The Denver Broncos took on the Houston Texans in a hard-fought road battle Sunday afternoon. For three quarters, Denver’s offense was absolutely dreadful. But in the fourth quarter, they did just enough to pull out another comeback victory on the road. With today’s win, the Broncos are now 7-2 and winners of six in a row. Here are some instant reactions and takeaways from today’s game.
Bo Nix and Broncos’ offense fall back to earth against Texans
Over the past five quarters, Denver’s offense had lit
up the scoreboard with 77 points. That wasn’t the case in the first half against the Texans today. We knew the Texans had a great defense, but how well they did against the Broncos early on was a bit of a surprise. The Broncos couldn’t get anything done in the first half whatsoever with the exception of a few plays.
Bo Nix was errant and off target with most of his passes. Even more so than what we’ve witnessed early on in most games to date. It was arguably his worst first half performance of the year. Nix was 4 of 12 for 30 yards and interception before connecting with Courtland Sutton on third down for a 30-yard touchdown strike late in the second quarter. By the end of the first half, Nix was 6-of-17 for 76 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.
What I found curious was how quickly they abandoned the run early on. The Broncos had success rushing the ball on their first with J.K. Dobbins. However, they barely gave him any touches after that. Ultimately, Denver had six rushes for 29 yards after thirty minutes of play with just 105 yards of total offense. They controlled the ball for less than eight minutes and mustered just six first downs.
It didn’t get much better in the second half. Denver had multiple three-and-outs over the course of the third quarter and couldn’t get anything going. It took until the fourth quarter for the offense to score again, with Nix connecting with running back RJ Harvey on a 27-yard touchdown strike. Denver was able to convert their two-point conversion to bring the game to a 15-to-15 tie.
On the final possession of the game, Nix was able to use his legs and scamper into Texans territory to get the Broncos within field goal range. And with just seconds remaining, Wil Lutz delivered a 34-yard field goal to deliver the Broncos’ seventh win of the season. It was a great comeback win for the team, but the offense certainly looked awful for most of the game.
While I can give praise for Nix’s fourth quarter heroics again, being a sub-50 percent passer in an NFL game is horrendous. I’m confident he will continue to improve, but today’s performance is quite concerning. Hopefully they can figure out the issues in their passing game sooner than later. What is going on right now simply isn’t sustainable for success in the second half of the season.
Defense bends slightly, but holds strong to help deliver a victory
Without Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II, pressure was certainly placed on the Broncos’ defense. With only four active cornerbacks and even safety P.J. Locke out as well, Denver’s secondary was shorthanded for today’s gridiron battle. For the most part, I felt the Broncos did quite well rising to the occasion. In fact, the Broncos don’t win this game without the defense holding strong.
They gave up a few explosive plays down the field early on against C.J. Stroud. They bent a little but didn’t break and did a great job limiting the Texans to just 12 points after multiple drives in the red zone in the first half. I consider that a huge success considering how the offense and special teams units put them in bad field position situations early on in the game.
Late in the second quarter, Stroud was concussed and backup quarterback Davis Mills took his place. Mills had some success, but Denver’s defense was able to hold them to just three more points the rest of the way out. I thought both Zach Allen and Talanoa Hufanga were impact players for the defense who really shined and came up big when it mattered most.
Let’s discuss Darren Rizzi and the dreadful special teams experience
One aspect of the Broncos this year that probably deserves a lot more scrutiny that it gets is their porous play thus far under the leadership of Darren Rizzi. I haven’t really bothered to talk about it much in post-game analysis. However, today’s lackluster performance deserved some thoughts.
The issues started early on. A Wil Lutz field goal was blocked after a blown block by Quinn Meinerz early on in the game. To make matters worse, a Michael Bandy muffed punt at the end of the second half resulted in the Texans coming away with three more points and extending their lead to 12-7 at halftime.
Those struggles continued into the second half. Terrible punt coverage down the field on an excellent Jeremy Crawshaw punt to start the second half gave David Mills and the Texans’ offense the ball at midfield. An unnecessary roughness penalty on Crawshaw’s next punt also put Houston near midfield for another drive.
Crawshaw’s big leg today and the game ending field goal were great. But overall, this just doesn’t appear to be a well-coached unit. Week in and week out, they struggle in multiple areas. I’m not sure a coaching change is going to happen here, but something needs to get done to make the special teams’ unit more consistent. There were too many execution issues and penalties from them today.
