I still don’t feel like I have a solid handle on what I witnessed Sunday afternoon as the Broncos pulled off the dumbest upset I’ve seen in all my years watching NFL football.
Keeping it real, I have to admit that I had the Broncos written off coming into the 4th quarter. Even with the good guys driving and us scoring a 2-point conversion, I didn’t think a comeback was possible.
I wonder if maybe I’ve wandered in the desert too long in recent years and have forgotten what Mile High Magic is. We’re
going to shake up the review a bit as I’m going to indulge in the magic of that 4th quarter and the positivity we all got to experience as a fan base.
Once that’s done, we will put back on our No Bull hat and dig into the game review (which isn’t pretty).
If you are someone who just wants to hear hype, please read only this first section. When we get to the review, you probably will not enjoy much of it. You have been warned.
Mile High Magic
I grew up in my writing, watching the career of Demaryius Thomas. I always loved him as a player because he seemed like such a good-natured dude. He got a well-deserved place in the Ring of Fame this weekend. I kinda think he also might have been smiling down on the game and having a bit of fun with us as well.
Because comebacks like this are not possible.
I’ve watched decades of football, including one of the game’s best comeback artists in John Elway, in his prime.
I heard tell of a Peyton Manning comeback as epic as this, but this was before he was wearing the right colored jersey, so I didn’t happen to catch it.
I was front and center for the magical season with Tim Tebow at quarterback and a supremely talented team carrying him to victory after unlikely victory.
Comebacks like this are NOT possible.
Right?
Let’s start by giving some serious love to Justin Strnad for his interception. I have the same notes on that play as almost everyone involved with the game: it was the key to the game. To me, it looked like he had a read on the play. He knew what the route was and where to be. Good on him and the team for doing their homework.
Also, much love to Bo Nix, who just absolutely flipped a switch and turned into a destroyer of souls in the 4th quarter. He put up 4 TDs (2 on the ground) and will haunt the dreams of Giants fans for years to come. His passing in the 4th quarter was damn near immaculate.
No matter how hard Sean Payton tries to force the ball to Troy Franklin, all Marvin Mims, Jr. does is show up and make plays. He’s the unsung hero of this story, making so many critical plays at the end of the game. He caught 3 big-time passes down the field with defenders right next to him in the 4th quarter.
Speaking of unsung heroes, let’s give it up for Tyler Badie, who also chipped in some really nice plays at the end. For a 3rd-string running back, he showed he has some juice when the team needs it and reliability as an outlet receiver for Nix and this offense. He was also handling return duties largely in the 4th quarter.
I hate to throw shade on an opponent, but also hats off to Shane Bowen for pulling a page out of the Dick LeBeau 2011 playoff strategy guide and doing the dumbest thing possible in a key moment of the game. Bowen, for some reason, thought dropping his team into prevent zone was a good idea with the Broncos needing chunks of yards to make a game-winning field goal. With a quarterback like Bo Nix, you need guys covered to confuse him, not guys running free to holes in your defense.
Finally, I think Wil Lutz is one of the most loved players in Denver right now. I don’t think this fan base could have handled a missed field goal, and Lutz made it look simple (take notes, McAtamney).
This whole team showed grit, determination, and full-tilt belief in each other. They never give up. They never stop showing up on the field. This Denver Broncos team is an opponent that no one in the NFL is looking forward to playing.
Let’s friggin go, Broncos Country! 5-2 and atop the AFC West!
Offense
I was very relieved to hear Sean Payton say in his press conference,
“…it’s important we don’t let the euphoria of a win like that cloud the things that need to get cleaned up tomorrow. So they’ll enjoy it tonight, but there are a lot of things that we’re still doing, particularly offensively, that trouble me, and we’ll get it fixed. We have to get it fixed.”
He’s 100% spot on. This offense needs to really get to work on cleaning up its problems executing plays. Drops, penalties, and inaccurate throws are all consistent in the Broncos’ offense so far this season.
The one thing that really needs to be addressed in my mind is Sean Payton’s play-calling, though. I honestly wonder if he even is aware of the problem, given his hubris.
