CINCINNATI — Happy birthday to Cam Taylor-Britt.

The defensive cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals celebrated his big day at The Jungle on Sunday with an acrobatic interception, and a key knockdown in the end zone to ignite the Bengals to a 17-13 win over Seattle.

“It’s October 15 man, it’s my birthday,” he said after the win. “Our defense showed its face today. We all made big plays and that’s what we want to do. We want to give the ball back to our offense. But I’ve never had an interception on my birthday.”

Sunday was indeed about the Who Dey defense.

“Our (defensive backs) have really stepped up,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “Mike Hilton and Cam Taylor-Britt, they’ve really come on strong. Really proud of Cam — he has great ball skills — tremendous ball skills. When the ball the ball is in his area, he has a great chance to get to it.”

Bengals defensive back Mike Hilton added a pick on Sunday at Paycor Stadium, and that wasn’t all.

Defensive ends Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson came through for the Bengals with crucially-timed sacks of Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith in the final moments of the game — deep in Bengals territory.

Hubbard, a Cincinnati native, then sealed the win with a fourth-down-and-goal sack of Smith at the Bengals eight-yard line.

Whew!

They pulled it out.

“We have a lot of faith in our defense,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said, after the win. “We put them in some tough spots. But they seem to come through.”

No kidding.

It also helped that the Seahawks (3-2) were ice cold in the red zone, and made good on only one of five trips.

That one success was on the game’s first drive when they took the opening kickoff 75 yards in 11 plays, and took a 7-0 lead.

From that point on, the Bengals defense allowed two Seattle field goals on their way to the win.

“We just had an exceptional job by our defense,” Taylor added. “They give us a lot of confidence.”

The Bengals offense was on target in the first half, then basically stayed in the locker room the final two quarters.

After Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow connected with Tyler Boyd on an eight-yard TD pass with 2:22 to go in the first, and then with Andrai Iosivas on a three-yarder at the 12:20 mark in the second quarter, the offense cooled off.

Kicker Evan McPherson booted a 52-yard field goal with 11:47 left in the third to give the Bengals a 17-13 lead.

“Our defense stepped up big in the second half. Our offense was really good in the first half, and we were horrible in the second half,” Burrow said. “We just have to find a way to put together a complete game.”

Burrow finished the game with 185 yards passing, and completed 24 of 35 passes with two TDs and one interception.

On the Bengals’ first drive of the game, Burrow at one point connected on seven straight passes in the 13-play, 69-yard drive — capped off by the connection with Boyd.

The Bengals are 3-3 and .500 on the season — heading into the bye week.

“It’s back to 0-0,” Taylor-Britt said. “That’s how I look at it. I think that’s how a lot of guys look at it. It’s a fresh start and we’ve got to come back after the bye and keep our feet on a lot of people’s necks because as you can see, it’s not going to be easy like it wasn’t today and we’ve got the (San Francisco) 49ers coming up right after the bye.”

Taylor called the win “ugly”, but added any victory in the NFL is a good one.

His quarterback agreed.

“I’m never going to apologize for a win,” Burrow added. “The bye week is coming at a good time. Get some guys healthy and come back because we got a grind ahead of us.”

At this point in the season, this is not the same Cincinnati team that has gone to back-to-back AFC Championship games.

There is a lot of work to do to get to that level.

But they are showing signs of improvement each game.

Playmaker Ja’Marr Chase pulled in six catches of 80 yards, while Boyd had 38 yards on seven catches.

Tee Higgins in the question mark right now.

On Sunday, he had only two catches for 20 yards — and continues to nurse the injured rib.

“We felt like we had some opportunities today,” Taylor said. “I walked off the field and thought ‘it’s better to win ugly than lose pretty.’” At times it felt ugly, especially on offense, but our defense stepped up and made some big plays.”

After the bye week, the Bengals travel to San Francisco.

Who Dey!