If the Denver Broncos end up bowing out after one game this postseason, it’ll be one of the most disappointing seasons in my lifetime.
Why? Because I want to see Peyton Manning get one last shot at the Super Bowl or because I tend to hyperbolize after big games? No (well, maybe the second is a little true). Because it’ll mean that one of the greatest defenses I’ve ever witnessed will have gone to waste.
This defense, even without several starters, held the Oakland Raiders to negative yards in the first half, and they lost. They lost! That should be impossible.
But we’ve been singing the same tune all season; the only difference is that the defense found ways to score on their own earlier in the year. The reality is that the game we saw yesterday is the same game we saw against the Chargers, Raiders, Browns and Ravens; this time, though, the Broncos didn’t luck into any late, game-altering turnovers.
And for as frustrating as this is for Broncos fans, can you imagine how infuriating it must be for the Denver defense, who are playing their hearts out only to have the offense crap the bed each week? For most of the year, those guys have been towing the party line, saying this is a team sport with team consequences, but you can start to hear the frustration mounting after yesterday’s loss.
While they won’t come out and throw the offense under the bus, it’s pretty easy to read between the lines. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do:
Chris Harris Jr. on losing to the Raiders:
“I’m hot. We were not supposed to lose that game. We played terrible in the second half, gave them the ball every time. So we’ve just got to be smarter. We can’t beat ourselves. This is going to be a tough team to beat if we don’t beat ourselves.”
And he should be hot. The Denver defense played out of their mind on Sunday, and all they got in return was another L on their record. Because when he says “We played terrible,” he most definitely isn’t referring to the defense; that’s evidenced by how he followed up that response:
“Defensive wise, we played great. I don’t know how many yards they had, we shut them down.”
Of course they did! They held the Raiders to 126 yards of total offense; the only reason they gave up 15 points was because Osweiler got sacked in the end zone for a safety and Emmanuel Sanders muffed a punt in the redone. Otherwise, the Broncos may have somehow won this game with just 12 points on the board.
A team with that kind of performance on the defensive side of the ball will win the game 90 percent of the time, if not more. I can’t blame the Denver defense for being upset in the slightest.
