Mile High Report
Deja Vu.
Here we are again after our Denver Broncos lost a winnable game to a game-winning field goal in the final seconds. No ref shenanigans this time. Just a complete and utter collapse by the Broncos, Bo Nix, the defense, and the coaching staff.
Like last week, we will not have any winners. There were some high points, the pass rush and JK Dobbins, but I am going to focus on the bad and ugly from this game. The Broncos realistically should be an “ugly” 3-0 right now with sloppy and close wins over the Colts and Chargers, but they have blown it. Now, they’re 1-2, coming off back-to-back last-second losses, and look far from the team that was hyped up this offseason.
With all that said, here are the losers from the Broncos’ 23-20 loss to the Chargers.
Nix did not turn the ball over, but had three crucial misses in this one. The first was a flea-flicker to Marvin Mims Jr., who was WIDE open, but it bounced off his fingertips. A crushing miss that may have been an easy walk-in touchdown. The other one was also to Mims, who was running open down the seam in the end zone, and Nix sailed the ball over his head. The last one came on their final offensive play of the game when Nix somehow missed an open Courtland Sutton on 3rd and long. It appeared Sutton was going to get under it, but once again, it just missed the Broncos’ wide receiver.
You need to hit on these big plays. Hitting just one of them would have changed this game in a big way. Unfortunately, they did not, and they would once again lose on a last-second field goal.
The offense as a whole needs to be better. The run game was non-existent for most of the game (outside of the Dobbins drive), there were drops, bad penalties, and some iffy play calls mixed in. They also had multiple chances to put this game away and make it a two-score game.
That never happened.
Missed throws, inconsistent run game, iffy play-calling, and bad penalties all led to this loss. As the saying goes, death by a thousand paper cuts. That’s your 2025 Denver Broncos so far.
The Broncos played undisciplined football once again this week. They had 9 accepted penalties for 90 yards while the Chargers had 3 for 25 yards. You cannot give a team like the Chargers free yards if you want to win. A lot of them extended drives for the Chargers or derailed offensive drives for the Broncos.
You have to clean this up moving forward. You can’t have this amount of penalties on top of all the other stuff happening right now.
It wasn’t all bad.
Payton drew up two big 4th down plays that led to big gains and a touchdown. He also had...
