MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. _ After Joe Burrow, Chase Brown, and Ja'Marr Chase did their dances with history.

After the defense had come up with its most lethal quarter since anyone can remember.

After Burrow did what only Burrow can do on that third down that changed the game when he turned the cardinal sin of throwing across his body into a backyard must for every Cincinnati kid this Christmas Day.

After all that, Chase Brown tried to say what it all meant for the Bengals of 2025.

"It was an interesting season if you look at it as a whole," said Brown after Sunday's 45-21 dismissal of the Dolphins and their rookie quarterback here at Hard Rock Stadium.

"We lost Joe. We lost a lot of key players. I think when we go out there, and we're on the same page, and we're playing complementary ball, we're impossible to beat. I truly believe it."

With all the playoff possibilities now buzzing around them like gnats, plenty but harmless, naturally there was the sense of how it could have felt this good all year.

"I think we're all doing that," Brown said.

Burrow wondered after his 75^th NFL start and 152^nd career touchdown pass. Only Patrick Mahomes in 63 games and the Maestro of Miami himself, Dan Marino, 62 games, have done it faster.

"I missed a full season of games too, so it should have been more," Burrow said.

In his fourth game back since toe surgery, Burrow, who has undergone more analysis than the economy lately, offered an observation as economical as his passer rating of 146.5, best ever by a Bengals quarterback on the road.

"It was fun. I'm having fun playing football. Not playing football is not fun," said Burrow after four more touchdown passes and that vintage third-down conversion. "Sitting in the locker room rehabbing all day, that's not why you do it. This is why you do it. Right here."

This was a just-how-we-drew-it-up game from back in January, when Bengals head coach Zac Taylor hired Al Golden as his defensive coordinator. Maybe not huge, but certainly a fast and situationally opportunistic unit that would give the ball back to Burrow for the kill

Count the fourth-and-one stop when rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers slipped ever-so slightly on his fourth-and-one sneak, and another rookie, defensive tackle Howard Cross III, helped make him pay, the Bengals defense turned it back to Burrow four straight times, and he microwaved it for 28 points in 15 minutes.

So make that in the six games since the bye, the defense is allowing about 20 points per game. Their 10 turnovers lead the league since Thanksgiving. All without All-Pro sacker Trey Hendrickson.

And on Sunday, they didn't have their best player in that third quarter. Flu-ridden cornerback DJ Turner II could only give them 27 snaps and was out by halftime. But Josh Newton came off the bench to play his most snaps since September (32) and ignite the carnage with a flying pass defensed that tipped the ball to rookie middle linebacker Barrett Carter for his first career interception on the first drive of the second half.

And, as if to bookend the day with fitting symmetry, nickel back Jalen Davis got the fourth and final turnover late in the tumultuous third with his first career interception to set up Burrow's 152^nd touchdown pass.

Davis, 29, has been in the league since 2018, with the Bengals since 2020, on the practice squad for all but two games last year, and has been lights out in five games coming off the squad this season in response to Cam Taylor-Britt's season-ending injury. Everyone felt good for Davis when he made a textbook interception on the sideline against one of the more feared weapons in the league in Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle.

"Just making a play," Davis said. "Do your job."

As usual, his teammates, like Carter, were more expansive.

"JD made a hell of a play. That was a special one," Carter said. "He had sticky coverage. He was able to find and locate the ball. Most guys in that situation wouldn't be able to find the ball. He was able to get two feet in. It was a crazy play."

Cornerback Dax Hill, who is looking more and more like an outside corner while Davis has been inside, wasn't all that surprised.

"That's what we preach. Everyone has to be ready," Hill said. "We just wanted to separate ourselves at halftime. Get our hands on the ball. We had the coaches in our ear saying we need to get turnovers. That's what we've put emphasis on. Get it back in Joe's hands. That's what he does, and he's the best in the league. Once we keep being consistent on defense, that's all we need. We know what he can do."

