Bengals awaiting A.J. McCarron’s MRI on left wrist

-TE C.J. Uzomah earned his first extended playing time on Monday night when TE Ryan Hewitt exited with a knee injury.

The outcome hinged on one of the most routine plays in football. Ware recovered the fumble, ending the overtime possession for the Bengals (11-4), who also are playoff-bound. The ball whizzed through the quarterback’s hands. Denver’s run defense stiffened as well.

And, with a ferociously sudden finality, that was that for the Bengals.

The only other quarterback on the Bengals’ roster is Keith Wenning, who has never taken a snap in the NFL.

“If something would change, the players would know first and you all would know second”, Kubiak said. “An opportunity to get the bye”.

When Osweiler starts Sunday against the San Diego Chargers in a game the Broncos most likely will have to win to capture their fifth consecutive AFC West title and fourth consecutive first-round playoff bye, it will mean Peyton Manning will not surpass Brett Favre and become the NFL’s all-time winningest quarterback.

Moving up was the idea.

Cincinnati would have clinched a first-round bye in the AFC playoffs by beating Denver.

But the bad-luck Bengals (11-4) seemed to have discovered their old snake-bitten ways of late, this time in the form of a snap decision benefiting the Broncos (11-4), who leap-frogged ahead of Cincinnati in the AFC pecking order, knocking the Bengals to third.

“It’s my fault. I told the guys that”, McCarron said.

Green’s five-yard TD grab capping an 80-yard drive and Mike Nugent’s extra-point kick gave the Bengals a 7-0 first-quarter lead.

There simply wasn’t a whiff of the Bengals letting the Broncos hang around for most of the first half. “We thought we were going to finish it with the field goal but at the end of the game, it’s all about that win”. He fumbled a shotgun snap in overtime, sealing it.

Mr. Satin says the team pulled their foot off the gas, while Ken Broo says Denver’s defense found a way to stop AJ Green after the half. They cashed in on McManus’ second field goal on a drive that was helped along by a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty whistled against Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict.

The Broncos twice drove deep into Cincinnati territory in the final minutes of regulation only to come away empty.

But it hadn’t. It was just an unusually bad kick from 45 yards out.

The Bengals mauled them in first half. He appeared in four games for the Eagles in 2010, completing 11 of 16 passes for 107 yards, with no touchdowns and two interceptions.

Denver made critical halftime adjustments, going with a hurry-up offense which surprised the Bengals and created future openings in the run game. They haven’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season. The Broncos can get the No. 2 seed with a win at home against San Diego next week.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron (5) throws against the Denver Broncos during the second half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 28, 2015, in Denver. While the injury, described as a sprain, isn’t expected to keep him out of the season finale against Baltimore, it is another impediment to the Bengals being the team they believe they can be. McCarron said he was getting an MRI to determine the severity of a left wrist injury that happened on the overtime fumble that cost the Bengals the game.