I totally agree with Sharpe.
The Bengals screwed up by stopping running even when it was reasonably affective.
McVay was right to keep running even though it was largely ineffective. Because if he stopped, then there would be no reason for the Bengals to have to play for a run and instead play everything for pass rush and coverage. Even a couple of yards per rush is enough to "keep them honest".
Two things enormously helped the Bengals keep it as close as it was.
1) OBJ going down and out before halftime.
2) The bogus TD by Higgens after he threw Ramsey to the ground by the facemask.
Could add a 3rd I suppose. Not only was our starting TE unable to play, his back-up got injured, and then we were down to what was essentially our 4th string TE.
Otherwise, this game isn't very close at all.
Despite the what if's the better team won.
