After falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers on the first day of the month, the Cincinnati Bengals’ playoff hopes seemed over. Fast forward to the end of the month and the Bengals will have everything on the line come Week 18’s regular season finale against the Steelers.
Beating the Denver Broncos 30-24 in overtime Saturday evening, the Bengals move to 8-8 with a real path to capture a Wild Card spot. Had they lost, they would’ve been eliminated with nothing to play for besides spoiler against Pittsburgh. It could’ve led them to rest starters, especially WRs Ja’Marr Chase and pending free agent Tee Higgins. Instead, the Bengals will bring their best to Pittsburgh next weekend, needing a win and Broncos’ loss (along with other help) to make the postseason.
To have any chance of salvaging the AFC North, the Steelers must beat the Bengals. The Baltimore Ravens must also lose to the Cleveland Browns. A Pittsburgh victory would would secure their seeding no worse than the No. 5 slot, pitting them against the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round. A Steelers’ loss could have them fall past the No. 5 seed, potentially to the six-spot should the Los Angeles Chargers win in their finale against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Since that Steelers’ loss, the Bengals have won their last four games. Getting help along the way, including the Broncos losing to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 16, a path to the postseason opened up heading into the weekend. Today’s game started low-scoring with the Bengals shutout for the first 25 minutes, Cincinnati found the end zone first thanks to a touchdown pass from QB Joe Burrow to Higgins. They took a 7-3 lead into the break.
Cincinnati came out of the half and put up a short field goal to extend their lead to seven. But Denver got its run game rolling for their first touchdown drive, capped off by QB Bo Nix going through the air to hit WR Courtland Sutton that tied the game at 10.
That became the first of three-straight touchdown drives as both offenses heated up in the second half. Cincinnati responded with an 11-play drive with Burrow finding Higgins for his second score of the game, feasting on the Broncos’ secondary as Patrick Surtain often on Chase. But Denver was resilient, Nix airing deep to hit speedster WR Marvin Mims for a 51-yard score to tie the game at 17 with nine minutes remaining.
Cincinnati began to answer yet again until Higgins fumbled after catching a slant for a would-be first own. With Surtain covering this time, he popped the ball out, initially ruled incomplete but reversed after a Sean Payton challenge. It was the first turnover of the game.
The second turnover wasn’t far behind. On third and long, Nix rolled right had his arm hit on the throw. The pass was inaccurate and intercepted by Bengals’ LB Germaine Pratt.
On the ensuing play, Burrow found Chase over the middle for 38-yards after strong run-after, setting the Bengals up deep into Broncos’ territory. With less than 90 seconds to play, QB Joe Burrow was pushed over the goal line to take a 24-17 lead.
Nix quickly led the Broncos’ offense into Bengals’ territory, hitting back-to-back completions to WR Courtland Sutton down to the Bengals’ 31-yard-line. Facing 4th and 1 with no timeouts, Nix heaved the ball towards the right corner of the end zone as Mims outjumped two Bengals’ defenders to make a spectacular catch in-bounds. Ruled a touchdown, the officials reviewed to determine if it was a catch. The call was upheld.
With the extra point true, the game again tied and went to overtime. The Bengals won the coin toss and received the ball to start the fifth frame. Both teams punted on their opening OT possessions, but the Broncos’ three-and-out gave the Bengals excellent field position around midfield. With 2:50 left, the Bengals attempted a game-winning 33-yard field goal but backup kicker Cade York doinked it off the left upright, bouncing back into the field of play and no-good.
Unable to capitalize on the chance, the Broncos punted away. Burrow threw a go-ball to WR Tee Higgins down the left sideline caught inside the Broncos’ 5-yard-line. Burrow found Higgins again the next play for the game-winning score with just 1:07 left. Had the game ended in a tie, the Bengals would’ve been eliminated from the playoff race.
Clearly intending on playing their starters, the only question is if they’ll have RB Chase Brown, ruled out with an ankle injury shortly before overtime.
The NFL has yet to announce an official date and time for next week’s Steelers-Bengals game. They should do so quickly after Week 17 wraps up.
