No matter what happens this evening, the Bengals will be playing in Pittsburgh on Sunday night for the AFC North title. Where tonight’s game factors in for Cincinnati is the question of whether they also want their season to be on the line in Week 17. Should the Bengals lose their final two games, they’d likely be out of the playoffs entirely.
The Broncos are assuring the media that they will still be trying sincerely to win this evening. Technically, Denver still has the possibility of home-field advantage to play for, though that requires the Patriots to lose to Buffalo at home on Sunday, which probably won’t happen though it gives Denver enough reason to stay competitive. Given that Denver won’t be playing a game they have to win for another three weeks, it’s best not to check into cruise control this far out lest it makes them come out flat in the divisional round.
The “Andy Dalton sucks in prime time” games narrative has been on overdrive coming into the game. It’s like a levels of choking taxonomy. Peyton supposedly only chokes in the postseason but Andy Dalton will choke in even moderately big games. Anyway, the timing of the losses is less important than the fact that Andy Dalton is an inconsistent quarterback and a lot of his bad games just happen to come when pitted against the likes of Tom Brady.
The question of whether Peyton Manning is on the decline is being bandied about as well since Denver has been a little more reliant on the run game than it was earlier in the season. That sort of thing just tends to happen later in the season in cold weather sometimes. Also, Pey-Pey’s production is still in line with his 2012 season, if not the record-breaking 2013 year.