Mile High Report
Supposedly, this was one of the easier away games on the schedule for the Denver Broncos. They faced a team led by Daniel Jones at quarterback and were down two starting cornerbacks.
On paper, this should have been an easy win for the Denver Broncos. But any given Sunday in the NFL, any team can win, and a perfect storm of bad play, questionable referees, and a scrappy opponent that wanted the win more led to a loss for the Broncos.
There’s a lot to unpack in this game, so let’s dig in.
Let’s start with the 300lb gorilla in the room: the leverage call at the end of the game. Let’s start with the rule from https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/nfl-rulebook/ Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1p:
“Placing a hand or hands on a teammate or opponent to gain additional height to: (1) block or attempt to block an opponent’s kick or apparent kick, or (2) attempt to jump through a gap to block an opponent’s kick or apparent kick.”
I’ve seen other mentions of not being able to touch the longsnapper in media posts about this game, but I do not see that listed in the unsportsmanlike conduct section here. So let’s first off rule out anything about Eyioma Uwazurike, who clearly does put both hands on the long snapper and push him down.
If you look at Tillman on the play, he leaps up while pushing on the guard in front of him with one arm. That’s a clear violation of the rule.
The most hilarious thing to me about this call is that you can go watch the Colts on our missed field goal earlier in the game and see two of them doing a far more obvious job of the same thing, and that went uncalled.
I don’t have problems with refs enforcing penalties according to the rule book. What I have a problem with is how they let the Colts get away with the same exact thing (and most teams, because I’d wager this behavior happens in more than 50% of all kicks for points).
It makes it even worse that at the end of the game, they make the call when it had literally no impact on the play. That’s a play that usually has the refs swallowing their whistles because it had no impact on the play whatsoever. If I were in the Colts’ fans’ shoes, I’d feel pretty lucky about the call and pretty disappointed that my team needed a 15-yard penalty to save the game instead of their team having the stones to make a 10-yard pass and earn it themselves.
Sean Payton surprisingly wanted to establish the run game this week. I honestly was scratching my head as the Colts were down two cornerbacks and a pass rusher. Why not pass to set up the run?
Early on, we really can’t complain as the offense put up 21 points in the first half in a very successful manner.
The...
