Broncos turn into road kill
Defense gashed for six scores in blowout loss at Detroit
DETROIT >> The Broncos hoped to prove themselves road warriors in the Motor City.
Instead, road kill.
Sean Payton’s team, playing its third straight December game away from home, ran out of gas in the first half Saturday night and watched the Lions roll on by, clear into the postseason.
The Broncos have a lot of work to do in order to reach the same destination after a 42-17 loss here.
They’re going to have to find offensive consistency, which has disappeared in recent weeks.
They’re going to have to find better ways to combat speed, which the Lions flashed in spades.
Put simply, they’re going to have to win their final three games from 7-7.
That’s not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, considering they will come against teams with losing records, backup quarterbacks and little to play for.
But the margin for error is now reduced to zero.
Jared Goff sliced the rest of it away with the same precision that he carved up the middle of the Broncos defense over and over and over on his home field.
The Lions quarterback threw touchdown passes on four consecutive possessions in the middle of the game, turning what started as a slugfest into a track meet.
The plodding Broncos had little hope of keeping pace, even after a staunch defensive start to the night.
Vance Joseph’s defense started by forcing three straight punts, a lift after Sean Payton’s offense blew a golden opportunity to score first when Russell Wilson fumbled at Detroit’s 20-yard line.
That was the start of a hapless offensive first half for the Broncos. They gained just 75 net yards and 63 of them came on the first play and a scramble-drill completion to Courtland Sutton. The rest: 12 net yards on 24 snaps.
After the fumble, Denver punted on their next four drives and mustered just two total first downs the rest of the first half.
Compounding the problem: Three of their five first-half possessions lasted 1 minute, 33 seconds or less.
That left the Broncos defense on the field for more than 18 minutes in the opening half. Once the Lions broke through, they poured it on.
By Parker Gabriel pgabriel@denverpost.com
They racked up 279 yards and 17 first downs to the Broncos’ 75 and four, respectively.
“We can kind of prove the type of team we are,” inside linebacker Alex Singleton said in the lead-up to the game. “That’s why they moved the game to prime time and all of that stuff. It’s a good opportunity for us to go out and kind of prove the team we are right now.”
On this night, the Broncos were a team that couldn’t slow down Goff, who took whatever he wanted in the middle of Denver’s defense with playaction passing.
By the time he surveyed the Broncos defense late in the half, checked into the play he wanted and hit a wide open Amon Ra St. Brown for his third touchdown pass of the night and a 21-0 halftime lead, the game felt almost entirely in hand.
Denver did respond with a pair of third-quarter scoring drives, but the Lions ripped down the field after each, extending the lead rather than allowing the Broncos to feel like they had a chance to close the gap.
Payton’s frustration boiled over with the Broncos knocking on the door late in the third quarter. Denver nearly scored on three straight plays, but was ruled short of the goal line twice and then had right guard Quinn Meinerz called offside on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Payton didn’t challenge either of the first two plays, then screamed at the officiating crew, sent his field goal unit out and chewed out Wilson on the sideline.
After a Wil Lutz field goal to make the Lions’ lead 18, Detroit waltzed right down the field.