Nine first downs.
Two-of-13 on third-down conversions.
Average of 3rd-and-11 on third downs.
“Minus plays” at costly moments.
That tells you everything you need to know about why the Broncos couldn’t pull out a win Sunday despite winning the turnover battle, sacking Justin Herbert four times and holding Omarion Hampton in check.
“The two takeaways were the reason we stayed in that game,” head coach Sean
Payton said Monday after watching film on the 23-20 loss to the Chargers. “Obviously, we were playing a good football team. We feel like we’re a good football team, and we flip the script at the end of the second, early third. Then we have to offensively be able to finish. Two weeks in a row, we’ve been in that position to finish in the fourth quarter.”
The most frustrating stat for Payton was the average third-down distance.
“The thing that stood out was not only the penalties that set us back offensively, but the minus plays,” he said. “That has to be corrected for us to be a quality offense.”
But the head coach wasn’t ready to put the blame on Bo Nix.
“It was a hard day to play quarterback,” Payton added. “If we’re not more efficient on first and second down, the best in our league are going to struggle with the numbers that we gave [Nix] on third down.
After the game, Nix didn’t have an answer for how to fix the offense’s woes.
“Yeah, I’m not sure. I don’t know,” he said. “We’d score every drive if I knew.”
Last week Nix noted that a key to beating the Chargers’ defense would be sneaking in some explosive plays to catch them off guard. Nix and wide receiver Courtland Sutton connected on several explosive plays to do just that.
But when it came down to needing a first down to keep the drive alive and use up the clock, the Broncos’ offense could only muster a three-and-out and give the ball back with way too much time.
“It just felt like we kept going backwards and had no explosives when we needed them,” Nix said. “We had the ball with a chance. You know, that drive just felt like we didn’t do anything. It felt like we just kept going backwards and had long field position and long third downs. In this league, it’s not going to cut it.”
Payton isn’t panicking, though, in spite of the 1-2 start and tied for third in the AFC West. To the coach, the key is not whether the Broncos play a perfect game without struggle (because that’s impossible), but how quickly they can learn from mistakes and bounce back.
“It’s a journey here. So when the season’s over with, let’s look at this team and say, ‘Hey, can they finish?’ We’ll be able to point to Week 2 and 3, we weren’t able to,” Payton said, adding that with good teams there is a stretch where you begin to win games and play better. “We’re in this accelerated, ‘We got to get better fast’ and if we do, I think this will be alright.”
Payton doesn’t like to talk about must-win games in Week 3 of the season. But he does still have high expectations for this team.
“That’s what’s due for this team. That’s what has to happen for this team,” he said. “That’s what has to be on our horizon.”
