After three games to start the season, the Denver Broncos find themselves sporting a 1-2 record. That’s not where they or all of Broncos Country hoped to be at this point in the season. Unfortunately, the team has struggled immensely and has yet to put together a complete game in all three phases.
To put it bluntly, the team has been undisciplined. They had ten penalties on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers and already have 24 on the season. The number of drives that have been quelled on offense,
or extended for opponents due to them, has been absolutely maddening. In many ways, the Broncos have been their own worst enemies—failing to find ways to close out games when the opportunities have presented themselves.
Over the past two weeks, the Broncos’ offense failed to rise to the occasion when it mattered most. They had multiple opportunities in their losses to the Colts and Chargers to put points on the board, but an interception and missed field goal doomed their hopes of a win versus the Colts and multiple three-and-outs in the fourth quarter against Los Angeles brought their victory dreams to a crashing halt.
Through three games, the Broncos have scored eight touchdowns while their opponents have only hit paydirt four times. Even so, Denver has more notches in the loss column than wins. There are a lot of reasons why that would be if you dive a little bit deeper into the advanced statistics. And it has everything to do with the maddening inconsistency in key situations.
The best offenses in the National Football League perform well on third downs. Alas, Denver has only converted 12-of-37 third down attempts this season, a lowly 32.4-percent. That comes in at 21st in the league. Additionally, five turnovers, as well as multiple turnovers on downs, have also hampered their ability to sustain drives and score points. With 52 first downs, they are in the bottom half of the NFL at eighteenth. That’s simply not good enough to be successful and embark upon a winning season.
Three-and-outs were the major culprit in the Broncos’ offensive woes against the Chargers, registering six total throughout the game, while only having three through the first two games of the season. Their woes against Los Angeles in this respect was a major reason why the time of possession was nearly ten minutes in the Chargers’ favor and put enormous pressure on the defense to try and close out the game.
The Broncos are going to have to do much better in all the aforementioned if they want to get back to their winning ways. On top of that, they are going to need to have second-year signal caller Bo Nix play a lot better. While I’m optimistic he can turn things around, his erratic footwork and penchant for bailing out of clean pockets has been extremely frustrating.
There is no doubt he is a quality player throwing the ball on the move. However, the inability to be a consistent player in the drop back passing game is significantly limiting the Broncos’ offense. Averaging less than 175 passing yards a game just isn’t going to get it done. For all the talk Head Coach Sean Payton had on Nix having the potential to be a Top 5 quarterback in the NFL, he surely doesn’t even look close to that.
Next week’s game against the Cincinatti Bengals on Monday Night Football will give the team a chance to get back on track. The Bengals might be 2-1, but they will be without Joe Burrow and have one of the worst defenses in the league. They turned the ball over five times and were gashed by Carson Wentz and the Minnesota Vikings. I’m not just hoping for a win—but a statement victory—that can help give Denver the confidence necessary to rebound and salvage their season.
