The Denver Broncos’ offense is a major problem for them right now, and it’s the biggest reason they lost in Sunday’s road game in San Francisco because they failed to play complementary football.
Slow starts continue to impact them negatively.
Denver Broncos offensive slow start sinks them in loss vs. San Francisco 49ers
The Denver Broncos offense dealt with a multitude of issues in Sunday’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Whether dropped passes or penalties impacted important drives early on, the Broncos offense couldn’t do much against the 49ers defense, which bent but didn’t break.
The Broncos punted on five of their first seven drives and converted two drives into field goals. Denver took a 3-0 lead early in the first quarter, but never led the rest of the way as San Francisco ultimately took advantage of stalled drive after stalled drive, and it took its toll on Denver’s defense, which did a lot of good things to slow down the NFL’s most explosive offense coming into this game.
Marvin Mims had a punt return that was ruled a fumble because his wrist touched the ground, not his forearm, when he lost the ball. The 49ers scored on that ensuing drive.
After Denver kicked a field goal to make it 10-6 in the fourth quarter, the 49ers marched down the field on a methodical nine-play, 69-yard scoring drive that put Denver in a 17-6 deficit.
Broncos comeback bid falls short this time
Denver found themselves in a familiar position again, executing an eight-play, 70-yard scoring drive plus the two-point conversion with 4:05 left in the fourth quarter to make it 17-14.
Needing to get some stops, the Broncos defense couldn’t get off the field in the final three minutes, allowing George Kittle to rumble for a 58-yard touchdown with 2:15 remaining to make it 24-14 San Francisco.
Between the offense’s slow start, mishaps in all three phases, and the Broncos’ breakdown in the second half, they dropped to 2-2 on the season as they now prepare to head to Los Angeles next week to take on the winless Los Angeles Chargers.
Broncos lose three key players to injury
There’s nothing worse than losing any game, but the bigger loss for the Broncos came when Patrick Surtain II, Riley Moss, and Pat Bryant were ruled out with injuries.
Surtain suffered a non-contact ankle injury right before halftime and was ruled out for the second half. Moss left the game with a rib injury in the third quarter and did not return.
Wide receiver Pat Bryant was rolled up on after a big catch-and-run and was carted off with an ankle injury.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton doesn’t typically give any injury updates, but we’ll await to see if he does have any following the game.