CINCINNATI — The run game that carried the Cincinnati Bengals through the month of December and was supposed to take them beyond the first weekend in January was ineffective in the first half and abandoned in the second half Sunday in a 26-10 AFC wild-card loss at Indianapolis.

Rookie running back Jeremy Hill, who came into the game with three consecutive 100-yard games and led the NFL in rushing in the second half of the season, carried just 13 times for 47 yards on a day when the Bengals were depleted with receiving options with wide receiver A.J. Green (concussion) and tight end Jermaine Gresham (back) inactive.

Only one of Hill’s rushing attempts came in the final 25 minutes, and Cincinnati only ran it 21 times as a team, with four being scrambles by quarterback Andy Dalton.

But Hill defended offensive coordinator Hue Jackson’s play-calling and shouldered the blame for the way things played out in the second half.

“We were three-and-outs the whole second half,” Hill said. “You can say play-calling this and play-calling that, but when you’re going three-and-out, you’re not getting any success in the run game on first down. What can you do? I mean you don’t have a selection of plays to choose from. I’ve got to do a better job to help us in the run game.”

The absence of Gresham not only hurt the Bengals in the passing game, it was a big factor in the struggle to run the ball.

The team tried to compensate by using six or seven linemen at times with tackle Marshall Newhouse and guard Mike Pollak lining up as tight ends, but that wasn’t enough to keep the Colts defense guessing.

“When you don’t have a lot of tight ends up and you’re having to do it with linemen, now you make it even more obvious and now they can roll to it even more because they’re not worried about Newhouse and Pollak catching passes,” left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “You’re in a situation where you’ve got to knock them off the football and kind of play high school football a little bit and have a huge run and we just didn’t get one.”

The longest run of the day was a 23-yard reverse by Rex Burkhead on the first offensive snap of the game. The longest run of the second half was a 16-yard scramble by Dalton. Hill had four carries for 10 yards in the second half.

REPORT CARD VS. COLTS

–PASSING OFFENSE: D — Quarterback Andy Dalton barely connected on 50 percent of his attempts, completing 18 of 35 passes for 155 yards. Several times there were receivers open on deep shots that could have loosened the Colts defense, but Dalton was unable to hit any of them. The longest reception of the day was a 26-yarder in which Rex Burkhead bailed out Dalton with a leaping, pirouetting snag at the Indianapolis 5 to set up the team’s only touchdown. The pass protection wasn’t strong either, with the three sacks tying for the second most allowed this season. Only a grading curve for being without Pro Bowl wide receiver A.J. Green and tight end Jermaine Gresham keeps this grade from being an F.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: B — There were only four games this year where the Bengals rushed for more yards per carry than the 5.2 they posted Sunday. Running backs Jeremy Hill (18) and Rex Burkhead (23) and quarterback Andy Dalton (16) each had runs of at least 16 yards as part of the team total of 110 on only 21 carries. The Bengals averaged 4.4 yards on first-down carries, and six of the their 14 first downs were produced on runs.

–PASS DEFENSE: F — It wasn’t much of a surprise that the defensive line got zero push because that’s been the case most of the year. But Sunday against a talent like Andrew Luck, it was lethal. And when the Bengals did blitz, they failed to get there, which was the case on the biggest play of the game when Luck dodged safety Reggie Nelson and hit Donte Moncrief in the end zone for a 36-yard touchdown for a 20-10 lead that at the time seemed insurmountable and eventually proved to be exactly that. Even when the defensive backs were able to maintain coverage for six or seven seconds, defenders missed tackles and short gains turned into long ones. The end result was 368 passing yards allowed, which were the most the Bengals have allowed in a playoff game.

–RUSH DEFENSE: C-plus — The Colts were playing with a makeshift offensive line and a starting running back they plucked off the Cincinnati practice squad and still managed to average 4.6 yards per rush. Former Bengals running back Dan Herron made the most of his limited carries, gaining 56 yards. But the best defensive play of the game came against the run when rookie cornerback Darqueze Dennard ran down Herron from behind on a 17-yard gain and chopped the ball out for the Bengals only turnover, which at the time looked like a huge momentum swing as it lead to a 57-yard field goal 10 seconds before halftime.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: B-plus — Mike Nugent’s 57-yard field goal was huge and should have meant more. It came with 10 seconds left in the first half and got the Bengals within three with the second-half kickoff coming their way. Punter Kevin Huber matched his Pro Bowl counterpart Pat McAfee with a solid day, averaging 47.5 yards on eight punts with a 43.1-yard net. Brandon Tate had a solid 19-yard punt return, and Adam Jones had a decent showing on three kickoff returns for a 26.7-yard average. The coverage unit allowed Indy’s Josh Cribbs to get loose for 39 yards on the opening kickoff, setting the stage for the Colts to produce a touchdown on their opening drive for the first time all year.

–COACHING: C-minus – There’s no question the Bengals were depleted and at a disadvantage without WR A.J. Green and TE Jermaine Gresham, but if you’re going to recite the phrase “next man up” a few hundred times a year, it has to hold form even in the biggest game of the year. Still, offensive coordinator Hue Jackson talking about being committed to the run and then abandoning it even when it’s fairly effective and the score is still relatively close is a head-scratcher. Defensively, it’s hard to blame coordinator Paul Guenther too much for not blitzing more to help a feeble four-man rush. When the Bengals did blitz, Colts quarterback Andrew Luck beat them deep. When they didn’t, he hit short to moderate routes. Marvin Lewis fell to 0-6 in the playoffs, so there has to be some accountability there, but this loss was more about performance that preparation.