Updated: 6 p.m.
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said Mile High's changing winds were the reason he opted not for
"You had a big wind. I don’t know if you noticed the wind yesterday, but it changed seven or eight times during the game.," Lewis said. "It changed at halftime from when we came on the field to when they kicked off. There were a lot of big changes (in the wind). We had a lot of confidence that we could make the first down on offense. We went for two because I felt like we could make it. You can sit here in hindsight and (second guess).
"If we would’ve made the first down, would you have asked me if why I didn’t kick the field goal? I didn’t think so. That’s kind of petty to come back and ask questions like that afterward. I thought only people there did that. But we had a lot of confidence in making it, and we didn’t make it. Looking at it now, the best thing to do would’ve been to punt it."
Nugent, who made a 55-yarder in the preseason, said the wind even changed during the fourth quarter and that it would have been a severe right-to-left kick.
"I think you can make an argument both sides," he said. "I love I don't have to make decisions like that. That's a coaching job, not a player's job. They're tough. (The wind) wasn't really hurting us either way. It really picked up at the end. It was blowing hard to the other sideline. It would have been a tough one. It it would have been a deep one, you would have had to play it pretty hard to the right the way we were going."
Nugent said the other factor was time. There were still three minutes left and a miss would have given the Broncos great field position. Same thing when Lewis passed up a 55-yarder and punted it from the Denver 39 with 6:49 left.
SLANTS AND SCREENS
» With wide receiver
» An unhappy defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer had a Monday walkthrough. It is not uncharacteristic for Zimmer to do it on a day usualy reserved for just meetings and lifting, particulalry after a bad game. Like safety
"I don't know who that team was," said Zimmer of his defense's play on Sunday.
» A huge play in the game was a holding call on running back

In his rookie duel with Carolina’s Cam Newton, Dalton has the edge in completion percentage (66-63), interceptions (0-4), passer rating (Newton is at 87.7), and they both have three touchdown passes. Newton has a big 10.3 number in yards per throw compared to Dalton’s 7.4. The last time the Bengals had a quarterback average more than seven yards per throw for an entire season was Carson Palmer’s 7.2 in 2007.
But after Sunday’s outing in which he completed just one third-down pass, Dalton is 18th in the league in third-down passing with a 74.1 rating.
Wide receiver
On Sunday the Bengals lost for just the 10th time under Marvin Lewis in the 52 games they’ve won the turnover-differential. They haven’t committed one yet this season and at plus-3 are tied for sixth in the NFL.
Sunday’s opponent, the 49ers, are tied for third at plus-4 with a 1-1 record and are 31st in offense and tied for 18th in defense with a run defense ranked first in the league. The Bengals are 18th in offense and ninth in defense.
With the worst expected on Shipley’s knee, the Bengals look to be mulling some options. They could promote