Strike 1: For the second time in three weeks, the poor sports fans of Europe and to put up with a bunch of Ugly Americans. First, it was the spectators at the Ryder Cup. Then, it was the American version of football put on display by the Denver Broncos and the lowly New York Jets.
Loudmouth golf fans aside, the most shame should fall on the Broncos.
Everybody knew what the winless Jets were going in. The Broncos were supposed to be the ones who would put the high quality of American football on display. Instead, Denver was lucky to escape London with a very ugly 13-11 win and avoid the preverbal guillotine.
A loss would have been maimed the Broncos division title hopes at the very least.
In the aftermath, both the Denver offense and special teams took their lumps from fans and media alike. The bashings were well deserved.
On the flip side was the stout Broncos defense, which registered nine sacks and held New York to an incredible -10 yards in net passing. Clearly, without that superb effort, Denver doesn’t win.
And this is nothing new of course. In three of the Broncos six games, the opponents have been unable to score a touchdown. While 4-2 could very easily be 6-0 with a couple of breaks, it could also be 2-4 or worse without the stalwart D.
Denver made the Jets look like they should be playing in NFL Europe. New York is lucky there’s no relegation in American sports.
Still, has the Denver D done everything they could have possibly done through six games?
In a word, No. There’s one area where they’ve been well below average all season: Takeaways.
Why this Broncos defense has played exceptional football in four of six games and collected just four measly turnovers is mystifying. They got none against the Jets or the week before against Philadelphia. Their last and only interception of the season came in Week 3 against the Chargers. So far this young season, Denver has just that one single interception and three measly fumble recoveries. The first place Broncos are -3 in turnover margin. Really.
Common sense would tell you that pressuring the opposing quarterback like they do and racking up the record breaking sack numbers they have would have led to several more opportunities to take the ball away from the other team, via either the strip sack or an interception on an errant throw. But it hasn’t. Not to this point anyway.
What would this defense – this team – would look like, record-wise if they had a very reasonable six takeaways in six games?
Denver very well might be unbeaten.
Every team needs to play “complimentary football” Part of that is setting up your offense with short fields and more scoring opportunities. Denver’s special teams haven’t done much to help in this area, but neither has the defense. The struggling Denver offense has had to drive the length of the field on almost every occasion, which is a lot to ask of a team that lacks big play capability. Collecting a turnover or two each week and giving Bo Nix and company some short fields to work with would make a big difference in the productivity of the offense.
It’s probably reasonable to expect the worm to turn, so to speak, as the season wears on. Keep putting this kind of pressure on opposing quarterbacks and the damn is bound to break eventually. A questionable replay review cost Denver a fumble recovery against the Jets that would have made the score look a bit different, and maybe even put a smile on the face of head coach Sean Payton.
Broncos Country would love to smile more, too. And if the team’s best unit can start to snag a few more wayward footballs from the other team as the season churns along, perhaps Broncos Country could set aside some angst and muster up a few more collective smiles.
