Broncos stock report>> Safety Jackson unhappy with no-call against Detroit’s Branch

OLB Nik Bonitto

In absentia, the second-year pass-rusher’s importance showed through clearly in the Motor City. Denver struggled to consistently heat up Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Nobody’s generated more consistent pressure for the Broncos than Bonitto, who missed the game due to a left knee injury sustained against the Los Angeles Chargers. None of the remaining offenses on the schedule pose the kind of every-down threat Goff and Detroit did, but even still, Denver should be hoping to get Bonitto back sooner rather than later. Head coach Sean Payton indicated Bonitto is not looking at an injured reserve stint, meaning he’s hopeful to play again in the regular season.

Goal-to-go

For most teams, first-and-goal is a good thing. For the Broncos this year, it’s been a struggle. They scored definitely once, maybe twice and maybe three times late in the third quarter Saturday night and still only came away with a field goal. Even when Denver converted from close range two other times, they only bumped their season average to 53.9% touchdowns, which is way behind the league average of 71.8%. Sounds like a broken record, but this is another metric which will play a role in whether Denver finds a way to get to 10-7.

Blood pressure medicine

For suspended Broncos safety Kareem Jackson, in particular. Jackson had every right to be furious as he watched a fourth straight game and sixth overall this season on TV and saw Detroit rookie nickel Brian Branch lead into a fierce hit on tight end Adam Trautman with his helmet. It was clear head-to-head contact. No whistle. A similar argument could be made for a hit late in the game on Broncos receiver Jerry Jeudy. Penalties and fines make players mad, but inconsistency is what drives them nuts. Jackson is nowhere near blameless in his own punishment, but if he got commissioner Roger Goodell’s cell number during that meeting a couple days ago, he’d have likely been tempted to drop the ol “WT_” text. He certainly didn’t hold back his feelings on “X” (aka Twitter). Branch will almost certainly incur a big fine for the hit, but it’s the kind of contact that can’t slip past the crews on the field.

ILB pair

Alex Singleton and Josey Jewell are good players. There’s no doubt about it. But the same way their strengths play well together, their weaknesses overlap too much. They each struggle in coverage and teams with speed like Detroit’s are happy to exploit it. It’s not easy for anybody to handle that kind of combination of scheme, speed, space and balance. But the Broncos needed to find a way to take more of the middle of the field away and they just didn’t have the horses to get it done.

Takeaway importance

Entering Saturday, Denver was 7-1 in games it won the turnover differential (plus-17) and 0-5 when it lost that battle (minus-11). Well, Russell Wilson fumbled on the Broncos’ fourth offensive snap of the night and Denver finished minus-1 for the night. That turnover wasn’t the reason Denver lost by 25 points, obviously, but the Broncos’ inability to take the ball away from Goff and company certainly played a role. Between Detroit’s third punt of the night with 5:04 left in the first quarter and their fourth with 9:18 to go, the Lions rolled to 372 net yards and five straight touchdowns.

Tackling

Early in the season, the Broncos really struggled to tackle. Opponent speed clearly has something to do with that — remember the scattered bodies on the turf against Miami? — but Vance Joseph’s group had really tightened up in that department over the past two months. Even when somebody missed, most of the time reinforcements were typically not far away. On Saturday night, it felt like Denver defenders were operating solo way too often. Jewell and Fabian Moreau missed particularly bad ones along the visiting sideline against super rookie tight end Sam Laporta and receiver Amon Ra St. Brown, respectively.