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DENVER -- Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick smiled when asked what was going through his mind when he picked off Denver Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler in the end zone on Sunday and almost ran it back the length of the field. "Breathe!" he said. "Breathe!" Kirkpatrick's play could be called "the pick-six that wasn't." He took Osweiler's pass all the way back to the 14-yard line untouched, but when he looked back to check on the Broncos players in pursuit, he fumbled the ball.  He recovered his own fumble at the 1-yard line to set up a touchdown for the Bengals' offense three plays later. His 100-yard interception return is the longest in NFL history not to result in a touchdown. "Oh god," he said sheepishly when he was informed of that. "It's cool, it's cool." He added: "I can see y'all are going to mess with me all week! I can see the memes [and everything]." Kirkpatrick took the play in stride, but he might have been a bit more subdued had he not recovered his fumble. The first thing he noticed after the play happened was teammate Adam Jones on the sidelines with some choice words. "Pacman is cussing me out," Kirkpatrick said, laughing. "That's the first thing I said. He's going crazy. And if I hadn't of gotten that ball, ain't no way I'm going to walk to that sideline with him. No way. No way." Kirkpatrick said he looked back because he knew defenders were gaining on him, but he wasn't sure where they were. "They were coming from both ends!" he said. "I thought they poked it out, but I've got to hold on to that ball." In the end, the play worked out for the Bengals, who won the game 20-17. Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton threw a 1-yard touchdown pass afterward to put the Bengals up 6-0 in the first quarter. Dalton ended the first quarter 2-of-3 passing for zero yards due to throwing a pass for negative yardage on the previous drive. "I was hoping he was going to have enough gas to make it all the way. That's a long run," Dalton said. "I still don't know how the ball came out, but it all worked out. I got a touchdown pass out of it. I looked at the stats and I was 2-for-3 with zero yards and a touchdown. I don't know if anyone's had zero yards before with a touchdown, but it worked. "However you get points -- I'm sure he wishes he got the pick-six -- but I'm glad I got the touchdown pass. At the end of the day, we got in the end zone."
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