The contest Monday night suddenly has huge implications for the Denver Broncos, but a win for the Bengals would clinch the AFC North. The big news it that neither team will have their seasoned quarterback under center. With Brock Osweiler in for Peyton Manning and A.J. McCarron in for Andy Dalton, both highly touted defenses will have an opportunity, on a national stage, to display their prowess as the playoffs near.
The Broncos have had the top-ranked defense for weeks while the Bengals have been stellar as well. Osweiler will get his sixth start of his career, while McCarron will start only his second game of his two-year career; both teams realize that whomever can rattle the opposing quarterback first will certainly come out on top.
“They’re a very, very tough team. They’re similar to our team,” Von Miller said Thursday. “They have a young quarterback. Our quarterback has played six games or five games and their quarterback has played two or three games. Very, very similar on the offensive side of the ball. It’s going to come down to defense. I like that. If it can come down to defense and we could just play our game, I like our odds.”
It will be a very tough matchup for both quarterbacks and the Broncos defense, which allowed its first 300-yard passer last week, believes it will come down to their play in order to get the win and a hopefully a playoff berth.
“We just know that the best defense will win the game. That is what we know,” linebacker Brandon Marshall said definitively Saturday.
The Broncos have been phenomenal against the run and will try to continue that trend Monday. The Bengals have a decent run game that averages 110.9 yards per game (11th in the NFL) but will likely emphasize that more in McCarron’s second career start. Last week, in their 24-14 win over the San Francisco 49ers, they ran the ball 36 times to ease the pressure off their quarterback but only gained 68 yards.
“They have a backup quarterback in there. They are going to try and get a running game started and if they can do that then they could spread us out a little bit. If they can do that it would bring people in the box, making it so they could get some passes off. If you shut down the run it makes them one-dimensional,” Derek Wolfe said Saturday.
The Broncos remain even in turnover margin on the season while the Bengals are +9 (tied for fourth in the league). The Bengals offense (mostly under Dalton) has only thrown nine interceptions all season and have a very talented wide receivers corps, highlighted by A.J. Green. Head coach Gary Kubiak knows that the absence of Dalton will give the Broncos an easier task on defense, but he was also impressed with McCarron in college and last week.
“He’s played in a lot of big games. He was coached hard; you can tell that when you talk to him. You see it. He’s on a good football team right now. He went to San Francisco and handled the ball game well. His team played well, they got him some turnovers. He’s really done a hell of a job. Like I said, it’s two good football teams going at it with two young quarterbacks. I’ve been very impressed with the job that he’s done,” he said Thursday.
The Broncos are hoping to get their two starting safeties back. T.J. Ward, who hasn’t played since the first quarter of the New England Patriots game four weeks ago, and Darian Stewart, who injured his hamstring versus the Raiders on Dec. 13, are listed as questionable for Monday.
“[T.J. Ward] practiced well today. I feel good about his work, but we’ve still got a lot of time between now and game time. He and Darian [Stewart] both, I felt good about their work today,” Kubiak said after practice Saturday.
Stewart was pleased with his progress in Saturday’s practice as well adding, “I’m happy. I’m up for it. I had a great day of practice today. I felt confident in myself and that is what its about, especially with the hamstring. I’m ready to go.”
Stewart, who spent last season in the Bengals division with the Baltimore Ravens knows how this week’s opponent plays and has studied their film closely this week.
“They are keeping everything simple for him so we just have to be ready. They have the receivers to take shots. We always have to be heads-up for those shots but at the same time we expect him to get it out quick.”
Osweiler will enter Monday, for the first time, the more experienced signal caller. Last week the Broncos torched the Steelers for 27 first half points and went 3-of-3 in the red zone before another dreadful second half that lost them the game. The difference between their red zone struggles versus the Oakland Raiders Dec. 13 and their success last week was simple to veteran tight end Owen Daniels.
“Honestly, we just had better execution, better calls, better everything,” Daniels said.
They will have their work cut out for them against the Bengals. The Bengals allow an average of only 17.4 points to their opponents, best in the league, and have created 25 takeaways (tied with the Broncos).
“They’ve got eight guys with interceptions. They do a good job with their front guys. They’ve got four guys with five-plus sacks, two guys with 10-plus, and those are all the down guys,” offensive coordinator Rick Dennison said Thursday. “It’s hard to get points on these guys. They’re No. 1 in the NFL as far as giving up points. That’s what they do. They take the ball away from you and then you don’t score. That’s what makes them a good defense.”
When they allow offenses to reach the red zone they are very stingy, allowing opponents to only convert 48.5% of their trips for touchdowns, good for fifth-best in the NFL. When asked Saturday how they stop opponents in the red zone, Daniels had a telling answer but hopes his team’s early success last week will carry over Monday.
“They have a ton of different blitz looks they like to give and sometimes they bring guys and sometimes they don’t,” he said. “They have good pass-rushers so they are able to get pressure and have us worry about pressure even if they aren’t bringing it. They have good enough cover guys that make it tough. They mix up their calls so they always have different looks and different coverages. We are hoping they are a little bit worried with how we did last week down there.”
The Broncos offense has been held scoreless in their last three second halves and will face a defense that leads the league in scoring defense. It is a scary proposition for a team that has put themselves in a precarious playoff situation with a low points per game average (21.6) and generally poor red zone execution (48.7 touchdown percentage). Saturday Kubiak commented on what makes the Bengals so difficult to play as they reached the top scoring defense in the league this week.
“First off, they’ve been together a long time – a group of guys that it seems like I’ve played against this group a bunch and it’s been over the last five or six years – same players, same coaches. You can see that. Not very complicated, but very good. Most of the really good defenses in this business don’t do a lot. What they do, they do well,” Kubiak noted.
The battle looks to be squarely on both elite defenses’ shoulders. The young quarterbacks will likely be asked to not make the big mistakes and let their defenses force a turnover or two. Osweiler suddenly has the upper hand in the quarterback face off but only time will tell who can lead their team to a big win. The Broncos have not faced the playoff pressure the will face Monday in some time but defensive coordinator Wade Phillips believes his team is ready for the challenge, despite their recent struggles.
“This is this week,” said Phillips. “It’s a big game for us. Everybody knows it. We’ve played well under pressure.”
Pressure to win a close game in September is quite different to a “must win” game in December. Hopefully the Broncos see no difference and play that way in prime time. The defense has carried the team this far and Monday night it appears they will have to continue to do so.
Email Sam at sam@milehighsports.com and follow him on Twitter @SamCowhick.