One of the most anticipated matchups on Sunday was between two former Georgia Bulldogs — Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green and Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey.
Having watched Green play since his days at Sanford Stadium, Bailey expected a busy day.
“I expected it, and he didn’t let me down,” he smiled.
Green was targeted nine times, and for the majority of the game, Bailey was matched up in man coverage on the second-year receiver.
The 14th-year cornerback said it was “definitely” the most times he has been thrown to in a game this season.
“I like that, though,” he said. “I love to put myself in position to get the ball thrown my way, whatever it takes.”
Green caught seven passes on the day, and two of his most notable receptions came one-on-one against Bailey. The first was a 37-yard catch down the sideline that helped set up Cincinnati’s first points of the game. The second was a 10-yard touchdown on a fade route past a leaping Bailey.
“On that route, he has a two-way go,” Bailey explained. “When you get a receiver lined up on the numbers, you don’t know which way he’s going to go. So you just kind of have to play it honest. The toughest route is the fade, but he didn’t make it look tough. He makes it look easy. That’s one thing that’s special about him, his ball skills. If you’re not right there to knock it down, he’s going to catch it.”
It was the first touchdown Bailey has given up all season, and he was asked about the score multiple times in the locker room after the contest.
“That must be a rare thing if y’all keep asking me about it,” he laughed. “This is why I play — guys like him. A new guy coming into the league, making a name for himself, I want those challenges. He’s one of the best. I don’t care that he scored on me. I don’t like it, but at the same time I’ve got to move on. I’ll just look at the tape, try to correct my mistakes and just go from there.”
In total, Green had 99 receiving yards and a touchdown, as Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton continued looking his way to try to get his team back in it.
After the game, the respect between the two competitors was mutual. Green called Bailey “a future Hall-of-Famer,” and Bailey called Green “special.”
“Ball skills, speed, quickness, the fact that he’s 6-4 or whatever he is and can run a 4.3 (40-yard dash), that combination doesn’t come around that often,” Bailey said of what makes Green effective. “I don’t know what his ceiling is. We’ll see. I don’t know how much better he can get, but I’ll be one of the guys watching.”
When it came down to it on Sunday, however, Bailey got the best of the matchup, as he reeled in his first interception of the season on a pass intended for Green. The takeaway allowed the offense to drive down a shortened field for a touchdown and a 31-20 lead. Most importantly, his team got the win.
“He’s a good player,” safety Mike Adams said of Green. “He’s going to get his. He’s going to do his thing, A.J., but at the end of the day, Champ made a great play at the end and sealed the game.”
The pick gave Bailey 33 as a Bronco, tied for fifth-most in franchise history.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Bailey said. “But I knew if I got enough opportunities, I would get one today.”
“Anytime somebody scores a touchdown on you, you want to get a little redemption,” he smiled. “It was good to get it in this game.”
Tags: A.J. Green, Champ Bailey, Cincinnati Bengals, Week 9
great overall game again. I gotta say though we have to stop with the ‘dumb things’ as i call them. drops and penalties at bad times and/or happening alot are things that have to go before we can call ourselves an elite team. we had a couple of 3rd down plays we couldve converted and manning put the ball right into the recievers hands and they dropped it. then theres the penalties, fumbles, missed blocks, etc. sometimes i even feel bad for manning when i watch him make a great throw while standing in the pocket risking getting flattened to give the play a few more tenths of a second so a reciever can get into the right spot, only to have a perfectly thrown ball dropped. it is simply amazing watching manning work the way he does and i now see how indy won at least ten games almost every year he was there. he’s way ahead of everybody. its hard to beat a team with manning at qb when things are going how he wants them to. now that he’s a bronco i cant hardly stand the excitement i feel for the next few years. i also like that holliday is coming around in the return game, that is so important. eric decker is hopefully gonna keep developing and maturing as a reciever to the point he and manning are unstoppable, and add dt in that equation and our offense will score alot of points on anyone in the league. keeping in mind the fact alot of this is new to most everyone on the team the skys the limit on the potential for us long term. we can easily become one of the top teams in the league by the time the playoffs get here. it looks like with our favorable schedule we could get homefield in the playoffs while also getting the rest of the ‘kinks’ out and that will make a trip to the superbowl very reachable, almost likely. i am a little biased tho, i gotta admit.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000090030/article/new-york-giants-benefit-from-two-shaky-calls-by-refs
I can understand the illegal hit call…it was not reviewed and Cruz acted out his part really well. I don’t get the fumble recovery call at all. How could that happen?
The PIT team that played the Giants was a completely different animal than the one the Broncos beat in game #1.
