AJ Green caught a hat-trick of touchdown passes as the Cincinnati Bengals maintained their perfect start to the season with a 34-23 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday.
The Bengals racked up a 21-point lead over Baltimore in the first quarter, with quarterback Andy Dalton proving dangerous.
He threw four touchdown passes in the first half, while it was deep into the second quarter before Baltimore got onto the scoreboard courtesy of Javorius Allen.
A 55-yard field goal by Justin Tucker two minutes into the third lifted the Ravens to 17-28, while Joe Flacco's pass to John Brown for a touchdown boosted Baltimore to 23.
The gap had narrowed, although the Ravens could not break through.
Their hopes were thoroughly dashed in the final three minutes of the game when Randy Bullock intervened with 28-yard field goal to put the Bengals 11 ahead.
The win puts Cincinnati at the top of the AFC North, Baltimore in second.
"We still have one (improvement) we need to make, one we haven't done a good job of in the first two games, which is making sure we close out football games," said Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.
"When you get the lead, you want to be able to handle it and close it out. I thought the offense today, with the drive to put points on the board to go back up by eight was key.
"Our quarterback is playing his tail off and the guys today took care of him. We caught the ball today. I think we only had one drop, if I can recall, and that was big. That was key. Andy directed the offense, we went in and out of different tempo styles and tried to keep them back on their heels. We did a good job throughout."