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The Broncos have been a team of halves for four straight games and Monday night it was the first half that really put themselves in a hole. They managed just five first downs on only three drives in the first half and defensively, they gave up two touchdowns and numerous yards to the Bengals talented offense. Changes were needed at halftime down 11 points and they did just that.

“You know what, the first half, defensively, we really struggled. [Cincinnati] played lights out. It was a little bit like the Pittsburgh game we were in last week, [but] the shoe on the other foot. I think the drive right before the half was positive for us, but we talked at halftime. ‘Hey, we’ve had some struggles in the second half. It’s time to play the best second half we’ve played all year,’ and we did that tonight,” Kubiak said.

They came out firing on offense and put up 301 of their 390 total net yards in the game. They also went with a pass-heavy, up-tempo offense to get the Bengals defense off-balanced.

“Our conversation at halftime was to try to pick up the tempo a little bit, show them a look that we have not shown on tape,” Osweiler said. He finished the game with 27 completions on 39 attempts and one touchdown for a passer rating of 100.3. He was aided significantly by the run game that finished with a 5.4 yards per carry average on 21 carries for a total of 113 yards.

The defense was nearly unrecognizable in the first half. They allowed McCarron, in his second start of his career, to march up and down the field twice on drives of 13 and 15 plays for two touchdowns. They ate up 21:14 of the first half and ran and passed all over the defense. At halftime some coverages changed and they disguised some things but the biggest adjustment was simply challenging themselves.

“Really, [Defensive Coordinator] Coach Wade [Phillips] leaned on me and [Aqib Talib] again. That’s what we do. We play man- to-man. We bring the heat and that’s what we kept doing. We just kind of stuck to what we did, and we just made enough plays today,” Chris Harris Jr. said of the halftime changes. “We loaded everybody in the box, challenged them to throw the ball and that’s how we were able to shut down the run. That’s what we do. No. 1, load the box, and we knew we had to shut down the run.”

The Broncos defense played a spectacular second half of football and shut down the Bengals offense. After allowing the visitors to convert 7 of 8 first half third downs they went on to only allowing the Bengals to convert 3 of their final 9. Green caught 5 passes in the first half for 57 yards and a touchdown and looked to have his way with any cornerback on the field but the third and fourth quarter was entirely different. He finished with the same numbers, going catch less down the stretch. The Broncos also shut down the run. They allowed 108 total rushing yards in the game, only 23 of those yards came in the second half. In fact, the Broncos defense only allowed the Bengals three points and 90 net yards in the second half of the ball game.