CINCINNATI — Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga lunged into midair, celebrating in the face of the reigning MVP amid raining glee.
It was the most perplexing of moments in the most preposterous of games. Why did he throw that? Who was that who threw that, because Peyton Williams Manning never would’ve thrown that, right?
In the AFC playoffs, Denver will probably be No. 2, because its quarterback played like it in key moments.
“That’s definitely a throw you can’t make in that situation,” Manning said of Dre Kirkpatrick’s interception that gave Cincinnati a 37-28 lead with 2:41 left.
Manning’s fourth-quarter pick-six pass defined the “almost there” that is the Broncos this winter. Last season, Denver bulldozed its way into the playoffs — yes, the Week 15 loss to San Diego was an eye-opener — but the Broncos showed up in January as the No. 1 seed. After the Monday Night Monsoon in Cincinnati — Bengals 37, Broncos 28 — we have to ask hard questions about Denver. Manning will have to earn this trip to the Super Bowl, more than any of his previous trips to the big game.
“Four interceptions … You’re not going to beat very many good football teams,” Manning said. “We did some good things in the third quarter to give ourselves a chance, and had the lead in the fourth, but field position wasn’t very good — we couldn’t flip it — and then turning it over.
“We have to find a way to learn from this.”
Here’s the good news. There is no runaway team in the American Football Conference. The New England Patriots are a solid club, but they barely beat the New York Jets on Sunday, winning by one. The Broncos still can win the AFC. I’m telling you, they can. But there is that sense that the Broncos aren’t quite where they need to be. A scary feeling in December, to be sure.
PHOTOS: Denver Broncos vs. Cincinnati Bengals, Dec. 22, 2014
Manning is the smartest man in football. But on that pass, Manning was dumb. Maybe the rain played a role. He wouldn’t use that excuse.
“It was a bad throw,” he said, “I had a little route to (Demaryius Thomas), guy covered it well, shouldn’t have thrown it to him, should’ve gotten it off to Emmanuel (Sanders) in the middle and Julius (Thomas) and his guy might have fallen down. I definitely picked the wrong guy to throw it to.”
The special teams? Not so special. There were questions about some of the blocking and some of the pass routes. And the defense is supposed to be these up-front thumpers, but the Bengals found holes — shoot, lanes. Here’s the reality. These guys aren’t the sexiest names, but with linebackers Nate Irving, Danny Trevathan and Brandon Marshall out with injuries, Denver lacks an anchor on the defense. For goodness sake, the player wearing the green-dot defensive helmet for communication was rookie Todd Davis. As Bengals fans would say, “Who dey?” The Broncos lacked thump for much of the night — haunted by bad field position, bad tackling and bad timing. And then, T.J. Ward goes down?
When the safety went down, the defensive players went down on one knee, all around him. It was symbolic for the tightness of this unit, as Ward, a thumping heart in the D, was down in the middle. It reminded us all about the fickle nature of this game. It also made us ask — man, can the defense afford to lose another middle-of-the-field mauler?
A lot of questions to be asking in late December.
Now, there’s no statistic that gauges “must-win,” but heading into Monday’s game, a major story line was that Cincinnati needed to win this game more than Denver did, since Cincy was playing for its playoff life.
Well the Bengals sure looked like it. Meanwhile, Manning bungled.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/hochman
