The Cincinnati Bengals needed to win tonight to secure a playoff berth so they wouldn’t have to deal with any of the drama that would have came if they lost to the Denver Broncos. The drama is over for at least this week as the Bengals beat the favored Broncos 37-28 at Paul Brown Stadium.
Just like the 2003 song “Sick and Tired” by the Nappy Roots and Anthony Hamilton stated so eloquently, the Bengals are sick and tired of getting their behinds kicked in primetime or when much of the world is watching.
Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, and the Playoffs have been the bane of the Bengals (10-4-1) existence for the past decade or so. But tonight, the Bengals showed that they can be much more than a stiff corpse in primetime.
And it was about time, because the Bengals really needed this game. And the fact that it was against the mighty Broncos (11-4) and for much of the game they were without their gifted receiver A.J. Green, made this victory even more sweet.
The Broncos who clinched their division recently, were always a threat in this game as they never backed down from the Bengals passionate and LOUD fans, from the home-field advantage of the Bengals, the hard rain fall in the fourth quarter, or the Bengals’ aggressive defense.
But there was this guy named Dre Kirkpatrick, a cornerback for the Bengals, who collected two huge interceptions that effectively closed the door on any rally that Denver thought they had going. Kirkpatrick before tonight’s game, never had two thefts in one game in Cincinnati and he never turned the trick at Alabama either.
Meanwhile, Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib put his team on the board first, when he drifted down the right sideline and intercepted a tipped pass with him then falling to the ground at the CIN 33. Quickly, he recognized no one touched him so he got up and then navigated his way down the sideline and then into the end zone to complete a 33 yard pick-six. It was 7-0 Denver with 10:32 left in the first quarter. That was Talib’s second pick-six of the season the sixth of his seven year career.
But Bengals rookie running back Jeremy Hill (22 carries for 147 yards and 1 score) answered that score, when he took Dalton’s handoff, then negotiated where he was going to run, he then used key blocks by left tackle Andrew Whitworth and wide receiver Brandon Tate, and finally he sped down the field and into the end zone to complete an 85 yard touchdown run. That was the longest run of Hill’s rookie year and the second longest run of the year by a Bengals back behind Giovani Bernard’s 89 yard scoring run versus Carolina in Week 6. It was 7-7 with 10:09 left in the second quarter.
Hill who had his second straight 100 yard game this week (he went for 148 last week versus Cleveland), went over the 1,000 yard mark with his monster game tonight. He has 1,024 yards rushing this season, which makes him the first Bengals running back to run for 1,000 yards in his rookie season since future Hall of Famer Corey Dillon ran for 1,129 yards in his rookie year of 1997.
Then the Bengals added to their lead when tight end Jermaine Gresham (9 catches for 62 yards and 1 score) caught Andy Dalton’s first touchdown pass of the game near the back of the end zone. That 2 yard score gave the Bengals a 17-7 lead with 7:56 left in the first half.
Bengals placekicker Mike Nugent secured his second field goal of the game when he booted a 49 yarder that sailed just inside the left upright. The Bengals now possessed a 20-7 lead with 1:03 left in the first half.
Broncos tight end Julius Thomas gave his team some breathing room for a possible score in the way of a field goal or touchdown, when he caught a 26 yard reception down the seam to the CIN 43 where he was upended by Bengals free safety Reggie Nelson.
Then fellow tight end Jacob Tamme buttressed that reception, when he caught an 8 yard pass over the middle to the CIN 35. Those two key plays set up a Connor Barth 49 yard field goal attempt. But Barth missed the kick when it sailed just outside the left upright which sent the game into halftime.
Broncos cornerback Omar Bolden opened the second half when he took a Nugent kickoff 77 yards down the right sideline to the CIN 21 yard line. The Broncos used that big return to get their star receiver Demaryius Thomas (7 catches for 115 yards) another chance to annoy an opposing cornerback(s).
Thomas caught a 19 yard reception to the CIN 2. Then the receiver gave his team a fresh set of downs when Bengals cornerback Terence Newman drew a defensive pass interference call, because he covered and interfered a little too closely with Thomas in the end zone. Bolden’s return and Thomas’s PI call set up an off left tackle 1 yard touchdown run by running C.J. Anderson (143 yards total offense and 1 score). Now it was 20-14 Bengals with 14:12 left in the third quarter.
The Bengals’s Adam Jones showed again why it isn’t wise to kick towards him on punts and kickoffs, because on the Bengals’s ensuing drive, he took back a Brandon McManus kickoff 80 yards to the DEN 27.
Jones’ return set up a Bernard 22 touchdown reception, on a play in which Broncos outside linebacker Steven Johnson had the responsibility of covering the fleet all-purpose back out of the backfield. Johnson never had a chance as through the whole play, the linebacker was just trying to catch up to Bernard. It was 27-14 Bengals with 12:35 left in the third quarter.
As brilliant as Bernard (81 yards total offense and 1 score) was at North Carolina and with Bengals as a receiver, it’s really something that the 22 yard scoring play was his first touchdown reception of the 2014 season.
But Manning and the Broncos passing offense wasn’t done yet. Peyton Manning’s (28 of 44 for 311 yards, 2 touchdowns and 4 interceptions) second favorite receiver Emmanuel Sanders (6 catches for 70 yards and 2 scores) caught a 4 yard scoring pass with him fighting so hard just to get into the end zone to complete the play. With 9:08 left in the third quarter, the Bengals saw their lead cut to 27-21.
Later in the third quarter and just when the Bengals were on their way to a two touchdown lead, Hill carried forward and then in a pile the back was stripped by Broncos outside linebacker Von Miller at the DEN 7. Miller’s strip-fumble recovery set up Thomas again to stymie the Bengals defense.
Thomas on this drive caught 2 passes for 61 yards which got the Broncos to the CIN 24. Thomas’s big catches set up a back of the end zone 5 yard touchdown reception by Sanders. By virtue of Sanders’s scoring play, the Broncos took their first lead since early in the second quarter with a 28-27 score.
Jones ended the Broncos’ next offensive drive early in the first quarter, when he intercepted Manning along the Broncos sideline. But a taunting penalty on Jones put the ball at the DEN 38 from the DEN 23 which is where he returned the theft in the first place. But the Bengals couldn’t take advantage of the theft as they were forced to punt after a Dalton (17 of 26 for 146 yards, 2 touchdown passes and 1 interception) pass fell incomplete on 3rd down and 12.
The Bengals took the lead again when Nugent put through a 23 yard field goal to put the score at 30-28 with just under eight minutes to go in the game.
Kirkpatrick pretty much sealed the game for his team, when he intercepted Manning at the DEN 30 and then the corner raced untouched into the end zone to give his team a 37-28 lead with 2:41 left in the game.
Then on the Broncos ensuing drive, Kirkpatrick intercepted his second pass of the night with this one taking place at the CIN 5 yard line. On the drive that Kirkpatrick’s interception led to, Hill on 1st and 10 carried 14 yards to the CIN 19 where he took a knee in-bounds. And then Dalton ended the game with two kneel-downs of his own.
