The Denver Broncos offense seemingly experienced an identity crisis in Sunday’s loss against the Los Angeles Chargers, and they weren’t able to keep their head above water for a large portion of the afternoon. While Bo Nix struggled, Sean Payton dished on the inconsistencies on offense that made his job more difficult.

Sean Payton defends Bo Nix after the offense’s inconsistent performance on Sunday

Bo Nix didn’t play his best game as a Bronco, and there are plenty of things he has to improve and be better with, but the offense as a whole was far too inconsistent, and that was something Sean Payton pointed out in his Monday conference call with us.

“I think it was too inconsistent,” Payton said. “There were too many minus plays. So yesterday was a day that I would say the job degree difficulty factor, it was a hard day to play quarterback when your average third down is third-and-11. If we’re not more efficient on first and second down, the best in our league are going to struggle with the numbers that we gave him [QB Bo Nix] on third down. The thing that stood out was not only the penalties that set you back offensively, but the minus plays. That has to be corrected for us to be a quality offense.”

Those third down numbers are sobering, and of the 13 total third down scenarios the Broncos offense found themselves in, 10 of those 13 were 3rd and long.

First and second down efficiency also contributed to that. On second down in particular, the Broncos had seven 2nd and long scenarios on passing dropbacks against the Chargers.

Nix had two overthrows in Sunday’s game to Courtland Sutton on 3rd and 10 and a miss on a flea flicker play to Marvin Mims on 3rd and 19. When going back and watching the film, Nix’s placement is where it needs to be, but the landing spot is an inch or two off.

Payton said he doesn’t want to overcoach something like that

“There’s the two deep throws, the flea flicker and then the third-down play,” Payton said. “I think you have to be careful you’re not overcoaching a deep ball that’s going off the fingertips. Now we’ve seen a couple in the last two weeks, and yet someone asked me about it yesterday. I think that the more concerning problem would be if we’re leaving those balls inside where they’re susceptible for an interception. So, he’s [QB Bo Nix] climbing the pocket, he’s doing a great job. Both of those are third-and-long situations where there’s obviously a different type of pass rush. That’s not what’s concerning to me this morning after the loss yesterday, would be the deep ball misses. That wouldn’t be what’s on my mind.”

The main concern is how the team can be better on first and second down and get the run game going. That’s important if the team is going to turn things around, but avoiding penalties is something that has to be corrected as well.

Broncos players said on Monday that the focus will be on attention to detail this week as they prepare for a Monday Night Football matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.