Constantly, through 3 quarters of the game, the Giants had the number of the Broncos’ play calls because early in games, Sean Payton is predictable. Fancy toss plays, screens everywhere, and deep passes on 3rd down.
Sure, he gets credit for the offensive design. Every play they run is because of him. The 4th quarter play calling comes out when they get down. It was not what they were doing earlier in the game. Maybe, just maybe, he should try calling some of those plays earlier in the game to shake things up a bit and get this offense into more of a rhythm.
I will say that much credit needs to be given to the New York Giants’ defensive front. They were absolute terrors in the trenches, especially with batting down passes.
Quarterbacks
On the plus side, Bo Nix has the clutch gene. We in Broncos Country know it when we see it. Craig Morton, John Elway, and Peyton Manning are guys who had it as well. When the chips are down and the team needs to make some plays, Nix dials his game up a notch or three.
Running for 2 touchdowns, passing for 2 touchdowns, and throwing impressively accurate passes downfield throughout the 4th quarter was a sight to behold.
Now let’s talk about the other 3 quarters.
Nix desperately needs to hear that his inaccuracy is costing this team. Too many of his plays through ¾ of the game were drive killers because he couldn’t get the ball on his receiver. Work needs to be done on throwing from his platform consistently and how to put the right touch on the passes. He had a gimme touchdown to Garrett Bolles, who was wide open in the end zone on what I would consider a layup of a pass, and he overthrew him.
Decision-making needs to be addressed as well. Twice more in this game on 3rd down, he fell in love with the deep pass when he had targets within 5-10 yards that he could have thrown to. It could be an issue with play-calling. If that’s the case, he needs to give Payton the feedback that he wants plays with better high-percentage options.
There’s also some learning to do when it comes to the batted passes. Part of that is the defenders making great plays, but he’s got to see if there are any small adjustments he can make to get better angles.
I love this guy playing quarterback for this team. Let’s just not forget that he’s a young player who still has growth to do. The goal should not be to play like Tim Tebow (for crying out loud, you are better than that).
Line
You know what we didn’t have trouble with this week?
The left guard position.
Big love to Alex Palczewski, holding it down at left guard. I’m not going to pretend that I watched every snap of his, but I sure as hell didn’t notice him, unlike last week’s effort from Matt Peart.
On that note, the line was amazing in this game. Yes, the Giants caused the offense hell. Burns got 2 sacks. I call that a pretty solid win in the pass blocking department.
They get cred in the run blocking game as well. The team averaged 5.9 yards per carry.
Running Backs
J.K. Dobbins finally started waking up in the 2nd half, gashing the defense for 32 yards on a huge run. He ended the day with 81 yards on 14 attempts.
One of the big changes the Broncos need to make is dropping R.J. Harvey down the roster a notch. Many of the early drives were problematic because he wasn’t able to gain yards. This is the 2nd game in a row of absolutely pathetic numbers, with him having 4 carries for 0 yards on the day (last week he had 2 runs for 4 yards). Badie just gives this offense more right now.
Receivers
This week, I can’t say enough about the game Marvin Mims, Jr. had. He’s our #3 WR on the depth chart and absolutely tore it up in this game with 6 catches for 85 yards, including a back shoulder catch for 31 yards to put the team in field goal range. He was absolute nails and showed the same kind of clutch ability that Nix had at the end of the game. I’d honestly advocate for him moving to the #2 spot on the roster as his game is showing more consistency than Franklin’s right now.
Cortland Sutton led the team with 6 receptions for 87 yards and was also a stud in the 4th quarter. He got stopped on 4th and 2 at the goalline early in the game, which was honestly a bad call in my mind. Sutton is not what I would call a quick player. I don’t mind a screen play down there, but Sutton doesn’t have the quickness to hit the angles that will get him into the end zone.
