INDIANAPOLIS — Cincinnati safety Jordan Battle thought he had a 61-yard fumble return for a touchdown until he dropped the ball just shy of crossing the goal line. Suddenly, a touchdown turned into a touchback and Tennessee took over.
If it's any consolation, he had company on Sunday.
Indianapolis running back Jonathan Taylor had a 41-yard touchdown run on the board that put Denver in a two-TD hole until replays clearly showed him dropping the ball just before crossing into the end zone.
“That can’t happen,” Taylor said after apologizing to his teammates and promising them it would never happen again. “No, you’re never consciously aware you’re dropping the ball, otherwise you wouldn’t do it.”
That blunder turned a score for the Colts into a 40-yard run and a tide-turning touchback, and Denver outscored Indy 24-0 the rest of the way for a 31-13 win that moved the Broncos to the cusp of their first playoff berth since winning Super Bowl 50 following the 2015 season.
“If he would have scored that touchdown, it would have been even more of a dogfight to get back,” Denver pass rusher Jonathon Cooper said.
Broncos safety P.J. Locke suggested the mistake, which some of his teammates called an early Christmas present, changed the entire tenor of the game.
“It's a different ballgame, man,” Locke said. “Everybody's calling plays different then. Like the time management where they're just running the ball and controlling the game and we can't run the ball as much as we want to, controlling our game. (Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph) has to be a little bit more aggressive. So, it's a lot.”
One minor misstep morphed into a major mistake.
“That was a game-changer, yeah, absolutely,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said. “Obviously, it hurt us, but he’s one of our leaders. Sometimes that happens in football, but he’s our guy, and that’s what you say to him.”
Taylor finished with 107 yards — and no touchdowns — on 22 carries.
The NFL projected after the game that the Broncos (9-5) have a 91% chance of making the playoffs. The Colts' chances of reaching the postseason plummeted to 6%. Had they won Sunday, their odds would have been 51%, the same as Denver's.
Cincinnati beat the Titans 37-27, but Battle's drop kept the Bengals from scoring 31 points off six turnovers. Coach Zac Taylor said the team addresses this issue every week.
“We show these clips and it’s not something we can ever have happen. It’s within our control. You go two yards across the goal line, letters and logos, it’s very simple,” Taylor said.
It happened earlier this season.
Malachi Corley thought he scored his first NFL touchdown for the New York Jets, but the rookie wide receiver dropped the ball before he crossed the goal line. The Jets still beat Houston 21-13 on Oct. 31.
Zac Taylor said the coaching staff preaches that these mistakes happen to players not used to carrying the ball, unlike Bengals wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase or Tee Higgins.
“That’s a situation obviously we can’t have,” he said.
Jonathan Taylor, an All Pro in 2021 when he led the NFL in rushing yards and touchdowns, certainly knows how to carry the ball into the end zone. On Sunday, he was clear of the three Broncos defenders chasing him. The ball slipped out.
Taylor was joking on the sideline when he heard the crowd roar as the replay was shown on the video board in the south end zone.
“I didn’t know until they said they’re reviewing it and I’m thinking, why are they reviewing it?” Taylor said.
Maybe the outcome would have been different. Maybe not.
“I don’t know how it would have played out after that,” Taylor said, “but I do know we would have six more points.”
