Coming off of an emotional week the Broncos trounce the Lions 38-10 and get the W on the same day they honor Demaryius Thomas. The Broncos also held some touching tributes to DT before the game. Before the game, the Broncos played a tribute video in honor of Thomas and his many accomplishments with the Broncos. On the first play of the game the Broncos had 10 players on the field leaving the x receiver position vacant, which was what Thomas was for this team for 8 years. It was certainly tear jerking and it was good to see the Broncos play arguably their best game of the season in honor of DT. Now let’s talk about how they manhandled the Lions:
1-2 Punch Lethal
Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon combined for 184 yards on the ground and 3 rushing TDs. Williams had a catching TD as well which put the total at 4 TDs between the backs. This has to be the formula moving forward in their next 4 games in order for them to punch their ticket to the postseason. Teddy still needs to provide more to the team as the numbers look decent as he threw for 179 yards and 2 TDs with no picks but he continues to run himself into sacks and continue to check the ball down to a fault. In order to win atleast 3/4 games Teddy will have to play more aggressive like he did vs the Cowboys and the first 3 games of the season. And for all the people that want Melvin Gordon gone next year, think again over his 111 yards and 2 TDs yesterday. I know Javonte is the fan favorite but it is better to have 2 good backs rather than 1. Gordon and Williams were the first Bronco running backs to hit 2 TDs each since 1962. Gordon and Williams each have north of 700 yards so they have a very good shot of eclipsing 1000 yards each.
2. Timely Turnover
After the Broncos jumped on the Lions 14-0 the Lions crept back in the game and made the game 17-10 going into half time with the ball to start the 3rd with a chance to tie it. Detroit on 2nd and 5 fumbled the ball on their one territory and the Broncos recovered and a few moments later scored a TD to extend their lead to 24-10. From that point on the Broncos never looked back adding 2 more scores from there and the Lions being unable to find the endzone ever since. That turnover was encouraging to me because as good as the defense has been under Fangio since 2019, they have never come up clutch in big situations wether it’s failing to turn the ball over or getting them off the field on 4th down. The forced turnover on Sunday was huge as the Lions had all the momentum at that point and the turnover completely turned the game around. Hopefully this continues against superior teams the next few weeks.
3. Run Defense Suspect
Despite the terrific defensive outing, the Broncos gave up 118 yards off of 22 carries giving up 5.4 ypc. That needs to be fixed as better teams will attack that weakness. Run defense should not be an issue as Dre’mont Jones, Shelby Harris, and Mike Purcell but for some reason they got gashed gashed against the Lions second string running back. Hopefully this was an outlier performance and they can get back to playing the run decently well the next few weeks. Go Broncos!!!!
I can’t stress this enough, but you are missed dearly DT 💙 🧡.
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