Evan Engram chipped in 5 catches for 42 yards. Two of those catches were for 1st downs in key late drives. But the smartest thing I saw from him was on Nix’s first touchdown run. He was the outside blocker sealing the edge for Nix. His defender worked around him, and he smartly let go to avoid a holding call. Smart players who know situational football are worth their weight in gold.
Franklin needs to get some strength. He drops a big play because he can’t hang on when he gets hit. His game was wildly inconsistent, with just 3 catches on 10 targets for 19 yards. That’s too many targets for too little production. He did have his head screwed on straight on a tipped pass in the end zone to help get the Broncos on the board early in the 4th quarter. I still believe in him, but we’re getting to the point in the season where we can’t keep forcing things to guys just to try to develop them. There are games to be won in a close division.
Defense
This wasn’t our week on defense. Giving up 32 points isn’t what you want to see from your defense at home against a scrappy 2-4 team.
I honestly felt like this team took a trip back a couple of years to the days when we couldn’t cover a tight end to save our lives. Both Johnson and Bellinger had receptions of over 40 yards. Both got touchdowns.
There’s a lot for Vance Joseph to work on with his unit for clean-up duty. Safety’s understanding of who to watch and where to keep their leverage is going to be a big one, as it cost us two scores on the day.
It may be worth discussing a way to keep two players from colliding as they both go for the same ball. The defense wins the game easily on either of those plays late. The only reason we didn’t get interceptions was because of our own players both times.
Front 7
Justin Strnad gets a golden game ball for this week. We already talked about his key play with the interception, but that wasn’t all he did in this game. He made a key 3rd down stop blitzing up the middle. He also had a quarterback hit and a pass defense on a short throw early.
Allen was causing havoc up front today. He had 2 batted passes and some really impressive rushes up the middle. On the last drive for the Giants, he got credited with half a sack and also had 2 quarterback hits on the day.
Jonathan Cooper made such a disciplined rush off the edge to get a sack, making sure that Dart couldn’t get away from him. He had constant pressure off the edge through the game and helped keep the Giants’ rushing attack somewhat in check.
Dondrea Tillman gets a shoestring sack on Dart, who slipped. He had a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit ass well on the day.
Alex Singleton looked absolutely inept on the Skatteboo touchdown early. We need an inside linebacker who can hold that middle zone down and not let plays like that go by in the red zone. But hey, he chipped in 8 tackles on the game and helped get the defensive play calls in. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Secondary
Brandon Jones quietly had a pretty darn good game at safety for the Broncos. He saved the 2-point conversion try from the Giants. He was in on breaking up one of the deep passes late in the game (and should have had an interception).
Talanoa Hufunga had a pretty up-and-down game at safety. He lost sight of the deep route by the tight end to give up a touchdown. He had a superb pass defense over the middle to bat away the ball on a crossing route. On the 3rd touchdown for the Giants, Hufunga was chasing a ghost behind the line of scrimmage instead of attacking the ball carrier. I also caught Hufunga signaling a play on 2nd and 9, knowing exactly what was coming, and rushed up toward the line of scrimmage to help stop the play.
Jahdae Barron somehow got flagged for playing great man coverage. Hopefully, his coaches let him know the same thing. Keep playing just like that, Barron. You killed it on that play.
Special Teams
Obviously, let’s give Wil Lutz some love. We take for granted our kickers, by and large, in our game. This game reminded us why you should treasure the good ones. Lutz nailed every kick he made (4 extra points, 1 field goal), including the game-winning points as time expired.
Let’s also shout out Tyler Badie, who returned 4 kickoffs for an average of 24 yards each. It is a blessing to have multiple players who can get solid return yards, especially with the new kickoff rules.
Final Thoughts
Can the Broncos play 4 good quarters of football and win a game comfortably at some point this season? That Bengals game seems so far away at this point.
I’m not going to whine too much, though. This team is 5-2 atop the AFC West. I love what I’m seeing from this young team. While there’s work to do in all three facets of the game, there’s a ton of football left to play this season.
Thankfully, this team has shown us that they will bring it each and every week until the final second ticks off the clock. There is no quit on this team. That’s something all of us in Broncos Country can be proud of.
