By Shannon Russell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The 1-13 Bengals continue to make dreams come true. For their opponents, anyway.

Jacksonville's hopes for a non-losing season were revived in a 29-15 win over the Bengals on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium.

The Jaguars' victory, which snapped a three-game losing streak, was their eighth win over the Bengals in their past nine meetings. Jacksonville (6-8) still can aim for a .500 season.

"It was great, because nobody was hanging their heads down afterward," Jaguars running back Fred Taylor said. "Winning makes so much difference in mood, from the coaches to everybody else. It just makes you feel that much better. It's like you won the lottery."

Taylor, Jacksonville's leading rusher who has five 100-yard games this season, had 71 rushing yards and 43 receiving yards against the Bengals. He also caught his career-high 46th pass, surpassing his former high (44) set in 1998.

Jaguars wide receiver Kevin Lockett caught his second touchdown pass of the season, a first-quarter, 12-yard hit from quarterback Mark Brunell. Lockett was inactive last week.

"I was on cloud nine after that touchdown," Lockett said. "It was big for me."

Jacksonville entered the game having lost its previous three by a total of five points. The Jaguars, who surrendered the lead for just 5:32 in the third quarter, were able to pull out a win for the first time since Nov. 17. And the Bengals lost a third-quarter lead for the second time in three games.

Had Jacksonville lost, the results would've been - well, embarrassing.

"There was a lot of pressure on us," Jaguars defensive tackle Marcus Stroud said. "If we would have lost this game to the Bengals, we would have hit rock bottom."

Jacksonville had the NFL's eighth-ranked rushing offense (134.7 yards per game) and was tied for eighth in points allowed (19.4).

But the Jaguars shut down Cincinnati's running game, allowing 65 net yards. Fifty-nine belonged to Corey Dillon, who's been held to an average of 62 yards and 20 attempts in the Bengals' past four losses.

A crowd of 42,092 witnessed the latest Bengals' loss. Stroud can't remember a time when he played in front of so many empty seats.

"Despite the crowd, we went out and had a good time and played - it was fun," Stroud said. "That's what's been missing around here. We haven't been having fun. Today, we were bound and determined to execute and have fun."

E-mail srussell@enquirer.com

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