Bengals Tecmo Super Bowl Season — AFC First-Round Playoff

The Cincinnati Bengals won their division in the Tecmo Super Bowl regular season, and earned the right to play Peyton Manning and the Broncos in the AFC First-Round Playoff.

All week long, Bengal fans were wondering about the health of their quarterback, Andy Dalton. Well right before the game, Who Dey Nation got some good news as a Tecmo News Flash revealed Dalton had recovered and was on his way to the stadium.

Starting things off, the Broncos won the toss and took possession of the ball first to get their high-octane offense out on the field. And it didn't take long for Manning to lead his team down the field, as Ronnie Hillman capped off the drive with a touchdown-scoring run. This gave Denver an early 7-0 lead.

Dalton and company had a pretty good drive going to follow up the Bronco touchdown. But they stalled out around the Denver 40-yard line. So the Bengals tested Mike Nugent's leg to see if he could drill a 57-yard field goal.

And drilled it he did as the Bengals would cut the lead to 7-3. And that would be the score as the first quarter came to a close.

On the next Denver possession, it was Ronnie Hillman finding pay dirt again as he completed another solid drive by the Bronco offense. This would push the lead to 14-3 over Cincinnati.

Things would get really ugly for the Bengals on their next possession as a Von Miller sack left them on their own goal line.

On the next play, BenJarvus Green-Ellis got the call as Cincinnati tried to give themselves a little bit of room to work with. But unfortunately Green-Ellis lost the football and it was recovered by D.R. Cromartie who took it in for six points. This gave Denver a commanding 21-3 first-half lead.

However, the Bengals kept their heads up and tried to get something going before the half. This came in the form of a Dalton quarterback keeper which he took in for the score. This would trim the Bronco lead to 21-10.

And that's what the score would remain as both teams went back to their locker rooms.

The halftime stats courtesy of Tecmo Sports News pretty well told the story. The Bengals were getting dominated on both sides of the ball and were pretty lucky to only be down by 11. Dalton had only thrown for 34 yards while Manning had tossed for 137. Green-Ellis had only mustered 33 yards on the ground, as well.

But in hopes it would get the Bengal faithful excited and the team pumped up, offensive coordinator Jay Gruden parachuted from an Air Force fighter jet onto Sports Authority Field during the halftime show.

Cutting the lead before halftime, the Bengals had a chance to make the score even closer as the third quarter began. But it wasn't to be as Dalton would throw his first interception of the day, turning the ball over to Manning and company.

With the decent field position and the momentum, it didn't take Manning long to find Demaryius Thomas for the touchdown pass. This made the score 28-10 in favor of the Broncos.

The offensive woes continued for Cincinnati as they had to punt the ball back to Denver following a quick three-and-out.

Just when it was starting to look hopeless for the Bengals, Demaryius Thomas was stripped of the football which was recovered by Orson Charles. Charles took it the rest of the way for a huge touchdown that gave Cincinnati a breath of life, cutting the deficit to 28-17.

With only five minutes left to play, the Bengals went for an onside kick which failed. The Broncos recovered and were given great field position and a chance to really shut the door on Cincinnati's chances.

And that's exactly what they would do as a trick reverse play gave Thomas a wide open path to the end zone. This would push the Bronco lead back up to 35-17 with about 3:54 left to play.

If that touchdown didn't seal the victory for Denver, the next Bengal drive certainly did. Dalton threw his second interception of the day, pretty well ending the game and the season for Cincinnati.

Hillman would score his third touchdown of the game on the next drive, putting the nail in the coffin, 42-17.

And that would make the final score of the Tecmo Super Bowl AFC First-Round Playoff game.

The Bengals had a couple of chances to keep the game close, but shot themselves in the foot every time. And the Broncos made them pay for it dearly. Dalton finished the day with only 70 yards passing and one touchdown run. Green-Ellis never got anything going either with just 47 yards on the ground. Manning didn't have to do much as Hillman tallied 124 yards on the ground with three TD's. But the quarterback still torched the Bengal defense anyway with 234 yards passing and a TD.

The loss eliminates Cincinnati from the playoffs and ends their up-and-down Tecmo Super Bowl season. The Broncos move on to face Houston in the Divisional Playoffs while the Patriots move on to face San Diego.

On the NFC side, the Rams advanced past the Vikings and will play Green Bay next week. And the Bears slipped past the Giants for rights to take on Tampa Bay in the Divisional Playoffs.