Bengals beat Broncos to keep pace in playoff race

DENVER » Khalid Kareem snatched the ball from backup quarterback Drew Lock on second-and-goal early in the fourth quarter and the Bengals stayed in the thick of the logjammed AFC playoff race with a 15-10 win over the Broncos on Dec. 19.

The Bengals (8-6) won despite star rookie receiver Ja’Marr Chase being held to a single catch for 3 yards and Tee Higgins managing only 23 yards on two catches.

The Broncos (7-7) saw their postseason hopes whittled with their fourth home loss of the season.

Lock was in for Teddy Bridgewater, who was taken to the hospital in the third quarter for further evaluation of a head injury after he was carted off the field following a scary collision that also sent Bengals linebacker Joe Bachie from the game with a leg injury.

Bridgewater had movement in his extremities and coach Vic Fangio said he’d be held overnight for observation but was expected to be OK.

With the Bengals’ dynamic duo of Chase and Higgins bottled up, Tyler Boyd caught five passes for 96 yards, including a 56-yard touchdown throw from Joe Burrow moments after Denver had taken a 10-9 lead late in the third quarter.

Boyd also caught a critical 19yard pass to set up a last-second field goal just before halftime and he hauled in a 15-yard pass on third-and-10 from the Cincinnati 22 with about three minutes left that allowed the Bengals to chew up another two minutes before punting the ball back to the Broncos at the Denver 15 with 64 seconds left.

Lock couldn’t get them out of the shadow of their own end zone as the Bengals ended their twogame skid.

Kareem almost went from hero to goal on his strip of Lock, who faked a handoff to Javonte Williams but ran smack into Kareem, who wrested the ball away from the quarterback and tumbled to the ground, bounced up and rumbled down the Broncos sideline.

Left tackle Garett Bolles, who was whistled for a pair of costly holding penalties that stymied the Broncos’ comeback attempt, hammered the ball out of Kareem’s grasp and smothered it at the Denver 40-yard line.

The Broncos thought they had caught a big break but upon review, it was ruled that Kareem was down at his 15-yard line, so his give-back was wiped away with 10:34 remaining.