Bengals Tecmo Super Bowl Season — Week 13

Coming off their bye week, the Bengals were looking to finish strong down the backstretch of the season. But standing in their way Week 13 were those pesky San Diego Chargers.

The Chargers would elect to receive the ball first but it was the Bengals who had the momentum early as a Philip Rivers pass was picked off after just a couple San Diego plays.

With the nice field position created by the turnover, a 37-yard pass to A.J. Green got the Bengals all the way down to the San Diego 22-yard line.

Immediately following the Green catch, a 22-yard pass to Marvin Jones got the Bengals on the board first with a touchdown. This gave the Bengals an early 7-0 lead.

On the ensuing Charger drive, Rivers was flattened once by Vontaze Burfict, and immediately again by Geno Atkins. These back-to-back sacks forced Rivers and company into a 3rd and very long situation.

 

But a deep bomb to Eddie Royal, followed by a Rivers quarterback keeper, got them from 3rd and long all the way to the end zone. This would tie things up at 7-7.

This turn of events completely took the Bengals out of their game as a Tyler Eifert fumble gave the ball right back to San Diego.

Rivers would quickly find Royal again, but instead of a first down, he took it all the way to pay dirt, giving the Chargers their first lead of the game at 14-7.

The Bengals had no answer the rest of the half as they would lose yet another fumble on their next drive — this one a rare hiccup from wideout A.J. Green.

So the score would remain 14-7 in favor of San Diego at halftime. A quick look at the stats showed that the Bengals run game had been virtually non-existent, and the air attack wasn't much better. The same could pretty much be said for the Chargers but they were able to at least get a couple scores.

During the half, the Cincinnati Bengal Marching Band got the crowd stirred up with their rendition of "Roar" by pop artist Katy Perry.

The Bengals would get the ball first in the second half, looking to come out of the gate strong and tie the game back up. They were obviously trying to get the run game more involved but 4th and 1 was as close as they could get to any success. Mike Nugent would come out on the field and punt it away for a touchback.

This was when the Bengals would really have the wind knocked out of their sails.

Malcom Floyd would make a leaping catch down around the Bengals 40-yard-line.

Then he would dodge the remaining defender and take it all the way in for the 80-yard touchdown score. This gave the Chargers some cushion as they would increase their lead to 21-7.

The offensive woes would continue for Cincinnati as a Manti Te'o sack would close out the 3rd quarter with the Chargers still holding on to a 21-7 lead.

During the break, some Bengals players got into a scuffle with Te'o talking about how his girlfriend was invisible. Unfortunately, Manti showed them that the Cincinnati offensive line was apparently invisible as he found Dalton for another sack.

This put the Bengals in a tough 4th and long situation late in the game. Dalton tried to connect with Jermaine Gresham but the ball was batted away.

However, Cincinnati would find one more gasp of air as Domato Peko recovered a Ryan Matthews fumble, giving the Bengals another shot to trim the gap in the 4th quarter.

And the Bengals would finally take advantage as BenJarvus Green-Ellis scampered into the end zone for the score, cutting the lead to 21-14.

With just over a minute to play, Cincinnati had no choice but to go for the onside kick. It failed and gave San Diego the ball down around the Bengals 20-yard line. Fullback Leron McClain would bulldoze his way through the defense for another score, completely shutting the door on the Bengals' victory hopes.

This would make the final score in Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego 28, Cincinnati 14.

The Bengals tried to get Green-Ellis and the running game more involved in the second half which was a little odd since Cincinnati was trailing for most of the game. But The Law Firm did end up with a decent day on the ground tallying 61 yards and a touchdown. But Dalton never could get the passing game going as he connected on only 27 percent of his passes for 69 yards. Rivers was efficient enough with 149 yards through the air, leading his team to the 14-point victory.

The loss really tightens things up again for the Bengals as they are now clinging to just a one-game lead over Baltimore in the division. With games coming up against the Colts, Steelers, and also the Ravens, this could not have happened at a worse time. But the Bengals will try to turn things around next week as they are back at Paul Brown Stadium hosting Andrew Luck and company.