Cincinnati held off a comeback attempt by the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, as the Bengals won 24-19. The Chargers had the ball with less than a minute left in the game but quarterback Philip Rivers was picked off to seal the loss.

The former practice squad player made a huge interception to preserve the Bengal victory. (Courtesy of Fox Sports)

Vincent Rey put an end to San Diego’s final drive when he tracked Rivers eyes across the field, and jumped into the air to come down with the pick. It wasn’t a terrible pass by Rivers, Rey just made one hell of a play to go up and catch the pass then hold onto it as he was he hit the ground.

Rey’s interception came on the second play of San Diego’s final drive. Rivers had connected with Danny Woodhead for an 11-yard completion on the previous play to get the Chargers another first down.

Rivers found Malcolm Floyd for a 40-yard touchdown pass to close within five-points of the Bengals. The Chargers attempted the two-point conversion, to try and get within three, but failed when Keenen Allen was tackled short of the goal-line. It was a brilliantly executed 10-play, 80-yard drive for San Diego, that unfortunately chewed too much time off of the clock.

Cincinnati’s biggest score came with 8:54 left in the fourth quarter when Andy Dalton hit Tyler Eifert on a nine-yard streak route up the seam to give the Bengals a 24-13 lead. It was a crucial touchdown that gave the Bengals a lead they were able to hold onto.

The first half was a battle of two teams that struggled to do anything on offense. There were drops by wide receivers, blown assignments on the offensive line, and bad passes by both quarterbacks that killed the majority of the drives. It was an ugly half of football that was created by mental mistakes and an astounding inability to execute.

Fortunately both sides cleaned up their execution heading into the second half, and it was a more watchable second half of football.

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