What.....was.....that. I have absolutely no words for the performance I saw from this Broncos team. It was sloppy, undisciplined, pathetic. I could go on on and on about how poorly they played. Hopefully dropping this game in week 1 does not haunt the Broncos later in the season while they fight for playoff positioning. I get that most of the starters did not play in the preseason on Offense or Defense so we should've expected some rust but I also expected them to settle in later in the game. That certainly did not happen. Here's what happened:
Winding Down The Clock
Too many instances the Broncos were snapping the ball with around 1-2 seconds remaining on the play clock. The Broncos also had around 3-4 delay of game penalties and probably should have been called for more as the refs were a bit lax in some situations. It seems like the team was unsettled the whole game and were unable to keep their composure. Hackett must do a better job sending the plays to Russ sooner. I won't be too hard on him for that because it was his first game as HC and was thrown in the fire coaching in a hostile place like Seattle.
2. Goal Line Ghosts
Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams both fumbled on the one yard line basically taking 14 points off the board. It was just so incredibly frustrating to see this 1-2 punch make boneheaded plays like this especially on back to back drives. The Broncos did a great job all game moving the ball up and down the field but they must fix whatever is going on with them in the red zone. I do give credit to Seattle's defense for hanging in there in critical situations throughout the game.
3. The Decision
The Broncos apparently are the first ever team to bring back a former coach in the middle of the game. Electing to kick a 64 yarder instead of letting your QB, who you're paying more than 200 Million dollars to, to convert on 4th and 5 after running 30 seconds off the clock and calling timeout felt like the Vic Fangio special. Hackett, in his first ever big decision as a head coach did not really do a good job analyzing his options. I expect him to learn from this but it was just incredibly hard to watch in real time.
4. Lack of Discipline
The Broncos were called for 12 penalties resulting in 106 yards. That simply cannot happen especially against better competition.
Enough of the negativity. Lets talk about some bright spots:
Jerry Jeudy and Court Sutton both look poised for big years as they combined for 8 catches and 174 yards with a TD which included the 67 yard TD from Jeudy which showcased his incredible speed. Javonte Williams, when he actually ran the ball, was very effective averaging 6.1 yards per carry. The offense looked a lot smoother than previous years in terms of play calling and spacing. Russ played pretty well throwing for 340 yards and 1 TD and no picks. He did have some throws that were nearly picked and was off on his deep throws but I believe most of that was due to rust and playing with a lot of emotion. The defense, who was atrocious in the first half, really buckled down giving up no points in the second half and held the Seahawks to less than 50 yards of total offense in the second half. Bradley Chubb registered 2 sacks and finally looks healthy for the first time since 2018. There certainly was a lot of good that came out of this game and hopefully they build on those bright spots. Russ said it best, "Marathon not a sprint".
Comments