3 things we learned about the Bengals

AJ McCarron hurt his left wrist Monday while trying to recover a fumble.

The fact remains: The Denver Broncos need to figure out how to play four solid quarters in a row.

“It was my fault”. I mean, if we got the team from the first half of the Pittsburgh game and the second half of the Cincinnati game, we’d be looking at a Super Bowl favorite. I told (center) Russ (Bodine) I looked up to see the coverage and the snap caught me by surprise.

The Bad: Denver averaged 5.4 yards per carry and finished with 113 rushing yards to become the first team in eight games to break 100 against the Bengals. For now, Cincinnati’s focus is simply on beating Baltimore in the regular-season finale.

Observers of the Cincinnati Bengals have every right to smack their foreheads and mutter “here we go again”. “We’ll learn from our mistakes”. At halftime, the Bengals had outgained the Broncos 204 yards to 89, and held the ball for more than 21 minutes on their way to a 14-3 lead.

After viewing MRI results, the Bengals believe McCarron will be able to start in Week 17. But if the team’s anything like the squad that took the field for the second half in Denver, history will repeat itself again. “There’s a lot of things we wish we could’ve had back”. He was so furious at himself that he came out in overtime – with a chance to put the Broncos ahead – and drilled the 37-yard kick down the middle.

That one was just shy of the longest touchdown drive of the season in term of yards, coming up 36 inches shy of a 91-yard march in the first Cleveland game on November 5.

-LB Vontaze Burfict was flagged for unnecessary roughness for a hit out of bounds against Denver TE Virgil Green. It was a costly penalty. And then, Cincinnati got Cincinnati’d. McCarron was almost sacked by Von Miller on the first play, ruled an incomplete pass rather than a fumble. Trailing 20-17 following a Denver field goal, McCarron took a snap from the shotgun on his own 32. Ware jumped on the ball. “I just wrapped my foot around it”.

The Broncos are now starting Brock Osweiler in the stead of the injured Peyton Manning, and Osweiler once again looked good last night; the Bengals are starting AJ McCarron in the stead of the injured Andy Dalton, and McCarron also looked pretty damned good last night. “It was my fault, simple as that”.

After McCarron engineered touchdown drives of 80 and 90 yards in the first half, Denver put the clamps on the Bengals in the final two quarters and overtime to rally from an early 14-0 deficit. Cincinnati evened the score on kicker Mike Nugent’s 52-yard field goal with 6:46 left to play. The coaching staff simply didn’t uphold its end of the bargain, orchestrating a flawless (timeouts the exception) first half only to let reputation killers such as blown coverages, untimely flags and more ruin it all.

Denver had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation but McManus shanked a 45-yard field attempt wide left, sending the game into overtime.

The way that they lost in Denver was as disappointing as anything.

“It’s going to be a very quick turnaround after a five-quarter football game”.