe with a crowd of hundreds cheering behind barricades. Zac Taylor's words hung in the air from moments before when asked what the Madrid fans should take from the Bengals.
"I would pay attention to the Bengals. That's what I would tell the fans over here," Taylor said. "Pay attention to the Bengals going forward."
Tomlin and NBC certainly are. With the Browns 5-4 and Ravens 4-5.
"It doesn't matter what continent we are on. It's all about Joe Burrow, Chase, and Higgins," the old Steeler coach told his audience Sunday night as the Bengals flew home to play at the top of the AFC North without him. "You know you're clicking on all cylinders when you coordinate your celebrations appropriately for what continent you are on."
