The Denver Broncos offense has been rough on the eyes for a majority of this season. They’ve had moments where they’ve flashed and have opened things up, but there’s been more stretches of football this year where the offense has looked inoperable, and the man behind the playcalling isn’t planning on relinquishing the reins.

Sean Payton met with us on Monday morning on the aftermath of Denver’s 33-point 4th quarter onslaught that saw them come back in historic fashion against the New York Giants.

The win certainly masks some of what we saw in the previous three quarters, but it shouldn’t be ignored. Denver’s offense was bad, and that’s putting it kindly.

At halftime, the Broncos had run 34 total plays that net them 102 total yards of offense against the Giants. J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey had 12 combined carries for 18 yards at that point, as Denver punted on six of their eights drives before their historic comeback, with one turnover on downs and the other drive leading them to letting the clock run out in the first half.

The Giants defense didn’t respect Denver’s offense and they made it known by droppin seven back into coverage, forcing Denver to throw short or behind the line of scrimmage, where fans booed the swing pass approach.

I know a lot about football, but I’ll never know as much about the game as Payton does. Payton has forgotten more football than you or I will ever know, but it’s worth us asking if he gets in his own way sometimes.

When asked on Monday if he’d ever consider giving up playcalling, even for short stretches, his answer was what we already knew it was going to be — NO.

“I think we’re comfortable as an offensive staff as to how we’re operating,” Payton said.

Denver’s offense opened up in the fourth quarter when Bo Nix was able to just play loose and use his legs when needed. It’s safe to say Nix has the ability to impact the game with his legs, but it feels like he’s played this season to win from within the pocket, which is important, but at times his athleticism can take over when routes are covered or plays break down and Sunday’s comeback showcased that.

“There’s a sense of urgency certainly,” Payto said. “I would say the one thing more concerning is us playing better in the earlier quarters, including him [QB Bo Nix]. So I think that’s the key. It’s been encouraging that we’ve been able to finish some games, and yet I said this to you guys yesterday, we’re going to play in bigger games, and we’re going to have to be a lot more efficient in the first half of games.”

It’s clear that the Nix-Payton dynamic has some issues from a production standpoint this season, and Nix’s mechanics sometimes take steps backward, but Payton as the playcaller has to also do more to help his quarterback out by investing more in the run game, versus having him go out and throw against a defense that’s prepared to take away the deep and intermediate options.

There’s nothing wrong with going uptempo in spurts throughout a game, but it’s impossible to run it all game. If Denver can run the ball effectively in some of the earlier downs, being able to break out a bit of an uptempo approach makes it harder for opposing defenses.

There were times in Sunday’s game where new personnel were running onto the field to get into the huddle at 22 seconds on the playclock with the ball being snapped at around six to eight seconds, which doesn’t warrant a lot of time for Bo to scan the field to see coverages, instead when routes are covered and pressure is coming, the end result looks messy.

Both Bo and Sean have to do a better job of helping eachother out going forward or else the offense will be the reason this team ultimately sinks.