Bengals notes: Eifert 'one of the best tight ends in the business'

The ball hung up for a long time in the tense Paul Brown Stadium air as Andy Dalton's pass in the direction of Tyler Eifert floated toward the turf. Dalton needed a big play with the Bengals knocking on the door of field-goal range with the clock ticking down at the end of regulation.

The tight end dove beyond safety Kam Chancellor and narrowly corralled the pass before it hit the turf. Four plays later, Mike Nugent kicked a 31-yard field goal to force overtime.

Following an offseason of discussing how much Eifert changes the dynamic of the offense, this play served as an exclamation point of his latest example in Sunday's win.

"You hear a lot about Gronk," defensive end Wallace Gilberry said, referring to New England tight end Rob Gronkowski, "But that kid, he's one of the best tight ends in the business. It's so effortless how he catches these balls and gets these yards."

Eifert caught eight passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns.

If it seemed the two touchdown receptions Sunday looked similar, that's because they were.

"We ran the same play twice in the same exact spot and it worked out both times," Eifert said. "It ended up being almost wide open. Those were two good play calls."

The first was a 14-yard touchdown running all alone down the seam when nobody picked him up on the opening drive of the game. The second was slightly more difficult, when cornerback Cary Williams slipped in to cover, but the 6-foot-5 tight end easily reached over top the 6-1 corner.

One of the most underrated plays came when Eifert caught a 12-yard slant to begin the game-winning drive in overtime. Despite being cut off by the corner, he fought around the play and broke a tackle.

Eifert is second to A.J. Green for receptions and yards this season - with 24 for 312 - and is tied with Jeremy Hill for the team lead in touchdowns with five. Only Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald has caught more touchdowns.

"He's like a receiver playing tight end," Dalton said. "He's got unbelievable skills, can go up and make different catches—whether it be over guys or diving. That diving catch that got us down there to be able to kick the field goal at the end of the game was such a big play when we needed it, and that's what makes him so special."

SHERMAN VS GREEN: The standard operating procedure for Richard Sherman over the years has always been to stay on one side of the field no matter what the other receivers are doing. That changed Sunday.

After A.J. Green racked up five receptions for 65 yards in the first 22 minutes — not including what would have been a 72-yard touchdown reception if not for a holding call on Andrew Whitworth. From that point forward, Sherman shadowed Green no matter where he went on the field.

It certainly worked. Green didn't catch another pass until overtime and even saw one intercepted by Earl Thomas.

"There was an opportunity there to help the team and coach asked me do it so that's what I did," Sherman said.

From that point forward, the Bengals' offense went into a lull, going seven drives with either a punt or turnover, before spreading the ball elsewhere in the fourth quarter.

"They ended up putting Sherman on A.J.," Dalton said. "They even had some safety help over there. We had a couple of chances to hit some of these throws down field. We got big pass interference calls on Marvin (Jones). Mo (Sanu) was able to get open, and get loose, and hit a couple big ones to him too. It's one of those things if they're going to take away A.J. there's other guys that are going to be getting open."

SACK MEN: The Bengals notched four sacks on Russell Wilson on Sunday. They've now notched at least four sacks in a game three times this year. They never did it once last season.

Carlos Dunlap came down with 1.5 sacks and leads the team with five in five games. At the conclusion of the second window of games Sunday, he's tied for the NFL lead with Detroit's Ziggy Ansah.

Geno Atkins notched another sack in the fourth quarter, and he is second on the team with four sacks. All but 1.5 sacks on the year have come from the defensive line.

On top of the sacks, the Bengals laid 10 QB hits on Wilson.

"That's huge for Russell Wilson, the guy that can make plays with his arm and his feet," Dunlap said. "If you can contain him, hit him, sack him, that's huge. That's a pretty good day. We had a pretty good day of limiting his strengths and that's why we were able to come out victorious."