He certainly reminded us yesterday. Sure, they were supposed to dispose of the rookie quarterback. But like this? Burrow leaped on the field position and drove them 34, 35, 35, and 53 yards while flashing their bottomless vat of options.

Chase Brown became the first Bengal to score two touchdowns receiving and one rushing in a game. He joined running back Joe Mixon as the only Bengals to score three touchdowns in a quarter.

With 109 killing-them-softly yards on nine catches, Ja'Marr Chase went horizontal instead of vertical to do what Isaac Curtis and The Ocho and Chad Johnson and A.J. Green never did with his seventh 100-yard receiving game of the year.

Tight end Mike Gesicki scored against his old team. Another tight end, Drew Sample, made arguably the biggest play of the day back when the Dolphins led, 14-10, and turned it into a 17-14 half-time lead. Running back Samaje Perine converted a couple of third downs by air and ground.

"We were getting out quick, getting it underneath, and our guys were making plays after catch. That really was critical," Burrow said. "When we get the opportunities, we have to hit their scare defenses that are playing those kind of coverages, and then we can start to get our pass game going with all the zones that we like to attack."

Burrow went back to his two vertical throws to wide receiver Tee Higgins that spawned the first touchdown on the second drive of the game. It slowed down the blitz and scared the Dolphins deep.

"They were pressuring a little bit early, and Tee makes those two plays and then they can't pressure as much," Burrow said. "When they do, they have to play different coverages behind it so that let's us get the ball out quickly in space."

Using Chase Brown as a receiver is rubbing it into defenses already immersed in stopping Chase, Higgins, and Gesicki.

"It really provides us a lot of versatility. We've been able to put two backs on the field, because we feel good about Samaje and obviously feel good about Chase," Burrow said. "It provides challenges for the defense, how they're going to take that, how they're going to play that with their personnel, what coverages they're going to play with that, because if I was a defense, I wouldn't feel great about a linebacker covering Chase in space."

Indeed, Brown undressed one of the best in Jordyn Brooks on a hellacious inside spin when he caught one at the 5 and left him for a touchdown.

But it was Sample's longest play of the season that may have made it all possible. His 27-yard chug set up the 17-14 halftime lead. Late in the first half and trailing, 14-10, Burrow had a third-and-10 from the Dolphins 38.

"They had a tough time containing Drew today," Taylor joked of one of his main men in pass protection rarely with a catch. But when he does …

"He's in there in protection and has a great feel," Taylor said. "Very similar to the Buffalo touchdown he scored a couple of years ago, the same protection. He has this awareness where Joe needs my help right now, I'm out of protection world, and I've got to find a way."

Burrow had Perine next to him and Sample set in front to the left to block. When the thing broke down, Burrow somehow avoided Zach Sieler racing out of the pocket to the right circa 2024.

Somehow, Sample was there. Somehow, Burrow found him with something between a shot put and a layup. And, yes, dumped it across his body.

"I got caught up in all the bodies," Sample said. "I could feel Joe moving, so I just kind of tried to get out of the way to where my check down is, knowing there's supposed to be a man on me.

"He kind of got lost too, and right when I turned around, Joe kind of peeled back towards me and I said, 'All right, I'm here.' I didn't really know if he could get it to me. He was able to sneak it through."

And Burrow wasn't quite sure, either, how the ball ended up on the Miami 11 and a touchdown a few snaps away.

"I just started to move a little bit, and then I was like, we're in field goal range, I've kind of got to throw it away at this point," Burrow said. "I was trying to find a place that I could dump it and live to see another down, and Drew pops right there."

So, a week after Burrow stood up in front of his teammates and took the blame for the shutout to the Ravens with the second-worst passing game of his career, he stood up with his second-best as the legend grows.

"I thought I played a clean game. I thought I protected the ball for the most part," Burrow said. "That's how I have to play. Play within the scheme and then take my opportunities to try to make a play when I can."

With compliments to the defense.