The 2023 Denver Broncos have been a nice story, but their limitations were vastly exposed in a national television blowout defeat to the Detroit Lions.

After starting out the season 1-5, the Broncos had been the hottest team in the NFL, winners of six of their past seven games — tied for most in the league — and in prime position to clinch a playoff spot in the AFC.

While those hopes remain alive even after their humbling loss to the Lions — they face three losing teams in the AFC to close out the season, the lowest strength of schedule in the NFL at .341 — much of the confidence built over the past two months evaporated following a flat-out dominating defeat at the hands of a good — but not great — Lions squad.

Without a lead and a stout running game to lean on, the Broncos’ offense was lethargic, completely shut out in the first half. Russell Wilson’s limitations were on display, going just 4-of-10 for 69 yards, mustering just 3.1 yards per offensive play and going for 1-6 on third down conversions during the first half.

In Wilson’s defense, much of that had to do with the Broncos’ offensive line simply being dominated by the Lions’ defensive line. Wilson’s fumble on their first offensive drive with the ball at Detroit’s 20-yard-line was basically a sign of things to come, as the Lions were far more physical and much faster than the Broncos all game long.

Jared Goff — who had struggled in recent weeks, throwing seven touchdowns against nine turnovers in the past four games — carved up the Broncos’ defense, throwing five touchdowns, with three going to Sam LaPorta and the other couple being snagged by Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs.

While the score wasn’t nearly as bad as their 70-20 thrashing at the hands of the Miami Dolphins, the Lions’ plethora of offensive speed demons drew memories of Tyreek Hill, Raheem Mostert and Devon Achane carving up the Broncos.

As good as Denver’s defensive unit has been in recent weeks, their true weakness when it comes to matching up with fast offensive players became obvious (yet again) in their loss to the Lions.

In fact, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph compared the Lions’ team speed to that of the Dolphins just days prior to the game.

Outside of Goff’s season-best game, the Lions carved up the Broncos to the tune of 185 yards on 28 carries (6.6 yards per carry) behind the likes of Gibbs and David Montgomery.

In the perfect example of the Broncos’ run defense being exposed for what it is — very weak, ranking dead last in rushing yards and yards per carry entering the game — the Lions ran for a first down on a 3rd-and-10 play with the speedy Gibbs on a simple sweep play to the right early in the third quarter.

That’s not mentioning the number of broken tackles Gibbs created with this 33-yard run.

This is a team that has overachieved based upon great coaching, limiting turnovers, creating turnovers and playing sound enough football to squeak out wins.

The problem is, that can only get you so far until you start playing the better and more talented teams in the league, such as the Lions and Dolphins. Then you get exposed.

The Broncos have won games while winning the turnover battle and protecting their efficient, but limited quarterback. They’ve won the turnover battle in six of their past seven games, with their only loss being the one game in which they did not win in that category.

The star on this Broncos squad is head coach Sean Payton. When you look at this 53-man roster, there aren’t many stars. In fact, outside of Courtland Sutton, there isn’t a single player on offense deserving of a Pro Bowl bid. On defense, the unit has a bunch of no-names, with the only two players deserving of Pro Bowl consideration being Justin Simmons and Patrick Surtain II.

The offensive line is mediocre, the run defense is the worst in the league, the tight ends have the lowest production in the league of any team, and the quarterback is merely an efficient game manager.

As solid as Wilson has been this season, he’s simply very limited and is the very definition of a game manager at this stage of his career.

This game was the perfect example of Wilson’s limitations as the Broncos weren’t in control — they needed their $250 million star to put them on his back and lead them to victory. The problem is, unless the game is going according to plan — Broncos winning the turnover battle and dominating time of possession with a stout running attack — he can’t do that.

We saw that on display when Wilson turned the ball over three times in an important 22-17 loss to the Houston Texans just a couple weeks prior. He also threw the game-losing interception in the end zone while attempting to threat the needle to tight end Adam Trautman.

Once again, the final box score stats looked fine against the Lions — 223 passing yards, one touchdown and 7.0 yards per attempt — but 66 of those yards came in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach.

In a moment that was very telling — bad calls by the referees aside — instead of going for it on 4th-and-goal at the Lions’ 5-yard line while trailing 28-7 late in the third quarter, Payton opted to kick a field goal instead of placing the ball in Wilsons’ hands. He was also seen on the sidelines yelling at Wilson, instead of berating the referees for their phantom offsides call and missed touchdown call from Jaleel McLaughlin.

Payton dismissed the idea that he was yelling at Wilson during the postgame press conference, instead arguing that he was upset about the offsides call.

The Broncos essentially waved the white flag by kicking the field goal and did so again when they punted while trailing 35-10 early in the fourth quarter from their own 44-yard-line.

Not exactly resounding confidence from the head coach in the franchise quarterback.

As of this writing, the Broncos are in 11th place, below all of the seven-win teams due to their lowly conference record — 4-5 — which may ultimately cost them a spot in the playoffs.

While they could very well finish the season at 10-7 and squeak in with some help, this is an overmatched squad that has been playing above their means.

It’s been a great coaching job by Payton, but it’s clear that this team still has vast improvements to make in the offseason in order to be considered a true contender.