Talib disciplined

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The NFL slapped Denver cornerback Aqib Talib with a one- game suspension for poking Indianapolis tight end Dwayne Allen in his right eye during Sunday’s game.

If upheld on appeal, Talib will miss the Broncos’ game against Kansas City this weekend. He’ll also miss out on a $ 323,529 paycheck from his $ 5.5 million base salary.

“I sat with Aqib on the plane coming home last night and had a long talk with him,” Denver Coach Gary Kubiak said Monday. “He’s wrong. He needs to stay out of the situation. “It hurt the team.” Talib said afterwards he didn’t intend to poke Allen but was only trying to shove him.

“You think I play football to poke people in the eye?,” he said. “It was an honest mistake.”

“My understanding is that they were jawing at each other,” Kubiak said. “He went to push him — which he shouldn’t do anyway, it doesn’t matter — then, obviously, his hands are inside his face mask. I’m convinced, and after talking to Aqib, that he had no intention of poking anybody in the eye.”

Talib was whistled twice in the final two minutes of Denver’s 27- 24 loss that gave the Broncos ( 7- 1) their first loss of the season. The first was for unnecessary roughness when he poked two fingers into Allen’s face mask after Allen and Denver linebacker Von Miller were shouting and shoving following a two- yard run by Colts running back Frank Gore.

“From my angle I saw him head- butt Von a little bit,” Talib said after the game. “I went over there and tried to poke his head. I think my hand slipped there and hit his face. He acted like he got into an 18- passenger car wreck. I guess that’s what type of guy he is.”

The second infraction came when Denver linebacker Danny Trevathan was whistled for holding on a chip- shot field goal with 28 seconds left, giving Indianapolis a first down and allowing the Colts to run out the clock. At that point, Talib tauntingly clapped at an official, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

“I guess there’s something in the rule book. … it’s like a too hard of a clap, too-hard-of- a- clap flag,” Talib said.

NFL Vice President of Football Operations Merton Hanks ruled Monday that Talib’s actions “places his opponent at unnecessary risk of injury and should have been avoided.”

Talib won’t be allowed at the practice facility until Nov. 16 except to arrange for off- site medical treatment or rehabilitation.