The Denver Broncos found themselves in foreign territory for the first time in weeks on Sunday. They were in the game late.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t find a way to pull out the win on Sunday, falling 20-17 to the Cincinnati Bengals.
The bad news is that the Broncos lost. The good news — if there is such a thing during their six-game skid — is that a 3-point loss is the smallest margin of defeat they’ve suffered during their streak. And they may have patched a major leak.
One major reason the Broncos were able to stay in the game is because they found a way to patch one of the largest leaks in their defense. For the first time since Week 1, the Broncos found a way to minimize the damage caused by the opposing team’s tight ends.
While the Broncos weren’t able to fix things entirely on Sunday, it was certainly an improvement over what the opposing team’s tight ends have done to them over the course of the entire season.
Now, Andy Dalton and Tyler Kroft are no Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, but the Broncos showed that they’ve possibly found a way to limit the amount of damage a tight end can do to them.
When it was all said and done, Kroft was the only tight end that caught a pass for the Bengals on Sunday, but unfortunately for the Broncos one of his two receptions resulted in the first touchdown of the game. Kroft finished the game with two catches for 12 yards and touchdown. Running backs Giovani Bernard and Joe Mixon only added three more receptions for eight yards.
The Broncos took a step in the right direction by patching the giant hole in the middle of their defense, but the problems moved to the outside as Bradley Roby was beat on three critical plays on Sunday.
The Broncos still have plenty of problems to fix, but they made it a little easier on themselves on Sunday by finding a way to slow down the tight ends.