Once again, the Denver Broncos lost in the last second after a hard-fought game against a very good team. I’m always proud to see our team going toe-to-toe and being in the game until the last second. It is far better than losing by 20.
That being said, I don’t like a close game like this where our team lost because they shot themselves in the foot far too many times.
Last year, we had the excuse of the Broncos being a young team. They just needed to get more comfortable in order to really win some
more of the close games.
At this point, I’m starting to honestly question the coaching. These players just don’t look prepared to win NFL football games. They lack discipline. They also lack focus. Both of those things are very coachable.
Offense
This is such an inconsistent offense. The only thing I think they excel at is having low-yield plays on first down. In the first half of the game, our running backs had negative yards on 5 rushing attempts. In the first quarter, they were consistent in going 3-and-out on each and every drive.
I do want to give big credit to Payton for his gutsy call on 4th and 2 at the end of the half. The play design was the perfect call at the perfect time.
Where I think Payton needs some blame is for the players lining up poorly. That’s on his coaching staff to have the players drilled on who covers the tackle on each and every play.
Quarterbacks
Bo Nix really needs to improve his accuracy. Several plays early don’t work because he’s either too far to the outside on his placement or behind his target. He was just a bit too far on the flea flicker. At the end of the 4th quarter, he overthrew Sutton. He had 3 deep passes that were misses long. He had many throws that just missed, and several of them would have extended drives.
I think it is so frustrating to watch because we have seen so much potential in Nix. He’s got superb scrambling ability. The throws he’s missing are, by and large, the right spots to be going with the ball. And to be fair to him, he’s just missing these throws. If the guy would just take setting his feet more seriously, he’d be killing it.
Line
Luke Wattenburg is not holding his ground up front. A lot of the problems establishing the run are coming right up the A gaps. We need a center that can hold his own, and so far this season, I don’t see it.
Adam Trautman had terrible blocking on the edge against a safety blitz on the edge. Later on, on a 3rd down, he gets help and lets a smaller player get by him to stop a 3rd down conversion by R.J. Harvey. It is bad enough that our tight ends have problems being impactful receiving targets, but seeing these plays makes one wonder if we just need a whole new group of tight ends.
Running Backs
JK Dobbins came alive in the 2nd half with a big run in the open for 41 yards. Had a whole drive to himself for a touchdown and played really well as the game wore on. He ended with 83 yards on 11 carries. If only the team could find a way to get him going in the first half of the game as well…
R.J. Harvey, on the other hand, had 2 carries in the game and netted 2 yards. At some point the rookie needs to show up on the field and do something.
Receivers
Courtland Sutton led the team in receiving with 118 yards on 6 receptions with a touchdown. My only complaint was his effort on the deep pass. I think he’s capable of laying out for it and also could have pushed his stride a bit to get there.
Troy Franklin had his worst game of the season with an offensive pass interference. He also dropped a nicely thrown ball that hit him right in the hands.. Two plays later, he gets another target that is dropped (though he was double-covered to be fair).
Marvin Mims, Jr. also had a rough go, catching only 1 of his 4 targets. We need these talented players to be more involved and there is work to do by them on their hands and routes and by Nix with his throws in order to make that happen.
Defense
My only biggest negative on the defense was that they were completely unprepared for the Los Angeles Chargers’ touchdown run, which is pretty impressive given that they were only two yards away from the goal line.
They also have work to do on cleaning up penalties. I also saw some zone plays shuffled in where the players were playing too soft and gave up easy catches for chunks of yards. I think good defenses are able to mix it up, but great defenses mix it up and execute any style of coverage at a high level. There’s work to do on that front.
On a bright note, the pass rush was completely back and causing chaos in the backfield from time to time. That’s the engine of this defense and goes a long way to helping this team win games.
Front 7
Nik Bonitto had another stellar game on defense. He gets home on a blitz as he gets the edge on his blocker before the guy can even get squared up to him. He had another big sack at the start of a drive in the 3rd quarter as he hop steps outside the blocker and zips in to sack Herbert. He had 4 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 TFLs, and 5 quarterback hits on the day.
D.J. Jones kicked off the game with a dominating TFL. He also made a key tackle on Herbert on 3rd down to kill their 2nd drive. He ended the game with 2 tackles, 1 sack, 2 TFLs, and 1 quarterback hit.
John Franklin-Myers is another interior lineman bringing the heat from this defense. He came up the middle for a sack with pressure off the edge by Bonitto. He also chipped in 3 tackles, 1 TFL, and 2 quarterback hits on the day.
In a signature Alex Singleton game, he led the team with tackles, made no real impact plays, and was a liability in coverage. In a game where everyone is taught to wrap up and tackle on defense, he instead shoulder hits the WR free early out of Pat Surtain’s arms to help the Chargers gain an extra 20ish yards. On a key 3rd and 3 pass, he was just simply not ready to defend a pass.
Jonathan Cooper gets a sack on 3rd down, impressively looping all the way around his defender to come from directly behind Herbert. He chipped in a TFL and another quarterback hit as well.
Secondary
Pat Surtain II bounced back this game to look like the excellent defender we’ve been used to seeing. He was stellar in coverage on a deep throw at the end of the first half. He had another perfect pass defense in the end zone against Keenan Allen.
I love the play that Talanoa Hufanga brings to this defense. He is excellent in coverage and has a nose for the ball, which is what you want to see out of your free safety. He was a significant contributor to the Broncos’ penalty woes, which really need to be cleaned up. He got a pass interference as he hit the receiver before the ball was there. He also got an unnecessary roughness penalty for driving a player into the ground. It was very undisciplined, stupid, and avoidable.
Jonah Ellis continues to impress me with his play when he is in on rotation. He showed great pass rushing early that didn’t necessarily get home, but helped rush plays. He had a TFL and a pass defense to his credit on the day, in only 43% of the snaps.
Brandon Jones had a solid game on the back end for this defense. On his interception, he did a great job of concentrating to snag the tipped pass off of Riley Moss’s great coverage. He had 11 tackles and a pass defense to his credit as well.
Riley Moss had a rough game. While he was often in position, he was unable to stop passes from happening (credit to Justin Herbert for so many great passes, honestly). In this defense, Moss is always going to see a lot of targets. It is a credit to him that he is able to move on to the next play and keep his play level consistent.
Special Teams
Easily one of the plays that are at the top of the list of plays that cost the Broncos this game was the offside penalty on a 4th and 4. Lining up correctly is the most remedial of things in the game of football. That our players don’t know how to do it speaks volumes to the poor quality of the coaching they are under.
Jonah Ellis gets mad props with the forced fumble during a Charger’s kick return. He got a perfect punch at the perfect angle to break the ball loose and cause the turnover.
Final Thoughts
Being 1-2 really sucks for a team that looked on paper to be so much better. The talent on this team is better than it was last season. The players are, by and large, another year matured in the systems this team runs.
And yet, there are lots of mental errors that are costing this team wins. Sean Payton does a superb job of calling it out in his press conference. He talks about things that are on him and his staff.
I think it is time to do the work of cleaning it up instead of talking about it every week, though. This team has too much potential to be crapping away close games consistently.