What a great win yesterday. It wasn’t easy, like I figured, but when faced with adversity, this team pulled through again. A few bad mistakes put us in some tough situations…..again. It’s getting better but we really have to start eliminating those mistakes down the stretch, cause the really good teams will take advantage.
Was a little nervous when DT got hurt, but he seemed fine after. Must’ve been a real stinger though. Tough break for Kupe………He’s really battled the injury bug lately and I hope it’s not serious. Kudos to Rimerez for coming in and not missing a beat.
With the exception of a couple of breakdowns, our D played pretty solid all game. Loved the pressure we were getting on Dalton and Champ gets his first INT of the year. Maybe that’ll spark a trend!
And how about that KR for a TD! WOW!!!! But just as good as that was, Ball falling on the ball at the 1 was just awful and a poor decision. Also, our PR coverage was great but our KR coverage was sketchy at best. Need to clean that up.
Another tough road game coming up. Forget Carolina’s record…….it won’t be an easy game. Interested to see how our D handles a mobile QB like Newton. I’m sure Fox won’t let his old team beat him.
DB……the calls last night in the Giants game were horrible. And on the fumble recovery, there was a horrible illegal block to the back that went uncalled. And the PI penalty on Pitt was totally phantom. Good thing Pitt pulled it out or there would be some major fallout I think.
But back to our Broncos………we are really starting to gel and form an identity. We have the potential to run the table……..even beating the Ravens, who IMO, aren’t really that strong. We can run all over them and our D can match their over-rated O.
GO BRONCOS!
Mono! You crack m up! We’re winning because we have a complete team with a good quarterback, good receivers, good pass rushers and nice cornerbacks! (;
All I know is they are now questioning whether or not the Broncos are better than the Texans… Who have two more wins than we do and have only played one tough team besides us… So, that makes me feel good. We have to win these tough games. I was nervous about this one because the Bengals are a tough team. It’s not going to be easy to win both of these games here, it if we can pull it out, it’s going to be an amazing end to the season. Plus, please don’t forget that we have the Raven Killer on our team now.
For the first time in a long time we had a quarterback, who although he made mistakes, was able to get us out of our own selves and help us win the game. Plus, Champ was burned all game, but the interception completely made up for it. I’m with Champ… He said that the Broncos proved that they have MORE than just Peyton Manning yesterday, which shows they have a lot of confidence.
Good Morning Broncos Country!
Great win on the road yesterday and Broncos have now strung together three wins in a row. Going into the jungle is never easy, no matter their record. Bengals were coming off a bye and were well rested and hungry for a win. Their O-line was getting a strong push as evidenced by their RB’s falling forward for additional real estate.
Broncos on the other hand, had a tough time running the ball, but we knew it would not be an easy task going into this one. (Tough D-line for Bengals). Bengals wore down somewhat in 2nd half. Still have a few things to work on (drops, penalties). On a good note, no fumbles yesterday.
Got to give PM credit for overcoming the adversity in 2nd half and generating some TD drives to pull this one out. A few things stood out from the win yesterday.
- Decker was a beast with his most productive game to date.
- Five sacks generated by the D with Miller leading the charge in rattling Dalton.
- David Bruton had a few reps on D and almost had another block on ST..(was held and drew a penalty from Bengals).
- Holliday is really quick – nice score on ST!
- Trevathan had a sack.
- Ramirez held is own in place of Kuper.
- Ayers contributing on D.
GO BRONCOS!!!
Good win yesterday! Again we’re playing a full 60 minutes of football and not giving up.
Turnovers & Penalties. We still need to work on eliminating them. Killed some drives and put us deep in our own territory. I don’t know if it was Mannings thumb or what but those two INTs were on Manning in my opinion. His first one, yeah maybe Decker should’ve gotten inside Newman, but his second was just an overthrow. Again maybe his thumb, but we had some key drops early in the game on some key downs.
Trindon made up for his fumbled punt return..and then some! Wow, he’s fast!
Defense played well. Glad to see Champ get his first INT of the season! Miller is playing at a very high level!
Great win. Now for Carolina, which won’t be an easy task either. Even though Fox won’t admit it, I bet deep down he’s really wanting this win against his former team!
How about ole Von Miller with a three sack game?!? Dude is on fire. It was so close to a four sack game but he let Dalton slip his grasp.
I am more scared of Carolina than I was of Cincy. Carolina may be 2-6 but they have been in every one of those games. They aren’t what there record shows and Brian Burkes efficiency rankings have Carolina higher than most of the other remaining opponents.
Tampa and Carolina are the ones that frighten me.
Pretty dead in here after a win.
I gotta say, I think Joe Mays was severely missed on ST. Got to get that figured out.