Unbeaten Bengals continue to roll

The Cincinnati Bengals, who are off to their best start in franchise history, remain unbeaten with a 31-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns.

The Bengals improved to 8-0 on Thursday as tight end Tyler Eifert caught three touchdown passes from quarterback Andy Dalton in front of 65,800 fans at Paul Brown Stadium.

"We don't get anything for that," said coach Marvin Lewis of being 8-0.

"We've had to grind through. We've just got to do what we've done so far, take it one week at a time."

Dalton led a balanced offence and the defence recorded three sacks in the second half against Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, who was unable to muster much off a counterpunch offensively.

Dalton's steady performance included going 21-of-27 for 263 yards and three touchdowns.

Receiver Marvin Jones led Cincinnati with five catches for 78 yards against a Browns secondary playing without cornerback Joe Haden and strong safety Donte Whitner, who are both injured.

Manziel started in place of injured No. 1 Josh McCown and played well in bursts, passing for 168 yards and a touchdown.

But, Cincinnati's defence sacked Manziel three times in the second half, holding Cleveland to just 32 total yards.

"They came out and played a lot of cover two in the second half," said Manziel.

"Things looked open a couple of times but I could've gotten it down to a tight end or a running back.

"We had momentum going into the second half. We just didn't do enough."

Cincinnati figured to run the ball against the worst rush defence in the league and they had 154 yards on the ground led by Gio Bernard's 71.

The clinching touchdown came early in the fourth quarter when receiver Mohamed Sanu scored on a 25-yard reverse, giving the Bengals a 24-10 lead.