DENVER (AP) — 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.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Indianapolis Colts' Jonathan Taylor runs for what would have been a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Denver. Taylor dropped the ball before crossing the goal line. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
Tennessee Titans running back Tony Pollard (20) runs the ball past Cincinnati Bengals safety Jordan Battle (27) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean law enforcement authorities are pushing to summon impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree as the Constitutional Court began its first meeting Monday on Yoon’s case to determine whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.
A joint investigative team involving police, an anti-corruption agency and the Defense Ministry said it plans to convey a request to Yoon’s office that he appear for questioning on Wednesday, as they expand a probe into whether his ill-conceived power grab amounted to rebellion.
Son Yeong-jo, an investigator with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials, said the team plans to question Yoon on charges of rebellion and abuse of power. He declined to provide specifics when asked how investigators would respond if Yoon refuses to appear.
Son said the team tried to deliver the summons request to the presidential office but was rerouted to Yoon’s personal residence after presidential secretarial staff claimed they were unsure whether conveying the request to the impeached president was part of their duties.
Yoon was impeached by the opposition-controlled National Assembly on Saturday over his Dec. 3 martial law decree. His presidential powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to formally remove him from office or reinstate him. If Yoon is dismissed, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.
Yoon has justified his martial law enforcement as a necessary act of governance against the main liberal opposition Democratic Party that he described as “anti-state forces” bogging down his agendas and vowed to “fight to the end” against efforts to remove him from office.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have poured onto the streets of the country’s capital, Seoul, in recent days, calling for Yoon’s ouster and arrest.
It remains unclear whether Yoon will grant the request by investigators for an interview. South Korean prosecutors, who are pushing a separate investigation into the incident, also reportedly asked Yoon to appear at a prosecution office for questioning on Sunday but he refused to do so. Repeated calls to a prosecutors’ office in Seoul were unanswered.
Yoon’s presidential security service has also resisted a police attempt to search Yoon's office for evidence.
The request came before the Constitutional Court met Monday to discuss the case. The court has up to 180 days to rule. But observers say that a court ruling could come faster.
In the case of parliamentary impeachments of past presidents — Roh Moo-hyun in 2004 and Park Geun-hye in 2016 — the court spent 63 days and 91 days respectively before determining to reinstate Roh and dismiss Park.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who became the country’s acting leader after Yoon's impeachment, and other government officials have sought to reassure allies and markets after Yoon’s surprise stunt paralyzed politics, halted high-level diplomacy and complicated efforts to revive a faltering economy.
Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung urged the Constitutional Court to rule swiftly on Yoon’s impeachment and proposed a special council for policy cooperation between the government and parliament.
Lee, a firebrand lawmaker who drove a political offensive against Yoon’s government, is seen as the frontrunner to replace him. He lost the 2022 presidential election to Yoon by a razor-thin margin.
Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, separately criticized Lee’s proposal for the special council, saying that it’s “not right” for the opposition party to act like the ruling party.
Yoon’s impeachment, which was endorsed in parliament by some of his ruling People Power Party lawmakers, has created a deep rift within the party between Yoon’s loyalists and his opponents. On Monday, PPP chair Han Dong-hun, a strong critic of Yoon's martial law, announced his resignation.
“If martial law had not been lifted that night, a bloody incident could have erupted that morning between the citizens who would have taken to the streets and our young soldiers,” Han told a news conference.
Yoon’s Dec. 3 imposition of martial law, the first of its kind in more than four decades, harkened back to an era of authoritarian leaders the country has not seen since the 1980s. Yoon was forced to lift his decree hours later after parliament unanimously voted to overturn it.
Yoon sent hundreds of troops and police officers to the parliament in an effort to stop the vote, but they withdrew after the parliament rejected Yoon’s decree. No major violence occurred.
Opposition parties have accused Yoon of rebellion, saying a president in South Korea is allowed to declare martial law only during wartime or similar emergencies and would have no right to suspend parliament’s operations even in those cases.
South Korea's ruling People Power Party leader Han Dong-hun speaks during a news conference to announce his resignation after President Yoon Suk Yeol's parliamentary impeachment, at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korea's ruling People Power Party leader Han Dong-hun reacts during a news conference to announce his resignation after President Yoon Suk Yeol's parliamentary impeachment, at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Participants shout slogans during a rally calling on the Constitutional Court to dismiss the President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. The signs read "Immediately arrest." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Participants shout slogans during a rally calling on the Constitutional Court to dismiss the President Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. The signs read "Immediately arrest." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Participants shout slogans during a rally calling on the Constitutional Court to dismiss the President Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. The signs read "Immediately arrest." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
In this photo released by South Korean President Office via Yonhap, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol bows while delivering a speech at the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, after South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach Yoon Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (South Korean Presidential Office/Yonhap via AP)
South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks during a press conference on removal of President Yoon Suk Yeol from office, at the party office at the National Assembly building in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Participants hold signs during a rally calling on the Constitutional Court to dismiss the President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. The signs read "Immediately arrest." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
