The Broncos Survive An Ugly Game

The Broncos’ offense is the hardest concept to understand, not for opposing defenses but for the fans watching. One week, they can score 33 in a quarter and have a five-quarter stretch scoring 77 points. Then, they have nights like this when it is a struggle to reach 10 points.

This game had the same feel as the London game when Denver beat the New York Jets 13-11. The offense has these stretches of gameplay where they get nothing going at all. In their contest against the Raiders, they didn’t pick up a first down till midway through the second quarter.

Bo Nix was a mixed bag once again. He finished the night 16/28 with just 150 yards, throwing for one touchdown with two interceptions. He made a lot of questionable decisions and had a lot of off-target throws.

As a Broncos fan, it is frustrating to see Nix quarterback. He has these moments where he looks incredible when he makes plays off-schedule. When his feet are set, he throws a great ball.

Nix, unfortunately, does not always set his feet and makes the throw harder than it has to be. The growing pains are a tough watch for this young man. In fairness to him, the play calling at times does him no favors.

I feel like Sean Payton abandons the run too quickly. JK Dobbins is a good running back who had 77 yards on 18 carries. Those are solid numbers, and it took him an entire half to realize that Dobbins should be used more.

The offense’s biggest hurdle is itself, and until Nix starts to get more consistent on a drive-to-drive basis, there will be a hard ceiling on the production level on this side of the ball.

The Defense Is Championship Caliber

That defense comes to play week after week. The Broncos finished the night with six sacks. Five of them came in the first half when they needed to keep the team in the game while down 7-0 when the offense was unable to pick up a first down.

This team has 46 sacks in just 10 games. That is insane. For context, the 2015 Broncos defense led the league with 52 in 16 games.

This just shows how Vance Joseph has continued to bamboozle opposing offenses. They are on pace to just beat the all-time sack record of 72 set by the Chicago Bears in 1984. They dominated the trenches once again.

Ashton Jeanty was held in check as he had just 60 yards on 19 carries. The team had a total of 74 rushing yards and 114 passing yards with an average of 3.2 yards per play.

According to Pro Football Focus, the defense held Las Vegas to just four completions and had a pass rush win rate of 72.7%. There was a stretch that the Raiders did not pick up a first down from early in the second quarter to the beginning of the fourth quarter.

If Denver is going to make a deep playoff run, it is going to be on the shoulders of this group.

End Of My Denver Broncos Rant

One phase of the team that had a weird night was special teams. The punter, Jeremy Crawshaw, shanked his first three to four kicks. One of them was so bad that it kicked off the side of his foot and was a line drive.

Crawshaw settled down as the game went on, but it was weird to see. Wil Lutz missed a field goal, which wasn’t an egregious mistake as it was a 57-yard field goal on windy conditions. They did, however, block a punt in the middle of the fourth, which allowed Denver to go up 10-7.

It was not a pretty performance at all. Once again, the team had 11 penalties and continued to make silly mistakes that need to be cleaned up. At the end of the day, though, a win is a win.

The Broncos sit at 8-2 and have rattled off seven straight wins. Both numbers are the best it has been since 2015. Can they make it eight straight when Kansas City comes to town?