Mile High Report
Well, that sucked.
The Broncos have their 11-game win streak snapped, and they lost their first home game since week 6 of last season. For the first time this season, the Broncos were outplayed and beaten easily. The Jaguars came into this game with a chip on their shoulder and proved they are the real deal in the AFC. Meanwhile, the Broncos played one of their worst games of the season. Sloppy play, penalties, drops, turnovers, and just poor play throughout led to this 14-point loss.
Despite this loss, the Broncos remain the one seed and lead the AFC West, but things are getting tighter. With all that said, here are the winners and losers from the Broncos’ 34-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
What the hell was that?
The Jags sliced and diced the Broncos’ defense all game. They scored 17 first-half points and followed that up with another 17 second-half points. A big reason for this was piss poor tackling throughout the game and their top-ranked red zone defense giving up 4 total touchdowns.
Riley Moss, whom I have defended this year, struggled to tackle Jaguars wide receiver Parker Washington on two plays, which led to big gains and eventual touchdowns. It was frustrating to watch and is concerning to see.
We have seen Vance Joseph’s unit take a step back in recent weeks, and is coming off a season where we saw them struggle late in the year on defense. Hopefully, that trend will not continue moving forward.
If the Broncos want to be Super Bowl contenders, they need this defense to play MUCH better moving forward.
The Broncos’ offense looked good at times throughout the game, but they had multiple errors throughout the game that led to this loss. Quarterback Bo Nix fumbled a handoff, which the Jaguars recovered, and would later throw an interception on 4th down, where he threw right into tight coverage and allowed the Jags defender to make the easy INT. He had running back Tyler Badie wide open as the check-down but he simply missed him.
Nix wasn’t bad in this game, but he wasn’t nearly as good as he was vs. the Packers. We need better from Nix moving forward against playoff teams if the Broncos want to win in the playoffs.
What didn’t help was the big drops throughout this game. Courtland Sutton dropped a deep throw that would have put the Broncos inside the 5-yard line while the Broncos were down 7. Rookie Pat Bryant dropped a big 3rd down pass, which was thrown behind him, but also a pass he needed to catch. Sutton also dropped another potential touchdown late in the game.
The Broncos have dealt with drops all season, and they came up big once again tonight.
The rookie running back was the lone bright spot for the Broncos’ offense today. He had 7 carries for 50 yards and 1...
