DENVER — Sunday’s 17-16 loss wasn’t an unfair one for the Broncos. It was easy to point to all of the ways in which they took the fall. Many of them were self-inflicted.
Indeed, the Broncos met their enemy on Sunday, and it wasn’t those silver-and-black-clad invaders from Vegas. And quite often, it was themselves.
And the tsunami of avoidable mistakes were all-too-familiar for fans who have witnessed each step of the team’s descent from a Super Bowl summit to the valley of six consecutive losing seasons. Just a quick eavesdrop on the elevator chatter from frustrated fans leaving the stadium said it all:
Close losses are part and parcel of the experience. And yet another 1-point loss — by the exact same score as their season-opening defeat last year — gave the Broncos their 17th defeat in their last 22 one-score games.
Denver hasn’t had a winning record in one-score games since 2015.
These Broncos need to win games at the margins.
Sunday, they lost.
THE LITANY OF WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE BRONCOS
THE PENALTIES: Ten for 83 yards, including some particularly costly ones that extended Las Vegas drives.
“I thought the penalties were a tick high for us,” Payton said. “That’s going to hurt us.”
They weren’t high when compared with the Broncos of last year. But in this game, they were more significant than in most weeks — starting with the on-side kickoff to open the game, when Tremon Smith touched the football before it traveled 10 yards, negating what might have been the most stunning season-opening kickoff in Broncos history.
A penalty against Justin Strnad wiped out a long Marvin Mims Jr. kickoff return. Las Vegas got six first downs via penalty. (Coincidentally, so did the Broncos, as the Raiders were just as gaffe-prone as the home side.)
BREAKDOWNS AT INOPPORTUNE TIMES: Take the second quarter, when the Broncos trailed 10-6, but had a promising drive, as they advanced into field-goal range just six plays after Daniel Carlson’s 24-yard field goal extended Las Vegas’ lead.
With first-and-10 from the Raiders’ 34-yard line, it all went askew. A Chris Manhertz holding penalty, a protection bust that led to a Maxx Crosby sack and a blocking breakdown that resulted in a 7-yard loss on a pass to Jaleel McLaughlin left the Broncos in third-and-34.
Momentum … crushed like grapes.
Denver’s defense couldn’t get off the field. It failed to force a three-and-out. As it turned out, the only three-and-out of the game for either side came in the fourth quarter, when the Broncos trailed by one point, mustered just 7 yards on 3 plays and punted. They never saw the football again .. which went back to the afore-mentioned penalty issue, as Kareem Jackson’s unnecessary-roughness penalty when he hit Jakobi Meyers across the middle turned fourth-and-1 into a chance for Las Vegas to salt away the game … which it did.
AND THE KICKING … because there’s no masking the fact that the game takes on a far different trajectory if Wil Lutz makes the extra point after the first touchdown … or the 55-yard attempt he missed wide right in the third quarter. And that will leave fans of deposed kicker Brandon McManus grumbling — since McManus had a perfect day for Jacksonville on Sunday.
“It’s a makeable kick, if Coach believes I can make it,” Lutz said. “That’s what I’m on the field for. … On that one, I hit it well. It just kind of moved on me in the end.”
As for the extra point?
“I just pushed it. There’s no excuses,” Lutz said. “That’s a kick I’ve gotta make. And we will moving forward.”
YOU CAN POINT TO ANY OF THOSE … as well as the absence of a consistent pass rush and the Raiders successfully picking at cornerback Damarri Mathis … as reasons why the Broncos are 0-1.
BUT CAMP WORK PAID OFF
And this is where a gleam emerges through the gloom.
Day after day in training camp, the Broncos worked on the two-minute drill. And even when they didn’t have to move at a rapid tempo — such as after incompletions or plays out of bounds — they did. They drilled 43 different situations.
So, when the offense had first-and-10 at the Las Vegas 20 and just 33 seconds remaining before halftime, the Broncos gained 15 yards on a Russell Wilson pass to Courtland Sutton … and then executed a clock-stopping spike. Sutton caught the ball, and after being tackled, stood and held the ball aloft for an official to take.
In 14 seconds, the offense gained 15 yards and ran two plays with the clock running until the spike.
That’s the sort of efficiency of which last year’s offense was incapable. And it all started with the constant work in practice.
“Every day. So, I’m just glad that actually worked,” Williams said. “I’m just glad that actually worked. Maybe he’ll take a little bit off of us next time we work on it.”
The Broncos flourished at high speed. And they were efficient at a more deliberate tempo, too. Denver also had two drives of at least eight minutes. The team had no such possessions last season.
The Broncos averaged 2.7 points per possession. Most games see teams have 9 to 12 possessions. So, that pace will put you on a 24-to-32-point track. And that represents palpable progress from the wheezing offenses of recent years.
But the Raiders averaged 3.4 points per non-kneeldown possession — 17 points on five series. And another drive saw them advance to the Denver 1-yard line before a penalty and a subsequent end-zone interception.
Just one Raiders drive ended in a punt. None of their five non-kneeldown drives saw a three-and-out.
Hope for the Broncos lies in one thought: That the offense is clearly better, and a defense with plenty of proven commodities can — and will — be better than it was Sunday.
“Obviously, it wasn’t the result we wanted,” Surtain said. “But you just sense the attitude, the energy, the confidence we have. … I’m all locked-in. Locked in to a point where I know what we’re going to achieve.
“It’s just repetition. It’s just something that we’ve got to keep on building in increments.”
Bit by bit. That’s the only way the Broncos will work their way out of six years spent shooting themselves in the foot.
Concluded Williams: “Even though we lost, I feel like we’ll be all right this year.”
That’s not a feeling that many fans will understand. Six-straight losing seasons have left the fan base downtrodden. You could almost feel over 70,000 sphincters tightening as the rain arrived and the Raiders took a 17-16 lead late Sunday afternoon.
This is now a fan base conditioned to assume the worst. And its reservoir of patience is exhausted.
But patience is what is needed most now. Because the signs of progress are there, even though the result Sunday was not.
It IS different. Even though the result wasn’t.
Eventually, Payton will teach the Broncos how to win.
For now, they must learn how not to lose.
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