Bengals Beat Falcons 34-17 in Madrid Behind Burrow’s Four Touchdowns

MADRID — Joe Burrow threw three touchdown passes and ran for another as the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-17 at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Sunday, winning the NFL’s second regular-season game in Madrid in front of a loud Spanish crowd.

The victory was Cincinnati’s fourth in a row and lifted the Bengals to 6-2, level with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the top of the AFC North. Atlanta slipped to 3-6 after a defeat that exposed its penalty problems as much as its defensive ones.

Burrow finished 24 of 29 for 271 yards with no interceptions, and his favourite target, Ja’Marr Chase, caught 10 passes for 155 yards and a touchdown. Tee Higgins caught two touchdown passes, and Evan McPherson kicked field goals of 57 and 43 yards.

Falcons strike first, Bengals answer immediately

Atlanta made the brighter start. Michael Penix Jr. found tight end Charlie Woerner for a one-yard touchdown on the opening drive, and a 31-yard Nick Folk field goal later put the Falcons 10-7 ahead after Burrow had answered with a 47-yard touchdown strike to Chase.

It was the last time Atlanta led. Cincinnati took control in the second quarter with 17 unanswered points: a one-yard quarterback sneak from Burrow, a four-yard touchdown pass to Higgins, and McPherson’s booming 57-yard field goal sent the Bengals into half-time 24-10 ahead.

Falcons head coach Jeff Ulbrich had said earlier in the week that Burrow was “playing the best football of his career” — and Sunday’s performance backed him up.

Chase’s career-best first half

Chase did most of his damage before the break. He had eight catches for 142 yards and a touchdown in the first half alone — the best first half of his career, and the most receiving yards by any single player against the Falcons this season.

His diving third-down catch in the second quarter kept alive the drive that ended with Higgins’ first touchdown, a four-yard pass at the end of a march that began at Cincinnati’s own 12-yard line. Chase gained 69 yards on that drive alone, and by half-time Burrow had completed 16 of 18 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns, plus his rushing score.

Falcons rally, then Bengals close it out

Atlanta pulled back within a touchdown in the second half, but Burrow answered with his third touchdown pass of the day, finding Higgins again from eight yards out to restore a double-digit cushion. McPherson’s 43-yard field goal with 4:36 remaining made it 34-17, and Cincinnati ran out the clock from there.

Atlanta’s frustration showed in the penalty count. The Falcons were flagged 12 times for 88 yards, repeatedly stalling their own drives and handing Cincinnati short fields to work with.

What it means for both teams

The win keeps Cincinnati firmly in the AFC playoff race and level with Pittsburgh at the top of the division, with the league’s most in-form passing attack doing the damage. Burrow, Chase and Higgins have now powered three consecutive high-scoring performances, and the Madrid trip did nothing to slow them down.

For Atlanta, the problems are mounting. The Falcons have one of the league’s most dangerous runners in Bijan Robinson, but they could not keep pace once Cincinnati’s passing game found its rhythm, and the penalties made a difficult afternoon worse. At 3-6, Atlanta has ground to make up in the NFC South.

The early 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff — a 3:30 p.m. start in Madrid — was the NFL’s second regular-season game at the Bernabéu, following the first edition in 2025, and the latest stop in the league’s push to grow American football beyond the United States.

Elsewhere in sport this week, the Winnipeg Jets completed an overtime comeback against the Montreal Canadiens, UCLA stunned Arizona in its college basketball season opener, and Roman Reigns retained at Crown Jewel.