Mile High Report
The Denver Broncos led throughout most of the game against the Indianapolis Colts, but when they needed to close the deal they came up short in a variety of ways. There will be plenty of overreaction to this defeat, but I think most fans might just be a bit shell-shocked by how poorly the defense played overall. Between the 20s, the Colts were unstoppable on offense outside a couple of fourth down stands. However, they came up big when they needed to keep the Colts out of the end zone.
At the end of the day, they were up five in the fourth quarter and ended up throwing a red zone interception and missing a field goal. Those two miscues opened the door for Daniel Jones and the offense to do what they did all game long: drive down the field for a field goal attempt. They did it, Denver flubbed it, now they are 1-1 and looking for answers. And so are we…
Last year and into this year, the Broncos have lacked a killer instinct in close games. They can’t seem to close them out. The won last week and they beat the Jets last year. That’s it. The rest of the time, with the game close and an opportunity to put the final nail on the coffin… they often end with a three-and-out. That happened again this weekend and it cost them the game, because the Colts got the lucky breaks and the phantom calls late to kick the game-winning field goal one drive after Wil Lutz doinked his. If these Broncos are going to be a serious contender in the AFC, they need to fight harder when the game is close and capitalize when they gain an advantage to go up two scores in a close game. Until we see that, this is a wild card team at best. – Tim Lynch
I learned that TEs and RBs in space are going to be this team’s Achilles heel if Greenlaw isn’t back soon or they don’t shore things up schematically to hide it.
Vance Joseph called some well time blitzes, but he plays too straight up in coverage just expecting his guys to beat their guys, which has been a pretty good plan, but doesn’t stand up to talented TEs/RBs or a QB who is dealing.
The problem with a defense is they’re only as good as their weakest link and right now teams know they can exploit the Broncos with TE/RBs in coverage and it’s only going to get worse the more tape there is.
If this defense wants to be elite (and I think they can be) they have to shore up or scheme up a solution to covering in space on base packages. – Jeff Essary
The game against the Indianapolis reinforced a lot of worries Broncos Country...
