Bengals beat Colts 42-28 to stay perfect at home

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CINCINNATI — A disputed call went the Bengals’ way — not that they absolutely needed
it.Getting Andy Dalton back in form was quite enough.Dalton regained his passing touch in time to keep
the Bengals perfect at home and in control of the AFC North on Sunday. He threw for three touchdowns and
ran for another in a 42-28 victory over Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts.The Bengals (9-4) kept
their firm grip on first place, two games ahead of Baltimore with three to play.“We’re on a roll,”
middle linebacker Rey Maualuga said. “At the beginning of the year, we had three goals. We wanted to be
undefeated at home, win the AFC North and eventually be world champions.“We’re close to the goals we
wanted to get to. We’ve got to be good from here out.”It had been a while since Dalton was this good.He
was the AFC’s offensive player for October, but hadn’t put together a consistent game since. He was as
good as ever on Sunday, helping the Bengals improve to 6-0 at Paul Brown Stadium on a cold, windy day —
28 degrees at kickoff with a wind chill of 19.“We know what we’re capable of, and we’ve got some
momentum now,” said Dalton, who was 24 of 35 for 275 yards without a sack or interception. “But we’ve
got to keep it going.”BenJarvus Green-Ellis had a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs — one of them on a
review that overturned a call — as the Bengals got ahead 21-0 and held on.The Colts (8-5) had another
slow start in the cold, falling behind 21-0 before Luck threw four touchdown passes to keep them close.
They never caught up as Dalton got the better of a head-to-head matchup of up-and-coming quarterbacks
from Texas.Despite the loss, the Colts clinched the AFC South later Sunday when Denver beat Tennessee
51-28.Indianapolis is in the playoffs but has some major concerns. The Colts were drubbed 40-11 in
Arizona two games ago and needed Adam Vinatieri’s five field goals to beat Tennessee 22-14 last
week.“We’ve got some things to clean up, but we certainly came down here with the mindset that we wanted
to win this football game and certainly win the division that way,” coach Chuck Pagano said.The Bengals
are having their best season at home since 1988, when they won all eight regular-season home games and
two playoff games on the way to a second Super Bowl appearance and loss to San Francisco.They’re in
position to clinch their first AFC North title since 2009 with two home games in the last three
weeks.Dalton was sharp from the outset, completing 6 of 7 for 81 yards on the Bengals’ first drive,
including a 29-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones. The Colts have been outscored 49-9 in the first
quarters of their past six games.The Bengals got a pivotal touchdown on a reversed call with 1:06 left
in the first half.They went for it on fourth down from the Colts 1-yard line. Green-Ellis took the
handoff and appeared to get tripped by nose tackle Josh Chapman, who dived into the backfield and swiped
at his feet.“I hit his foot when he came through,” said Chapman, who started celebrating his
play.Green-Ellis said he felt someone trip him. He stumbled ahead, avoided a couple of defenders, landed
at the 1-yard line and slid into the end zone. He was initially ruled down, but the Bengals were awarded
a touchdown after a review.The review focused only on whether a defender touched Green-Ellis as he fell
near the goal line, not whether Chapman had tripped him in the backfield, referee Jeff Triplette
said.“We looked at the goal line, (those) were the shots that we looked at,” Triplette said.Trailing
21-0, Luck finally rallied the Colts.He completed a slant pass that Da’Rick Rogers took 69 yards for a
touchdown and another short pass that LaVon Brazill turned into a 19-yard touchdown, slipping through
the hands of six defenders.Dalton and the Bengals never let the Colts get closer than seven
points.Notes: The Bengals moved 2012 Pro Bowl tackle Andrew Whitworth to left guard, and right guard
Kevin Zeitler was out of the lineup for the third straight game because of injury. The Colts were
missing guards Hugh Thornton and Jeff Linkenbach. … Colts RB Chris Rainey will get an MRI on an
injured ankle. … The Bengals have scored 49, 41 and 42 points in their past three home games, the
first time they’ve scored at least 40 in three straight at home. … RB Giovani Bernard had 99 yards on
12 carries, coming up a yard short of the first 100-yard rushing game by a Bengal this season. He also
had 49 yards on four catches.

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