Cincinnati Bengals oh so close, but again no cigar

Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron sprained his left wrist on the final play of Cincinnati’s Monday night overtime loss to the Broncos.

The Bengals were driving from their own 33-yard line with 9:48 left in overtime – and trying to answer the Broncos’ go-ahead field goal – when McCarron fumbled the second-and-10 snap to end the game.

The Broncos had trailed 14-0 before their fightback saw them improve to 11-4 and secure a play-off place.

For the good luck of the mess that is the AFC to matter, though, the Bengals have to not just put Monday’s collapse behind them, but actually take something away from it.

“The ball was on the ground and I was feeling like, ‘There’s no way somebody’s going to take this ball from me, ‘” Ware said after his fumble recovery in overtime sealed Denver’s 20-17 victory over Cincinnati on Monday night.

“The second half is going to be different this week”, the Broncos tight end said. There’s still a chance he’ll be unable to play on Sunday, and if he’s forced to sit out the Bengals will turn to quarterback Keith Wenning, the former Ball State quarterback who was selected by in the sixth round of the 2014 draft. Denver got an huge amount of pressure on McCarron, stifling his first-half success and most of the momentum an 11-point Cincinnati halftime lead should have provided. “It felt great to finish the game that way”.

On back to back possessions, the Bengals established the most and second-most plays on scoring drives against Denver this season.

When Anderson attended the Nuggets-Los Angeles Lakers game last week, Kobe Bryant acknowledged him. It’s going to be very tough on us physically. 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. “If something would change with Brock, the players would know first and you all (reporters) would know second”.

In overtime, Osweiler led his team down the field to cash in with a 37-yard field goal from McManus.

“They adjusted, we adjusted”, said Lewis. “My fault. I told the guys that after the game”.

The NFL season is down to the final week and in the AFC, the playoff picture is still pretty fluid. An offense that was stuck in a deep freeze hadn’t scored a single point in the second half in three straight games, and this game was the third-coldest game in Denver history, with a starting temperature of 16 degrees. He finished off the drive with an 8-yard pass to wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who broke through cornerback Adam Jones’ tackle near the goal line for Denver’s first touchdown of the game with 10:14 left in the period. Compare that to second half were they ran the ball five time for 15 yards (3.0 ypc) with one stop for no gain and one tackle for a loss.

National Football League media’s Ian Rapoport calls the sprain “significant” but says McCarron is “intent on” playing since the injury is on his non-throwing arm. (Green) coming in motion.

Overall, McCarron completed 22 of 35 passes for 200 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.

Center Russell Bodine said he had “no idea” what happened on the snap.