Broncos vs Raiders: The No Bull Review

You are what your record says you are in the NFL. The Broncos got another notch in the win column this week. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

This isn’t what the Denver Broncos will look like most weeks. I think this short week made things exceptionally hard for the team, and they didn’t take to the two walk-through-only practices well at all. This young offense needs reps and practice. Even when they have normal weeks, they struggle to execute at times.

The game wasn’t pretty. The offense looked inept. The play calling was frustrating. The execution was lacking.

The Las Vegas Raiders fought long and hard to try to keep the Broncos down, but our defense was too much for them to handle.

I’m going to say that I saw a lot of the 2015 Denver Broncos in this game. Dominant defense. An offense that can barely do enough to put points on the board.

But 8-2. I’ll take it.

Offense

I saw a whole lot of yards left on the field when watching the game. I think Payton had some really nice plays dialed up. I think the offense wasn’t up to the task of handling it in real time with only a couple of days to practice. If you look back at the game, there are many, MANY receivers open that didn’t get looks.

Per usual, this season, it seemed like the team got away from the run game too soon and didn’t come back to it until the 2nd half. The way our line executes, I think they could have cut 5-10 passes out of the call sheet and added runs, and it likely would have translated to more points on the board.

The one play call I hated was the trick play on 3rd and less than a yard. It was laughable to watch. The Raiders didn’t fall for anything and had our downfield options covered. Sutton wisely tucked the ball and took the L. It was a waste of an opportunity. All you needed to do was line up and run up the gut for half a yard.

Quarterbacks

This was easily Bo Nix’s worst game of his career thus far. He was throwing way too many of his passes behind receivers, in the dirt, and too far outside of open routes. There’s always some drops on this team, but far too often, Nix is just flat out missing.

The constant that I’m seeing is his lack of discipline with his footwork. The #1 thing that Nix needs to get serious about is good foundational footwork. He throws off-center, falling to the side, or stepping awkwardly far too often.

To add to it, his decision-making at times has gotten questionable as well. Nix throwing deep at the end of the half was such an awful decision. The safety was still back and watching. Add to it that Nix’s deep passes are long lobs, and you are just asking...