Monday night's loss to the Bengals had a lot of ways to describe it. The words that comes to mind right away is ugly. Denver's 37-28 loss to the Bengals put the Cincy into the playoffs and it officially clinched the #1 seed for the Patriots-meaning the Broncos can only hope for a best case scenario of the #2 seed with a win over the Raiders on Sunday. In a game where Denver fell behind 20-7, roared back to take a 28-27 lead going in to the 4th quarter, the Broncos and Peyton Manning collapsed in the final quarter to fall to the Bengals. The real story coming out of this game is Manning. I'll get to his performance in just a minute. I'm going to go with a "Positive and Negative" type of approach to this game instead of my normal thoughts and observations. Here we go.....
Negatives:
-Manning's play wasn't good at all. He threw 4 interceptions in the game. Each one killed the Broncos. He threw 3 interceptions in the 4th quarter alone. A pick-six to Cincy's Dre Kirkpatrick put the nail in the Broncos coffin at 37-28. Each interception was ugly and each was poorly thrown into coverage. Maybe he is hurt, maybe he is fatigued, or maybe at 38 years old he is losing it a bit, but something is up with Manning. At times when he had some time in the pocket, he made some nice throws, but overall he didn't play well at all and looked like he wasn't into it.
-The Broncos defense didn't have their best night either. They sorely missed LBs Brandon Marshall and Danny Trevathan. Steven Johnson and Todd Davis just didn't get the job done. They gave up an 85 yard touchdown run to Jeremy Hill to tie the score at 7 in the 1st quarter. They got carved up all night on screens and zone read plays. It was ugly. For a defense that came in playing really well, this game set them back to the drawing board.
-The Broncos special teams units are starting to worry me again-just like late last year. They gave up an 80 yard return on a kick return to Adam Jones in the third quarter. That play was after Denver cut the lead to 20-14. It set up a Giovanni Bernard touchdown which extended the Bengals lead to 27-14. Also, they gave up a huge return to Brandon Tate late in the 4th quarter when they were up 28-27. That return gave Cincy the 30-28 lead it needed. Also, Connor Barth missed a crucial 49 yard field goal that would have cut into Cincy's lead near the end of the half. Instead of going into halftime down 20-10, the Broncos were down 20-7. Those three points were a big difference later in the game.
-The facemask call on Demaryius Thomas that negated a huge third down pickup in the 4th quarter was one of the worst calls I have ever seen. I'll say it again: The officials should not make these type of calls late in games to decide the outcome. It was such a bad call. I think if they don't call it, the Broncos at least take the lead late in the game.
-Did I say how disappointing it was to see Peyton Manning throw 4 interceptions? Did I mention that I am worried about Manning and his 12 picks since Week 8?
-This was just one of those games where you could just feel that there was no way Denver was winning it at any point of the night.
-With the loss, the Broncos can no longer secure homefield advantage in the AFC. The best they can be is the #2 seed, and if they slip up on Sunday and the Bengals defeat the Steelers, then they could be the #3 seed with no bye at all.
Positives:
-Aqib Talib's pick-six to start the game was a huge play, and it gave you the sense that the Broncos defense was going to be able to shut down Andy Dalton all night. At times, the defense did step up, but they were put in some bad spots by Manning too.
-Von Miller's strip of Jeremy Hill deep in Denver territory was a huge play. At 27-21, a touchdown there might have put the game away, but Miller's strip changed the momentum of the game at that point.
-When the Broncos decided near the end of the half to stop running their offense through RB C.J. Anderson and let Peyton Manning do his the thing, the results looked like last year's offense. Manning led the Broncos to a missed field goal drive at the end of the half, and then 3 consecutive touchdown drives (2 touchdown passes) in the 3rd quarter. Manning looked comfortable and in rhythm as he carved up the Bengals defense with big time throws to Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders. His last touchdown pass to Sanders was a sweet play as Sanders beat a double team and Manning read it perfectly and zipped it to him for a 5 yard touchdown pass to make it 28-27 Denver. Put the offense and the game back in Manning's hands, and then run the ball with Anderson, the 3 tight ends, and the extra offensive lineman when you have the lead. Enough is enough. Go to the dance with the girl who brought you there.
-As timely of a defeat this was, the Broncos are still in control of the #2 seed and first round bye. All they have to do is go out on Sunday at home and defeat the 3-12 Raiders. If they do that, then they are 12-4, have a bye week, can rest up and get healthy, and have a home playoff game in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. The Broncos, Manning, and their offense are a totally different team at home, and I'll take my chances against any of the possible opponents that could be coming to Denver: Cincy, Indy, Pittsburgh, etc...
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