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Photo
courtesy of bengals.com
Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton hands the ball off during action
Sunday against Denver,
The Bengals dropped their fourth straight game and will take on the New
York Giants next Sunday.
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Bengals
grind Broncos but can't finish
Cincy woes continue
bengals.com
With his team left for dead on the side of the road at 17-3 when the
opening kickoff of the second half went against the Bengals for 105
yards, cornerback Terence Newman picked off the un-pickable Peyton
Manning at each end of the field late in the third quarter to stake the
Bengals to a 20-17 fourth-quarter lead.
But then he barely missed finishing a tackle on third-and-three to lead
to one touchdown before a flag he was sure he was going to get blew the
other way on an another touchdown as the 36-year-old Manning posted yet
another fourth-quarter victory in his MVP-like season that has gone
bitter for the 3-5 Bengals with their fourth straight loss.
"Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't. It's been that
way the last couple of games for us," Newman said. "A lot of times
teams get bounces to go their way and sometimes they don't. I think
today we got it both ways. At the end of the day, they did a better job
executing plays and doing them when it mattered."
That may be the epitaph for the 2012 season unless the Bengals can
string together a miracle second half. As Newman said, there's hope
because the Super Bowl champion Giants had a bad start last year. Well,
the Bengals will see it up close because those same Giants are up next
at PBS this Sunday at 1 p.m. and they're hurting after a loss to the
Steelers. Tom Coughlin's hard-boiled crew travels well and hasn't lost
two straight since last Dec. 4.
This one was particularly tough. The Bengals said they had a tremendous
week of preparation. Defensive tackle Domata Peko said there was
training camp intensity with "backs against the wall." Coordinator Mike
Zimmer told his defense it was the best week of practice his group has
had.
"If we can come out with the effort and the commitment we had in this
game and the way the guys played this game," left tackle Andrew
Whitworth said, "if we can do that week to week, we're going to put
together a streak of wins. We just keep coming up short in the fourth
quarter over and over again."
"Have to finish" is the mantra. The Bengals have lost the last four
games by an average of seven points and have been outscored in the
fourth quarter by eight points, 69-61.
All three phases are still looking for a complete game.
The Bengals defense offered a compelling day, giving its offense the
opportunity to outgain Manning (366-359) by holding running back Willis
McGahee and his 4.5-yard rush average to 2.9. But they let Manning
convert nine of 14 third-down tries.
The offense racked up 366 yards against a defense that gave Drew Brees
just 252 the week before and the Bengals got a bounce-back game from
wide receiver A.J. Green on 99 yards as well as tight end Jermaine
Gresham's first career 100-yard game. But the Bengals allowed five
sacks and committed the bulk of a season-high 83 yards in penalties.
Special teams got two clutch second-half field goals by Mike Nugent and
big kick returns by Brandon Tate, but Nugent missed a 46-yarder at the
halftime gun and they allowed Trindon Holliday's killer return.
Head coach Marvin Lewis showed the contradiction postgame, praising his
team's grit while also picking out each mistake.
"Those kind of corrections, you have to keep making and make sure those
things don’t creep in and hurt you in a close football game," Lewis
said. "We are playing good football teams, and we know these games are
going to be close. We just have to keep firing at them. There is
nothing to be satisfied with. They played hard, they played physical,
but we have to make more plays with the game on the line.
"We settled for a field goal early on. We got an opportunity inside the
10 on first down; we have to find a way to make a play. We have to find
a way to get open, make a play, convert and get a touchdown. We stopped
them once in the red zone and then we need to stop them again. We had
third down, and we need to get them stopped. We hold them to a field
goal and it’s a different game at the end.”
Much was made about Lewis's challenge earlier in the week when he said
quarterback Andy Dalton and middle linebacker Rey Maualuga had to take
control of the team by becoming "jerks." But it caused barely a ripple
in the locker room.
"Nobody paid any attention to that. Andy does a great job being a
leader. I think everybody looked at that as fly-by," Whitworth said. "I
think it got misinterpreted what (Lewis) was saying. I think he's
endorsing those guys. They are the guys and they've just got to
continue to lead this team the way they've been leading them and guys
have to follow. That's more what was said. I think that's what he meant
because both of them do a great job of being committed and working
their tails off."
Both rallied on Sunday. Dalton bounced back from a miserable first half
with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Green, a 52-yard scramble play to
Gresham, and a 34-yard laser to rookie wide receiver Mohamed Sanu on
third-and-seven through the tightest of windows. Maualuga led the
charge against McGahee with seven tackles.
But in the end, it just wasn't enough. Four of Dalton's first seven
victories were fourth-quarter comebacks. He hasn't had one in nearly a
year (Nov. 27) while Manning finished off his NFL-record 48th
fourth-quarter comeback.
Enter Newman, 34, and in his 10th season, first with the Bengals in a
reunion with his first NFL mentor, Zimmer. He had been energized by
Dalton's microwave drive of 3:16 that came in the smoke of Holliday's
105-yard return, which included the plays to Green and Gresham and cut
the lead to 17-10.
"That was the pivotal point of the game," Newman said.
But suddenly Manning was at the Bengals 9 again on second down and
Newman was lined up across from wide receiver Eric Decker. Manning had
been intercepted just once since the three in Atlanta on Sept. 17, but
Newman got him here when the Bengals really needed it in the end zone.
Manning tried a slant and Newman beat him to it when he saw Decker with
a slow release.
This was 27 seasons of NFL acumen at work with 15 of it Manning's and
12 of it Newman's.
"They're not a team that does a lot of back pylon fades. I was just
kind reading the release of the receiver," Newman said. "The pop pass
is kind of a big play around the league, so when he came off kind of
slow, I just jumped inside thinking it was going to be an inside pass
and it was … the coaches did a good job preparing us for that play."
It was the first interception by a Bengals cornerback all season and
the 33rd of Newman's career, and it set up Nugent's 49-yarder that made
it 17-13.
But here was Manning, who hadn't thrown two picks in five games,
throwing two on back-to-back throws.
When the Broncos muffed the kickoff, Manning was looking at dropping
back in his own end zone on third-and-eight from the Broncos 3.
Manning got hit just once all day and it was on this play on a corner
blitz from Nate Clements. But Manning still had time to step into it on
a deep throw to Decker down the sideline. But it looked like Newman was
the intended receiver as Manning overthrew it and Newman caught it over
his shoulder on the next-to-last play of the third quarter to set up
Cincinnati's go-ahead touchdown at 20-17.
But Manning and Decker would get the last word in the fourth quarter by
the closest of margins. Think it's a game of inches? Of Manning's
successful nine third-down conversions, six came on third-and-three or
less and the biggest of the game came on third-and-three from the
Denver 27 with 13:05 left.
For this story and more, go to Cincinnati Bengals
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