5 players and coaches to blame for Broncos loss to Bengals

4. Denver Broncos offensive line

The Denver Broncos offensive line has caught a lot of unnecessary heat this season because of the number of times Teddy Bridgewater has been sacked.

Frankly, they’ve protected much better than Bridgewater’s sack numbers would indicate.

However, in this game against the Cincinnati Bengals, it was not the Broncos winning in the trenches on offense. The Bengals’ defensive line, led by Trey Hendrickson and DJ Reader, bullied the offensive line all day long and the Broncos didn’t have much of an answer.

As the Bengals wore the offensive line down over the course of the game, critical mistakes began happening late, including two massive holding penalties from left tackle Garett Bolles.

Trey Hendrickson is a stud and is relentless with the way he plays, so you have to tip your cap. Bolles did everything he could for the most part but got caught holding a couple of times late.

The Bengals were sending blitzes at the Broncos’ offensive line all game. They actually held up well for a good bit of this game but the Bengals got the Broncos in an area where Denver has had their way in recent weeks — the running game.

It felt like Cincinnati did a better job at limiting the Broncos’ running backs than other teams have, and that’s largely due to the fact that they were winning at the line of scrimmage. Broncos backs were not able to do as much after initial contact in this game and the offensive line deserves plenty of blame for the overall result of this game.