In a driving rain the Bengals’ relentless special teams and their resilient defense carried their limping offense into the postseason when they teamed to give the Bengals a 37-28 victory over Denver Monday night before a delirious crowd of 66,107 at dancing and drenched Paul Brown Stadium.
The third largest crowd in PBS history saw the 10-4-1 Bengals secure their fourth straight playoff berth when cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick was draped all over a pivot route by wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and Hall-of-Fame quarterback Petyon Manning threw his third interception of the night and Kirkpatrick returned it 30 yards for a pick six with 2:41 left that gave the Bengals a 37-28 lead.
And then Kirkpatrick, relieving the ill Terence Newman, came up with another with 1:07 left when he broke on a ball skidding to the sideline at the Bengals 5 to seal it and send the Bengals to Pittsburgh next week looking for the AFC North title.
After the Bengals forced a three-and-out in the middle of the fourth quarter, wide receiver Brandon Tate returned a punt 49 yards down the right sideline to put the ball on the Broncos 12. With wide receiver A.J. Green limping, the Bengals tried what amounted to three runs, didn’t get much, and Mike Nugent hit the go-ahead field goal from 23 yards with 7:49 left to make it 30-28.
Safety Taylor Mays then sacked Manning on third-and-18 and the Bengals got it back. But they could muster nothing on offense despite getting a roughing the passer call and they faced a worst-case scenario. Punting the ball back to Manning with 4:04 away from a playoff berth and one of the greatest quarterback’s of all-time needing just a field goal as he got the ball back at his own 20.
But the defense and teams answered the call as Manning suffered his first four-pick as a Bronco and first since 2010.
On the verge of taking a two-score lead over the Broncos in the middle of the third quarter, Bengals rookie running back Jeremy Hill fumbled inside the Denver 10 and Manning took only a few minutes to turn it into a go-ahead touchdown at 28-27 with 1:49 left in the third quarter with a building-sapping drive.
Still, Hill had quite a night and became the first Bengal to have four games of at least 147 yards rushing when he finished with 147 on 22 carries, putting him at 1,024 yards for the season in becoming the club’s first 1,000-yard rookie rusher since Corey Dillon in 1997.
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