It was going so swimmingly for Teddy Bridgewater and the Denver Broncs in the second quarter of Sunday night’s game against the first-place Kansas City Chiefs.
Down 10-3, the Broncos sustained a long 20-play drive to keep Patrick Mahomes and Co. off the field. A score here would have given them a ton of momentum as Vic Fangio’s squad attempted to even things up in the AFC West.
Instead, the Broncos came away with zero points after those 20 plays and north of 11 minutes of game action. Facing a fourth-and-two from Kansas City’s eight-yard line, the Broncos called up a run play for rookie Javonte Williams. He was stuffed for a loss of a yard, ending any potential momentum the Broncos might have had heading into the half. It was pretty darn ugly.
That’s about as disastrous as it gets. Some believe that head coach Vic Fangio should’ve taken the points. However, NFL Next Gen Stats points to the fact that all three of the times he decided to go for it on fourth down on this drive, were optimal decisions. That is to say, they had a better chance of succeeding than failing.
We’ve seen multiple teams sustain drives of this ilk and come away without a touchdown. That happened when the San Francisco 49ers opened their Week 11 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars by holding on to the ball for north of 13 minutes — only to come away with a mere field goal.
For a team like the Denver Broncos, there’s not much margin for error. Sure they have played extremely well in recent weeks. But failing to score points after holding on to the ball for so long against the two-time defending AFC champions is not a recipe for success.
More must-reads: