Mile High Report
The Denver Broncos are not quite ready for the big time as the Baltimore Ravens put them right back in their place in blowout.
The gap between the Denver Broncos and the AFC’s best teams is a lot wider than many of us presumed. Even though both they and the Baltimore Ravens were 5-3 coming into this week, it was the Ravens who showed this young upstart team where they stood in the pecking order.
Coming into this game, the Broncos defense had given up 12 touchdowns all season long. They gave up 5 touchdowns to the NFL’s top ranked offense.
At 5-4, things do not get any easier with the Broncos heading to Missouri next week to take on the Kansas City Chiefs who are — as of right now — still undefeated and defending Super Bowl champions.
It turned out to be typical first quarter football for the Broncos. Bo Nix would have a ball bounce off the hands of Lil’Jordan Humphrey for an interception and then would fail to convert a fourth and inches near midfield. Fortunately, the Broncos defense stepped up on the first turnover with a sack to take the Ravens out of field goal range.
The Ravens would score after stopping on the fourth down. Derrick Henry was kept in check until they got into the redzone. He would gain 15 yards on two carries to score his 100th career touchdown. Those first quarter woes for the Broncos continued for another week.
Ravens 7, Broncos 0. Read full first quarter recap.
Sean Payton had two failed fourth down attempts and both left to points for the Ravens, but that didn’t deter him much when a fourth and goal from the two came his way midway through the second quarter. He called the Philly Special and Bo Nix came down with the touchdown reception to narrow the Ravens lead to 10-7.
That didn’t deter Lamar Jackson or the Ravens offense at all. Vance Joseph stuck with mostly zone coverage and the pass rush was nonexistent in that first half. They scored very quickly after that Philly Special and after the Broncos added a field goal with less than a minute to go in the half, the Ravens blew the game wide open with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to Zay Flowers.
That really put a dagger in the Broncos efforts in that first half. Going down 24-10 at halftime instead of 17-10 was a brutal blow.
Ravens 24, Broncos 10. Read full second quarter recap.
Vance Joseph on Thursday said, ”You have to take something away, & my preference is the run game, & make them throw it. So we’ll see how that works out on Sunday.”
His defense picked that poison and Lamar Jackson torched them in the first half. So the Broncos defense came out in the second half looking to stop the passing game... in came the Ravens #1 ranked rushing attack....
