{"id":314165,"date":"2025-08-24T16:31:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/314165\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T16:31:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:31:27","slug":"winners-and-losers-from-the-denver-broncos-loss-to-the-cincinnati-bengals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/314165\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners and Losers from the Denver Broncos loss to the Cincinnati Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Broncos<\/a> were once again in a win-and-get-in situation and came up short in the end. It was a thrilling game that featured a last-second touchdown to tie it, multiple big plays by both teams and a killer three-and-out by the Broncos that ended up costing them the game.<\/p>\n

This was a heartbreaker as the Broncos floundered multiple opportunities to win this game but did enough to fight back and force overtime. As for winners and losers, it\u2019s hard to be positive after this one, but there are a few standout players and some players who certainly belong on the losers list.<\/p>\n

Here is my best attempt at giving you the winners and losers from the Broncos\u2019 30-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> while my emotions are still very high.<\/p>\n

GO FOR TWO POINTS AND END THE GAME!<\/p>\n

He had some questionable play-calling, timeouts, and decisions in this game. Bo Nix\u2019s prayer was answered with 8 seconds left in the game and instead of capitalizing on the momentum, he played it safe and tied the game up.<\/p>\n

Hindsight is always 20\/20 but man, they had a shot to end it right there instead of giving Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense multiple chances to win it. The conservative play-calling on the final offensive drive also pissed me off. You need one first down to end it, get it, run the clock out, and celebrate the postseason-clinching tie.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on the fence. He led a late fourth-quarter comeback and had a beautiful long touchdown pass to Marvin Mims in the second half. He also had an ugly interception and could not get the first down in OT to basically end the game.<\/p>\n

He did not play badly by any means and came up big in a few moments but coming up short in OT is what decided this game.<\/p>\n

He is coming off a knee injury that cost him four weeks and was facing probably the hottest offense in the league in his first game back, but man, did he struggle. Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins routinely picked on him and burned him on multiple big plays, including the final series where he gave up a long reception and the game-winning touchdown.<\/p>\n

A tough game for the Broncos\u2019 promising second-year corner but hopefully he can bounce back from this.<\/p>\n

He was a monster and had 3 sacks in this game. The Broncos pass rush was a long bright spot for them and Allen led the way with a trio of sacks. Unfortunately, it comes in a losing effort, but his big plays kept the Broncos in the game.<\/p>\n

Mims has turned into the Broncos\u2019 best playmaker during the second half of the season and continued that in this one where he caught a pair of touchdown passes. The first one was on a LONG touchdown throw by Bo Nix and the other was the one in the final seconds of the fourth quarter to tie it.<\/p>\n

His emergence has been a silver lining in this tough losing stretch by the Broncos<\/p>\n

The pass rush was there, so credit to him, but his secondary was once again torched. Last week, Justin Herbert had his way with the Broncos secondary and Joe Burrow was carving them up all game.<\/p>\n

They also could not get off the field. I believe the Bengals only punted twice and both came late in the game. They struggled on third down, gave up some critical third-down plays, and had some curious coverage decisions. For example, in a late fourth quarter third down play, he had linebacker Cody Barton and safety P.J. Locke in coverage on Ja\u2019Marr Chase. Of course, Chase easily picked up the first down. Surtain held him in check for most of the game, but he burned the Broncos a few times when he was not on him.<\/p>\n

LOSER – Broncos postseason hopes<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not dead but man, they\u2019re on the edge of having an embarrassing late-season collapse. After the Colts win, the Broncos needed to win one of their final three games. They allowed the Chargers<\/a> to come back last Thursday Night and had multiple opportunities to win this game. Now, the Broncos are sitting at 9-7 with one game left with the Bengals and Dolphins<\/a> waiting to pounce.<\/p>\n

The formula is still simple. Win and you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n

With the Chiefs win on Christmas over the Steelers<\/a>, they will likely rest their key starters in the finale since they locked up the number one seed. So, the Broncos will have to beat a team down Mahomes, Jones, Hopkins, Kelce, Pacheco, and other key starters at home while wearing their throwback uniforms.<\/p>\n

All hope is not dead but they\u2019re one loss away from an embarrassing collapse. If the Dolphins lose on Sunday, the Broncos will need the Steelers to defeat the Bengals in the finale to lock up a postseason berth as well. We\u2019ll see how things shake out, but it\u2019s going to be another nervous week for Broncos Country.<\/p>\n

WINNER – Jaleel McLaughlin<\/p>\n

He was the Broncos\u2019 best back as he led the way with 10 carries for 69 yards. I wish we would have seen more of him in this game but he routinely gashed the Bengals run defense with 10+ yard gains.<\/p>\n

LOSER – Whoever was covering Mike Gesicki<\/p>\n

Vance Joseph\u2019s issues with tight ends hurt the Broncos once again tonight. He had 10 receptions for 86 yards and made multiple key first down plays in this game. This falls on the Broncos linebackers and safeties who were once again picked on by an opposing teams offense.<\/p>\n

This will be an area the team needs to improve on this offseason.<\/p>\n

LOSER – Javonte Williams: He did not see a carry in this game and appears to have lost playing time to Estime .LOSER – Audric Estime: He only averaged 2.7 yards per carry against a bad Bengals run defense. I had higher hopes for the Broncos rookie runner.LOSER – Troy Franklin: This has been he story of his season for him. He has had multiple DEEP passes miss by inches or he has dropped a few of them. Not all his fault but man, would have been nice if he came down with that one.LOSER – Third Downs: Broncos went 4 for 12 on third down while the Bengals went 7 for 13.LOSER – Penalties: Broncos had 7 total flags on them in this game while the Bengals had just 3 of them. This has hurt them in back-to-back weeks.LOSER – Time of Possession: Bengals had the ball for nearly 42 minutes in this game while the Broncos had it for just 26 minutes.LOSER – Missed opportunities: The Broncos were given multiple chances to win this game and they couldn\u2019t do anything with it for the most part.0 Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Broncos were once again in a win-and-get-in situation and came up short in the end. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,1151,33894,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-314165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnatibengals","12":"tag-denver-broncos-news","13":"tag-denver-broncos-scores-results","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115084701524664706","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}