Totally broken
When they put together a solid drive, they can’t score a touchdown. When they need two first downs to seal a road win, they get only one. And when they get in any kind of third-down situation, they can’t convert (2 of 12). The Broncos’ offense, never dynamic in the first seven games, hit a new low in Sunday’s second half. Following a touchdown to open the half, the Broncos finished with five consecutive punts and a failed end-of-game situation.
DEFENSE
End-of-half woes. The Broncos let Indianapolis off the hook at the end of each half. At the end of the first half, the Colts had 57 seconds remaining and one timeout and were allowed to drive 43 yards on six plays to kick a 55-yard field goal. At the end of the game, a near-sack by Von Miller turned into a Jacoby Brissett scramble and 35-yard pass to T.Y. Hilton to set up the winning field goal. Add in a horse-collar penalty on linebacker Alexander Johnson for a free 15 yards and the
Colts quickly moved into scoring position. The Broncos had four sacks and one key takeaway, but coach Vic Fangio will look at those end-of-half situations as inexcusable.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Fine … we guess. We figure it’s good the Broncos special teams didn’t make any huge errors. Kicker Brandon McManus made both of his field-goal attempts (29 and 21 yards) and Colby Wadman landed five of his seven punts inside the
Colts’ 20-yard line with solid hang times to force five fair catches. The negatives were fourth-quarter penalties on Juwann Winfree (to push the offense back to their 45) and Joe Jones (to move the Colts from their 18 to the 28). The bottom line about the special teams at the season’s halfway point is observers are just waiting for something to go wrong. That’s not good.
COACHING
Far too conservative. The blame can be distributed throughout the Broncos’ coaching staff. Leading 1312 with a chance to seal the game, did Fangio want the bleed the clock as much as possible and force the Colts to use their timeouts or did offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello get gun-shy? Maybe a combination of both. The coaches couldn’t control the injury to right tackle Ja’Wuan James (left knee again) and that probably forced them to call more quick passes.