Richard Skinner

rskinner@nky.com

Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green suffered an injury to his upper right arm in the first quarter of Monday night's game against the Denver Broncos, and while he tried to play through it he left the game for good late in the third quarter. He said he expects to play this coming Sunday in Pittsburgh.

The injury occurred when Green jumped to try to catch a high throw from quarterback Andy Dalton on the first play of the Bengals' second drive of the game and was hit in the upper right arm by the helmet of Broncos safety T.J. Ward. The pass ricocheted off Green's hand and was intercepted by Aqib Talib, who returned it 33 yards for a touchdown.

Green didn't play in the Bengals' next offensive series, which actually lasted only one play – Jeremy Hill's 85-yard touchdown run – and played off and on the rest of the half, but was seen constantly dangling the arm at his side and was in obvious pain.

He went into the locker room for X-rays that turned out to be negative and tried to play in the second half, but he said the pain just got to be too much.

"I was just trying to fight through it and just go whenever they needed me," Green said. "I couldn't move it. It's just a bruise."

He said he expects to play against Pittsburgh.

"I think I'll be fine," he said.

He didn't catch a pass in the four times he was targeted in the game.

He missed three games earlier this season and all but one offensive series of another due to a toe injury and is still 41 yards shy of his fourth straight 1,000-yard receiving season.

PLAYOFF SCENARIOS: The Bengals clinched a playoff berth with Monday's win and are the No. 3 seed in the AFC heading into the final game with three possible scenarios left:

- A win at Pittsburgh coupled with a Denver loss to Oakland would give them the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye.

- A win at Pittsburgh coupled with a Denver win over Oakland would give them the No. 3 seed and would have them hosting a wild-card round game either Jan. 3 or 4 against the No. 6 seed.

- A loss at Pittsburgh would make the Bengals the No. 5 seed and would have them playing at No. 4 seed Indianapolis. Pittsburgh would be the No. 3 seed in this scenario, because it beat Indianapolis head-to-head.

RETURN GAMES PROVIDE SPARK: Despite the Bengals allowing their longest opponent kickoff return of the season to start the second half (a 77-yard return by Omar Bolden) the Bengals got an 80-yard third-quarter kickoff return by Adam Jones to set up a touchdown and a 49-yard fourth-quarter punt return by Brandon Tate to set up a field goal that gave the Bengals the lead for good.

Jones' return came after the Broncos scored following Bolden's return to close within 20-14.

"Every time I get back there my mindset is to score or make a big play," said Jones, who averaged 44.7 yards on his three kickoff returns on Monday and is now averaging 33.2 yards per kickoff return on the season. "You know me, every time I get back there I'm trying to score, it don't matter if they had a big play or not. Ced (running back Cedric Peerman) had an unbelievable block on that one."

Tate, who had a 30-yard punt return last week at Cleveland, appeared as if he was going to take his punt return all the way back for a touchdown before Denver backup tight end Virgil Green came across the field to trip him up at the Denver 12.

"I thought I was gone, but I saw the dude coming from the angle and I was like I'm going to keep running," said Tate. "I was looking more at the (punter) trying to make him miss and he tripped my feet up."

NELSON HAS TWO BIG PLAYS, ONE BAD ONE: Bengals safety Reggie Nelson made two big defensive plays in the first half and then committed one penalty that almost cost the Bengals big time in the second half.

The penalty occurred very early in the fourth quarter when Nelson was called for taunting after Jones intercepted Peyton Manning at the Denver 34 and returned it 11 yards to the Denver 23. The 15-yard penalty moved the ball back to the Denver 38 and the Bengals lost two yards in three plays and had to punt, still trailing at the time 28-27. The penalty prevented the Bengals from at least being able to try a field goal.

"I can't do that," said Nelson. "I can't put the team in a position like that, especially going against Peyton Manning. We needed that field position. That was my fault and I take full blame for that. I mean dude on the sideline was talking, but it's not going to get into that. It was my fault. I can't do that."

Nelson did have an interception and a tackle for loss in the first half.

The interception came early in the second quarter when he ripped a short pass on the sideline to Broncos tight end Julius Thomas right out of his arms just before tumbling out of bounds. The interception came at the Denver 22 and four plays later the Bengals went up 17-7.

Nelson's tackle for loss came in the first quarter when Denver tried to run a wide receiver screen to Emmanuel Sanders on a third-and-8 play from the Broncos 20 and he raced inside two blockers to drop Sanders for a two-yard loss.

STILL AMONG INACTIVES: Defensive tackle Devon Still was the only surprise among the seven players who were placed on the inactive list prior to the game.

After being signed off the team's practice squad to the 53-man roster following the season opener at Baltimore It was just the second time this season that he was placed on the inactive list. He was also placed on it for the Nov. 16 game at New Orleans. Still has played in 12 games this season and has 19 tackles.

The other six made inactive were: quarterback A.J. McCarron; cornerback Chris Lewis-Harris; linebacker Emmanuel Lamur, who has a hamstring injury; guard Tanner Hawkinson; wide receiver James Wright, who has a knee injury, and wide receiver Greg Little.

NOTEWORTHY: Bengals long-snapper Clark Harris entered Monday night's game with 828 playable snaps (438 punts and 390 place kicks) since joining the Bengals in October 2009, but he almost had that streak end on his first snap of the game. His snap to punter Kevin Huber on the Bengals first series was high enough for Huber to have to jump to catch it, and his punt appeared to be tipped, but it still traveled 40 yards. … Bengals kicker Mike Nugent ran his streak of made field goals to 14 straight when he connected from 37, 49 and 23 yards in the game. His last miss came on the final play of overtime against Carolina as the Bengals had to settle for a 37-37 tie. … University of Cincinnati product Derek Wolfe served as one of the Broncos captains for the game. He is a starting defensive end.