Penalties have been a major eye sore for the Denver Broncos this season as the team currently leads the NFL. Despite that, the Broncos have found a way to be 9-2 as they prepare for the second half stretch of the season that will determine whether or not they will win the AFC West and ultimately host a playoff game.
The bye week came at a much-needed time last week for Sean Payton and his staff, and for the players. While players had the week off, Payton and his staff continued to work, which involved highlighting what’s worked well with the team and what hasn’t.
Penalties, 93 to be exact, have been the biggest issue for this team, with over half of their penalties impacting the offense. 43 impacting the offense, 38 impacting the defense, and 12 impacting Denver’s special teams have been the negative story of the first half of the season.
Payton highlighted how reducing them is important if the team wants to accomplish some of the larger goals they have.
“I think the easy illustration for us coming off the bye, it’s not like we’re at a halfway point, but nonetheless, here we are in a position to compete for seeding,” Payton said. “There are two things that stand out. The penalties stand out. If you said, ‘What’s the low-hanging fruit that you have to clean up to improve your chances of getting the best possible seed?’ Then secondly is harping on the plus-minus turnover [margin], giveaway-takeaway. We ended up up one last week and that meant a lot. We were close to being up two, but in important games, that one possession can be the difference. So that was two of the main topics this morning before we broke up.”
Finding ways for the defense, which has been extremely good this season, to generate more takeaways will be crucial down the stretch. If you find yourself in the playoffs, being able to force more takeaways is ultimately the difference between winning and losing. Last season in the playoffs, the Broncos could find a way to take the ball away from Josh Allen and the Bills, and that ultimately led to them being on the field far too often.
If this Broncos team can eliminate the penalties and get going a bit more consistently on offense, this is going to be a fun and scary team to watch during the second half stretch of the regular season.
