CINCINNATI — Broncos coach Josh McDaniels called some trouble with the game clock in the game’s final minute “a strange situation.”
The Bengals called a timeout with 41 seconds left after wide receiver Andre Caldwell was stopped at the Broncos’ 1-yard line. The replay official challenged the ruling on the field that Caldwell had not scored a touchdown. Replay upheld the initial call.
The Bengals scored from the 1 on the next play and the clock showed 38 seconds. But as they were lining up for the extra point Sunday, referee Jerome Boger announced the Bengals got their timeout back because of the challenge and the clock should be at 20 seconds.
McDaniels protested to no avail and the teams were lined up for the Bengals’ kickoff when a member of the sideline crew ran on the field to stop the play. After talking on a sideline headset, Boger ordered the clock to be put back to 38 seconds.
“I was watching the clock, and it never started,” McDaniels said. “Ultimately, since it was a replay challenge upstairs and they called their timeout and they were separate instances, they went ahead and did the challenge on their own and put the clock back and charged them with a timeout.”
Key catch.
The Broncos spent at least part of Friday’s practice on their “victory” formations on offense and defense. And it was the first glimpse of tight end Tony Scheffler, a former baseball player at Western Michigan, being inserted into the Denver defense to cover the deep middle of the field.
So Sunday, with five seconds to play, there was Scheffler in the deep middle of the defensive formation for the game’s last play.
He intercepted Carson Palmer’s pass as the clock went to 0:00.
“It was like being in center field back there,” Scheffler said. “I could be up there with the league leaders this week.”
Back at it.
Wide receiver Brandon Marshall finished with four catches for 27 yards to go with two drops.
Marshall was the intended receiver on the Broncos’ touchdown when the ball was tipped to Brandon Stokley, who finished off an 87-yard scoring play for the Broncos’ 12-7 victory.
“I think he did well,” McDaniels said of Marshall. “He made some plays, he made a big third-down catch there and really kind of got into the rhythm.”
Moreno’s debut.
First-round draft pick Knowshon Moreno entered the game on the Broncos’ second offensive series and rushed for 5 yards on his first carry. Moreno, who hadn’t played since spraining his knee in the second quarter of the first preseason game, finished with eight carries for 19 yards. “It’s good to get my first game out of the way,” he said. “I didn’t play very well.”
Royal a returner.
Wide receiver Eddie Royal spent little time returning kicks and punts in the preseason, but he took three punts and two kickoffs against the Bengals.
He took the final kickoff from 6 yards deep in the end zone but fell and was tackled at the 13-yard line.
“You always want to make a big play,” Royal said. “I didn’t think I’d slip.”
Injury report.
Linebacker Spencer Larsen suffered a shoulder injury at the stadium before the game and was not in uniform. He will be evaluated again today. Guard Chris Kuper (ankle) did some running about three hours before the opening kickoff, but was limping, so he was not one of the Broncos’ 45 active players.
Tackling machine.
At halftime, inside linebacker D.J. Williams had nine tackles. The most tackles in a Broncos opener since the stat was officially recorded beginning in 1994 was 12, by safety Nick Ferguson against Miami in 2005.
“Man, you guys upstairs got to let us know those things,” said Williams, who finished with 10 tackles.
Footnotes.
Broncos head coaches are now 9-0 when their first game as the team’s head coach is a season opener. . . . Besides Kuper, other inactive injured players were safety Josh Barrett (shoulder), defensive end Le Kevin Smith (knee) and linebacker Jarvis Moss. Healthy but inactive were defensive tackle Chris Baker, wide receiver Brandon Lloyd, offensive tackle Brandon Gorin and quarterback Tom Brandstater.
