On a day when many of the 67,060 fans at Cleveland Browns Stadium seemed resigned to the ignominy of setting a franchise record for consecutive losses, the Cincinnati Bengals turned their rival fans’ misery into celebration with an uninspired second half.

The Cincinnati defense allowed Cleveland rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden, owner of the NFL’s worst passer rating, to throw for 231 yards and two touchdowns on his 29^th birthday, while Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton tossed three second-half interceptions to help the Browns snap their 11-game losing streak with a 34-24 victory.

“I think we missed an opportunity to survive not playing well and win the football game, which is a good thing when you can do that, and we didn’t two weeks in a row now,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said, referring also to the 17-13 loss to Miami on Oct. 7.

“I know we have a lot of young guys playing,” Lewis added. “But we expect a lot of guys to play better than they are playing.”

Cleveland (1-5) started seven rookies and still found a way to knock off the Bengals (3-3) for the franchise’s first win since Nov. 20, 2011.

“We have a locker room full of excited, happy guys,” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said. “It was a team victory. We caused four turnovers. We got points off turnovers. We scored more points than we have in awhile.”

Dalton completed 31 of 46 passes for 381 yards — all career highs — and three touchdowns. But his three interceptions also equaled a career high.

Browns cornerback Joe Haden, playing in his first game after serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL policy on performance-enhancing substances, came up with the first when he snared a ball that deflected off the hands of A.J. Green.

The play provided a spark for a Browns offense that at that point had gone three-and-out on six consecutive possessions. A seventh followed, but Cleveland kicker Phil Dawson booted a 38-yard field goal to get the Browns within 14-13.

And the Cleveland offense took off after that, recording 10 of its 16 first downs and 21 of its 34 points over the final 20 minutes.

Weeden, who entered the game with an anemic 64.5 passer rating, found tight end Ben Watson wide open in the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown that made it 27-17. Weeden’s first TD pass of the game also came courtesy of a wide-open receiver when Josh Gordon got behind safety Reggie Nelson for a 71-yard bomb that tied the game 7-7 in the first quarter.

“We had a big third down pass where it seemed like no one was covering the guy,” defensive tackle Domata Peko said. “Those are mental errors. We can’t do that if you want to be a good defense. We can’t afford to lose any more like this.”

“We have to get it together before it snowballs,” added defensive end Robert Geathers. “The leaders on this team have to step up and get these guys going in the right direction. Everyone has to be accountable.”

On the first play after the Watson TD, Cleveland cornerback Sheldon Brown stepped in front of Bengals wide receiver Brandon Tate for an interception he returned 19 yards for a touchdown and a back-breaking 34-17 lead with 7:50 left in the game.

“He sat on the route,” Dalton said of Brown. “The throw was to the window we were trying to get to, he just sat on it. He’d been sitting on all of our stuff throughout the game, so I shouldn’t have thrown it.”

Dalton answered with a 57-yard TD to Green that made it 34-24 with 5:21 to go, but that’s as close as the Bengals would get before the party on the lake began in earnest.

“I feel like we are gaining lessons,” Lewis said. “We’re gaining grit, which we need because we have got to play nastier. We need to play tougher. We’re almost too nice at times and we’ve got to have more of a killer instinct.”