Broncos cornerback Chris Harris breaks up a pass intended for Cincinnati wide receiver A.J. Green in the second half Monday. (Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post)
AJ McCarron has played safe, if unspectacular football for the Bengals since taking over at quarterback for the injured Andy Dalton. He’s like Brock Osweiler’s double. They might not be world-beaters. But both backups aren’t messing up.
The Bengals on Monday night went a full four quarters without a turnover… until a game-deciding fumble from McCarron in overtime.
On a second-and-10 from the 33, and trailing by 3, McCarron dropped into a shotgun. He sent A.J. Green in motion. And with the receiver flashing across, the Broncos adjusted their defense. It caught McCarron’s eye. He glanced up to see the switches. And just then, he lost track of the snap. It flew through his fingers and hit his rib protector.
Game over.
“It was my fault. I told the team that,” McCarron said. “I felt like I let the team down.”
It wasn’t only a mistake that did in the Bengals. It was a second half turnaround by the Denver defense.
In the first half, the Broncos flashed consistent man-to-man coverage against McCarron — and he torched them for 14 points and 119 yards passing. Green alone caught five passes for 57 yards, including a keen fade to the right side for a score in the first quarter.
But Green went silent in the second half, for no catches. And McCarron struggled. The difference was a defensive change.
The Broncos flopped their man coverage to a include zone scheme after halftime. It worked.
“They started sagging off on us and they stopped playing man,” Bengals receiver Marvin Jones said. “That’s pretty much it. They won, it was good on their part.”
The zone, too, let the Broncos bring a bigger blitz. It didn’t work, exactly. McCarron was never sacked. But the pressure put McCarron on his heels. The Bengals scored only a field goal after halftime. McCarron threw for just 81 yards in the second half.
“They came up with some different blitzes and tried to disguise different coverages,” McCarron said of the Broncos’ second half. “They weren’t playing the same in the first half. They were playing a lot more man (early on) and we were capitalizing on it.”
The Broncos prefer to stay in man coverage. They have the personnel to get away with it. “That’s what we do. We play man-to-man,” cornerback Chris Harris said. But the second half adjustment tipped the outcome.
“We sprinkled a little bit in, but we don’t play too much zone,” Harris said.
Maybe they should.
