CINCINNATI — Cincinnati defensive end Sam Hubbard sacked Seattle quarterback Geno Smith on a fourth-and-goal at the Bengals’ eight-yard line to preserve a 17-13 win at Paycor Stadium on Sunday.

On the previous series, Hubbard and fellow defensive end Trey Hendrickson teamed up on another sack of Smith on fourth-and-goal at the six-yard line — with 2:25 to go in the game.

“It’s better to win ugly than lose pretty,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said, after escaping with the win. “That’s the first thing that hit me when I walked off the field. At times it felt ugly, especially on offense, but again our defense stepped up and made some big plays for us that allowed us to get out of there.”

Seattle (3-2) blew two opportunities to win the game in the final minutes inside the 10-yard line.

“This was a game to win,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “We came out here on the road, their crowd going crazy, and we’re right there. We’re inside the 10 a bunch of times to win the game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it in.”

The Seahawks made good on only one of five trips into the red zone on Sunday.

Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt had one interception of Smith, and batted down a ball in the end zone that could have been a touchdown catch by Seattle wide receiver D.K. Metcalf.

“I was guarding D.K. on that one,” Taylor-Britt said. “I think it was a back line route and they threw the ball to him, and it was altered because Sam (Hubbard) or Trey (Hendrickson) got back there. But I knew the ball got altered because I heard the crowd, so I looked, and the ball was coming, and I was like ‘Oh!’ And made the play.”

Cincinnati answered Seattle’s opening drive of a touchdown with one of its own.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow orchestrated a 13-play, 69-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd with 2:22 to go in the first quarter to tie the game at 7-7.

Burrow, who finished with 185 yards passing and two TDs, connected on seven straight passes on the drive.

Cincinnati (3-3) took a 14-7 lead at the 12:20 mark in the second quarter — on a Burrow to Andrei Iosivas three-yard touchdown pass, the first for the wide receiver.

“We’re not where we want to be right now — not where we want to be,” Burrow said after the win. “We’ve had moments, but we just have to put it all together. So we’ll evaluate this week and go from there.”

Cincinnati kicker Evan McPherson extended the lead to 17-13 when he nailed a 52-yard field goal with 11:47 left in the third quarter.

From that point, the Bengals defense stiffened — and halted two scoring drives by Seattle in the red zone.

“We have a lot of faith in our defense, especially when they have to go out there — we put them out there in some tough spots,” Taylor said. “To have those four low red zones stops that they had, they held them to a field goal, two turnovers on downs and a turnover. Exceptional job by our defense. They give us a lot of confidence. It’s a stressful situation. Seattle has a great team. They did a great job in some plays, moving the ball down there. But at the end of the day, we just have tremendous confidence that our defense is going to figure it out and they did. And they had a huge stop there at the end.”

Cincinnati has its bye week, and then heads to San Francisco.