CINCINNATI (AP) — Bengals coach Marvin Lewis exuded

confidence when he fired his defensive coordinator and assumed leadership of the NFL’s worst defense. All he’s gotten is two more losses that have essentially scuttled Cincinnati’s fading hopes.The Bengals are free falling http://www.brownsfanshop.com/Sione-Takitaki-Jersey , with no sign of slowing down. And now their starting quarterback is hurt, too.Baker Mayfield set a Browns rookie record with four touchdown passes, and Cleveland ended one of the NFL’s longest streaks of road futility on Sunday with a 35-20 victory over the hapless Bengals, who lost Andy Dalton to a thumb injury.Now what?The Bengals (5-6) can’t do the simple things right, contributing to a streak of five losses in six games. They’ve fallen from first in the AFC North to third, only a half-game ahead of the Browns.“I’ve got to prepare them better,” Lewis said. “OK? It rests with me.”Against the Browns, they were overmatched from the start.Cleveland (4-6-1) won on the road for the first time since 2015, emphatically snapping a streak of 25 straight road losses that was one shy of the Lions’ NFL record. The Browns also ended a run of seven straight losses to their intrastate rival.“It hurts,” Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd said. “It hurts a lot.”The Bengals thought they had one advantage: Hue Jackson on their sideline. It didn’t matter.The Browns fired Jackson a month ago after he won only three games in two-plus seasons as head coach. Lewis fired defensive coordinator Teryl Austin after a 51-14 loss to the Saints, installed himself as coordinator, and hired his close friend Jackson to help with the defense.The Browns were bothered by the sight of their former coach on the other sideline plotting against them. When safety Damarious Randall picked off one of Dalton’s passes along the sideline Greedy Williams Jersey , he stepped out of bounds and handed the ball to Jackson , who patted him on the helmet.Dalton hurt the thumb on his passing hand while trying to recover a fumble in the third quarter and didn’t return. Center Billy Price snapped the ball too high, and Dalton got his hand caught in a scrum for the ball.“I’ve never done that,” Price said of his poor snap. “I just held onto it a little too much and just pulled it.”Dalton left the field immediately for testing. Lewis said the injury doesn’t appear to be season-ending, but more tests were being performed.The Browns turned the fumble recovery into Mayfield’s fourth TD pass for a 35-7 lead. Dalton was 10 of 17 for 100 yards with a touchdown and an interception.Jeff Driskel took over and went 17 of 29 for 155 yards with a touchdown pass and a TD run. He’ll start against the Broncos next Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium if Dalton can’t play.“I know personally what I’ve known all along, and that’s that I can play at this level and give our team a chance to win,” Driskel said.The Bengals already were missing cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, receiver A.J. Green and left tackle Cordy Glenn, inactive with injuries. Jake Fisher started at left tackle and hurt his back late in the first half. Cornerback Tony McRae suffered a concussion in the third quarter and gave two thumbs-up as he was wheeled off the field. He also had a lot to say about his contribution to the Browns being the team they are today." />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesDawgs EDTShare this storyShare this on FacebookShare this on TwitterShareAll sharing optionsShareAll sharing options for:Hue Jackson will commentate a couple Browns preseason games this year [April Fools]TwitterFacebookRedditPocketFlipboardEmailPhoto by Jason Miller/Getty ImagesNote: This was this year’s April Fools post.Photo by Jason Miller/Getty ImagesLast week at the NFL’s annual league meetings, Richard Deitsch of The Athletic gathered a bunch of nuggets related to the media side of football. His column this morning talks about some of the early auditions for who might replace Jason Witten on Monday Night Football. For the preseason at least, it sounds like one of those candidates will be former Browns head coach Hue Jackson.Although the preseason schedule has not been announced yet, Jackson is slated to call two of the Browns’ four preseason games on ESPN. Deitsch spoke with Jackson about how it would feel to offer commentary on the club he coached for the past 2.5 season https://www.brownsfanshop.com/Howard-Wilson-Jersey , that is now poised for stardom. Like we have come to expect from Jackson, though, he ended up tooting his own horn, in more ways than one.Asked to elaborate on how he played a role in the acquisition of Beckham, Jackson called back to a conversation he had with Pat Shurmur during the preseason last year.Jackson also talked about how Baker Mayfield is a heck of a player, but still “has some growing up to do,” feeding directly in to what Mike Silver of the NFL Network said about the Browns after their big wins in free agency. Jackson briefly mentioned how the problems with Mayfield stemmed from Jackson trying to explain “not winning too much yet” to help continue setting the table for the future of the club, while he wasn’t having any of it.The interview is full of so many other incredible quotes, although it’s hard to tell how many of them are tongue-in-cheek. One of my favorite ones was his callback to his “trust me” comment regarding Cody Kessler — which Jackson now says wasn’t to trust him about Kessler’s abilities as a quarterback, but rather the long-term setting of the table.APRIL FOOLS!#aprilfools {display: none;}