The Denver Broncos were thumped soundly 30-20 by the Oakland Raiders on Sunday in a prime-time match-up for first place in the AFC West. The Broncos were out-gained by the Raiders 397 to 299 and have now relinquished the top spot in their division.
This is hardly a season-ending defeat, though
With seven games still remaining, there is more than enough time for this team to bounce back into postseason form.
But in one of the first truly big games of the 2016 NFL season, the Denver Broncos came up short, and now they have some serious work ahead. The loss drops Denver to 6-3, and it is pretty apparent that they have to address a few areas for improvement.
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from the Broncos loss to the Raiders on Sunday night:
The Good …
The play of the safeties.
Say what you will about how most of the Broncos played on Sunday night, but safeties T.J. Ward and Darian Stewart came to play. The two combined for 16 tackles and were all over the field making plays in the running game and the passing game.
Ward nearly came up with a huge interception in the fourth quarter that was overturned by instant replay. The Bronco defense gave up far too many plays all night to the high-powered Raider offense, but the Denver safeties did their part.
It seems so long ago that the big-legged kicker was struggling so much that the Broncos actually released him and signed veteran Connor Barth.
This season, McManus is now 16 for 18 on field goals, and on Sunday night he drilled a 55 yarder, not once but twice. Just prior to halftime, McManus connected with a successful score, but Oakland had called a timeout prior to the snap. MacManus calmly made the kick again to end the first half.
The Bad …
The running game
Once again, the Broncos offensive line failed to generate running lanes and it cost the team dearly. Denver managed a pathetic 33 yards rushing, and as a result they couldn’t consistently convert third downs, use the play-action pass or rest their defense.
There is no question that the Broncos are missing starting running back C.J. Anderson, but they only even attempted to run the ball 12 times.
Maybe Gary Kubiak wanted to focus on the passing game against a Raiders defense that has been allowing over 285 yards per game, but the lack of a rushing attack made that difficult to execute.
The injuries
Aqib Talib has been playing at an extremely high level all season, but with Talib sitting out with a bad back, the Broncos couldn’t even go to his backup, Kayvon Webster. Webster was also inactive on Sunday night, forcing Denver to activate Taurean Nixon from the practice squad. Nixon would play significant minutes, along with fellow backup Lorenzo Doss.
Denver also lost defensive end Derek Wolfe to a fractured elbow, which could be costly if he misses any extended time.
If the Broncos are going to make a late-season push to the playoffs, they are going to have to get healthy.
The Ugly …
The run defense
Broncos rookie safety Justin Simmons had some bulletin board material last week when he stated that the Raiders offense hadn’t played a defense as good as the Broncos yet.
And to be fair to Simmons, the Denver pass defense did their part.
Raider quarterback Derek Carr is averaging nearly 300 yards per game passing, but was held to just 181 on Sunday.
Part of that was the Denver defense being one of the top pass defenses in the NFL. Most of it was the success of the Raider running game.
Oakland carved up the Broncos defense on the ground, gashing them for 218 yards on 43 carries. Some of the reason the Broncos’ safeties racked up so many tackles is that the defensive line and linebackers were allowing ball carriers to get to the defensive backfield.
Denver has now surrendered 100-yard rushers in back-to-back weeks.
That is a very dangerous trend.
The penalties
Just one week after the Oakland Raiders set the NFL record for most penalties in a game, with 23, the Broncos managed to out Raider the Raiders.
Denver was flagged 12 times for 104 yards, while Oakland was penalized just eight times for 72 yards.
Were some of the penalties a bit ambiguous?
Possibly. It seemed that Raider receivers earned a penalty flag every time a ball was thrown their way, but the Broncos are seeing a fair amount of laundry each week.
Currently, Denver averages seven penalties for 61 yards.
With an aggressive defense, you are going to draw some infractions, but we know that the margin for error with this team is extremely small.
The Broncos are going to have to clean up a number of their mistakes if they are going to get back to playing quality football again.