Helping hand move backfires for Broncos

Von Miller pulled the old “too slow” trick on his buddy Tyrod Taylor, yanking back just as the Buffalo Bills’ prone quarterback was reaching up to grab the star linebacker’s helping hand.

The two, who are friends, laughed off the middle school move.

The joke was on Miller, though, when referee Carl Cheffers either didn’t notice Miller and Taylor yukking it up as they had all afternoon or he didn’t see the humour in it. So, out came the flag.

“I was halfway off the field,” Aqib Talib said. “Next thing I know I heard the crowd start cheering.”

The Broncos’ star linebacker had just buried his face into Taylor’s chest with a textbook tackle midway through the fourth quarter to force a third-down incompletion. The Bills capitalized on the unsportsmanlike conduct call, chewing up more clock before kicking the sealing field goal in their 26-16 win Sunday.

“I’ve got to be smarter than that,” Miller said. “I killed the game today with that penalty.”

Broncos coach Vance Joseph lauded Miller for owning the mistake, but wondered why it was called at all.

“I’m a firm believer in the rules and I read the rules this morning and I didn’t see offering the guy a hand and taking it away as a penalty,” Joseph said. NOTES: Jacksonville pulled off a successful fake punt while leading Baltimore 37-0. Sure enough, a sideline scuffle ensued, as did the broadcast debate about sportsmanship.

“It was an opportunity that came about, it’s something that the players practice and if you get what you want, if you get the look, then we’re going to make the call,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said. And the Ravens didn’t complain. “It’s not my job to care about what they run,” cornerback Jimmy Smith said. “We’re supposed to stop it.”