The Denver Broncos decided to run it back with the best continuity in the NFL, brought in a top-tier wide receiver free agent, and had a healthy Bo Nix for week 1 of the NFL season. What did we get for all the chatter about being a Super Bowl ready team? An absolute butt stain of a performance from the Broncos on offense and defense.
31 – 10 is an embarrassment. Some may take great joy at digging into the failures and faults at every orifice of an abomination of a game, but I honestly find less and less joy doing
that the more years I add to my belt. I’ve got some points to make worth talking about, but largely we’ll use the review to talk big picture (kinda my normal routine in recent years when the Broncos lay an absolute egg).
Head Coach
Sean Payton, for some strange reason, doesn’t understand how to get his teams ready to hit the gates running. He runs a complex offense that is scheme-dependent (which I honestly love because it works well when executed properly).
He doesn’t seem to value playing starters much in the preseason, with many vets getting a couple of series in the warm-up games. It is hard to analyze this performance and not cast some doubt on the process being used when his teams year after year have problems executing early in the season.
This team on both sides of the ball looked very unprepared for this game. The offense had no clue how to find a groove and keep it or how to execute any 3rd down play effectively. The “best offensive line in the NFL” pass blocked like a car full of clowns at a diarrhea fiesta. The defense looked like a unit full of undrafted rookies trying to make a big turnover on every play and forgetting that this is the kind of football where they have to tackle.
Payton often takes the fault immediately in his pressers when the team plays this poorly, and I’m sure he did this week as well. Yes, Payton. It indeed is your fault. You did not prepare your team properly to play this game. You were outcoached in the most predictable ways.
I’m a friggin nobody fan chugging Mountain Dews and eating Cheetos, and I knew the Kansas City Chiefs were going to run multiple tight ends / extra offensive linemen like the Bills did last year and run the ball with Kenneth Walker on repeat as their one and only way to create offensive production. Your team had no plan for that.
Bo Nix’s one biggest weakness is his reluctance to throw the ball over the middle, and yet another offseason went by without any evidence of work being done to address that weakness. It kinda makes it easy to defend the pass when your QB only uses ⅔ of the field the majority of the time.
Offense
So let’s just say that all the talk about how awesome Davis Webb is and how ready he is for the play-calling duties is looking quite sus at this point in time. That looked like a weaker version of the offense we saw last year, with a play caller abandoning the run when it didn’t need to be, getting fancy on 3rd and short when you could have just run the friggin ball for an easy first down, and leaning on underneath throws when you just traded for one of the most potent downfield threats in the NFL.
I do know that not all the calls were terrible. I liked a lot of the plays that they threw to Pat Bryant. I thought Waddle and Sutton both dropped catchable balls. I thought Nix lost plays quite often by trying to go outside instead of simply stepping up and throwing the ball. The execution on offense was lacking from the player side of things.
Also, why are we still having to use timeouts and getting delays of game when we have this nifty young play caller? I thought this move was put in place to address that?
One small pass I give the offense and Bo Nix that is worth mentioning is the wind. In the 2nd and 4th quarters, when the offense played its worst was when the wind was in their face, which is going to make most QBs more timid about throwing over the middle or deeper down the field. Those would have been great quarters to lean on the run game in my mind, but hey…the game plan called for check downs and screens…right?
Quarterbacks
Bo Nix looked like a rookie, plain and simple. The moment of this game was far too big for him. His early interception was horrendous, unforgivable, and pathetic. He stared down the only option on that side of the field, watched a guy with perfect technique defend it. Then Bo decided to throw him the ball (because there was a 0% chance of our guy ever catching that ball).
The happy feet are back big time. The line did him no favors (regardless of how much Payton wants to crow about sacks being a quarterback stat). If Bo was audibling out of runs or choosing the pass option in RPOs, he needs coaching because we have backs who can run effectively now.
Line
Mike McGlinchey had an awful night and owes the offense a dinner or two. He got worked multiple times and was a core piece of many pressures on the night.
Running Backs
I’d love to crow about our running backs. JK Dobbins averaged 4.5 ypc, and RJ Harvey averaged 6 (small sample size). It seems like we maybe could have done better than 30% of the plays on the night being runs if we wanted to. Before anyone says a word about the game going sideways, please note that the team had 17 passing attempts vs. 6 runs in the first half, with the game being within one score. Don’t take that excuse from Sean Payton, other fans, or silly announcers.
Receivers
The good news is that the team seems to have figured out how to make Evan Engram a part of the offense. Also, Pat Bryant is currently the best wide receiver on the team, and it isn’t close.
Cortland Sutton and Jaylen Waddle seemed to be largely placeholders on the field that Nix wasn’t interested in throwing to when coming open (which they were through the night constantly).
Oh yeah, and Troy Franklin still sucks. Let’s rotate Lil’Jordan Humphrey back in and let the potato get picked off the waiver wire.
Defense
We need to stop all talk about Vance Joseph being one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL right this second. He can’t even get his team ready to stop a team that can only run their bell-cow back on repeat to gain yards.
Heck, the team outside of Zach Allen and Patrick Surtain doesn’t even understand the fundamental process of how to tackle in the NFL at any level.
The effort of this defense was absolutely pathetic. The execution of this defense was what I would expect from a team of Pop Warner youths doped out on barbiturates.
Positive notes for the defense: Kansas City was holding on damn near every pass play, and it was insulting to the game of NFL football that they were allowed to get away with it…I had not seen this level of holding abuse since 2015. If you are worried about our pass rush, don’t be. They still have it, but the refs decided Kermit gets different rules than other more common quarterbacks in the NFL.
Front 7
The continued story of Alex Singleton being a liability at inside linebacker is alive and well. He was an embarrassment at linebacker with 2 good tackles out of his 15 in the game (let me point out again that getting a lot of tackles does not equate to a linebacker being good…where they make the tackle is rather important). We extended the worst starter on the team. I’m glad he’s a team captain and a feel-good story. I have never felt good about his play over any three-game stretch of his time here and have quite regularly thought he was a liability and a minus player for this defense.
Secondary
I had notes on many defensive backs in this game with good plays, but sadly had just as many of the same players missing a tackle. I’m not giving your name time when you can’t even square a player and wrap up properly on an NFL field. Hit the tackle dummies, boys…you need the work.
Special Teams
Jeremy Crawshaw has a phenomenal leg. He was the most effective player on the whole roster on Monday Night. Now pardon me while I go puke after typing that.
Final Thoughts
Now that we’ve exercised the demons of this game, let me say that this was just one game. It is cliché, but true. This game sucked. The team is 0-1. We have 16 games left in the season. There’s a lot of football to be played.
This team is capable of so much more than they showed in Week 1 in every way. The season is far from over. Losing to the Chiefs stings, but it is only actually bad if they somehow sustain wins and we lose to them at home.
This team spent all last season believing in each other and fighting hard every week to get better. Maybe they just need a bigger chip on their shoulder in order to get locked in and play how we know they are capable of playing.
I will say this schedule does NOT get easier. The Chiefs were one of the weaker teams we were facing in the first 6 weeks (Mahomes sucked and still isn’t throwing well). Buckle up, Broncos Country. We may have a bumpy ride in the next few weeks.
This week’s Homage partner plug is for another 90’s style Broncos Jacket. This time, the classic pullover variety with a hood. Someone in the comments asked last week if I get anything from a purchase in the comments. Yes, I very much do get a cut of any purchase you make from these Homage links. Also, while I’m highlighting a specific product, feel free to browse other products there. As long as you open the page with my link, I’ll get a kickback on any purchase you make, big or small.
