When the game was on the line, the Broncos defense came up with the biggest play of the game to stop the Chicago Bears on a potential game-tying two-point conversion with less than :30 on the clock. But that play probably shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

With the clock under 2:00 and the Broncos trying to close out the Bears, leading by a touchdown, Jay Cutler took the ball on his own 35 yard line and got Chicago into the end zone with help from a Jeremy Langford touchdown, and some help from the referees.

On second-and-six at the Denver 29, Bears tight end Martellus Bennett drew a pass interference penalty on Bradley Roby to give Chicago a first down at the 11 yard line.

It was Denver’s eighth penalty on the day, but a number of observers thought the flag should have gone against Bennett instead of Roby, as the two dragged one another to the ground. It was the second similar instance between Bennett and Roby. Luckily, Roby avoided a penalty on the prior occurrence, which happened in the end zone.

Brandon Marshall was flagged for a similarly questionable pass interference call on Chicago’s previous scoring drive, a 29-yard penalty also on second down.

The calls were indicative of what was happening all day, as the Bears were never flagged throughout the entire game. Denver entered the game with the most personal foul penalties in the league, and accumulated more in this one, but even the most objective media members couldn’t help but scratch their heads as Denver racked up 118 yards on eight penalties while the Bears played an allegedly flawless game.

Here’s what some of our friends in the Denver media had to say about that play between Roby and Bennett, as well as the day as a whole…

What’s bigger than penalties?

Despite losing the penalties battle in extremely lopsided fashion, Denver won another all-important part of the game – one that proved to be the difference in the game.

For the first time all season, Denver didn’t commit a turnover.