The Broncos got beat for the first time on Sunday 27-14 by the Ravens in Baltimore. In their first big road test of the season, the Broncos failed. They had a 14-7 lead early in the game, but then they unraveled. Untimely penalties, undisciplined plays, and bad play on offense and defense put them in a 20-14 hole at halftime, and they couldn't recover. Here are my thoughts and observations on the game...
1) You can't ask for a better start. The Broncos forced a 3 and out, blocked a punt deep in Baltimore territory, scored on a Royce Freeman run and then scored on an Emmanuel Sanders 35 yard run on a reverse to take a 14-7 lead in the first quarter. That was the beginning of the end though.
2) Terrible pass defense just killed the Broncos all game. Bradley Roby and Isaac Yiadom got torched all day, and Joe Flacco and the Ravens threw the ball at will. That led to the 17-14 lead in the second quarter.
3) Vance Joseph killed the Broncos with two useless challenges on two plays that didn't and shouldn't have been challenged. Then, he calls timeouts to get the ball back when the Ravens had three timeouts and the Broncos are forced to punt and give the Ravens the ball back near the end of the half and they get a field goal to make it 20-14. Joseph continues to show that he is not capable of being a quality head coach in the NFL.
4) The Broncos block a field goal down 17-14 and Chris Harris returns it for a touchdown but it gets called back on an awful block in the back call. It was a turning point because Case Keenum got sacked on the next play, fumbled, Denver recovered, but Philip Lindsay got ejected for throwing a punch in the pile. The result also moved the Broncos back and they were out of field goal range. Just a terrible sequence of events right there.
5) The Broncos had chances in the third quarter and fourth down 27-14 but one drive was negated by holding calls and a terrible personal foul on Ronald Leary. It took them out of field goal range. The next drive was ended when Keenum was intercepted deep in Baltimore territory with about 7 minutes to go and the Broncos needing a score to get back in the game.
6) The game was marred by terrible penalties on the Broncos, undisciplined play (That's on Vance Joseph too), bad execution and sloppiness on both sides of the ball. It was about as ugly of a game I have seen the Broncos play in a while.
7) Case Keenum threw another killer interception and now he has 3 TDs and 5 INT on the season. He is giving the Broncos a C- performance so far this year, and they needed him to be at least a B+. He looks like nothing more than Kyle Orton 2.0. He needs to step it up or else fans will be calling for Chad Kelly.
8) Denver now sits at 2-1 and hosts the Chiefs on Monday Night Football next week. KC comes in 3-0 with the best offense in football and Pat Mahomes breaking records left and right. This will be a huge game for Denver, and it will be very tough-even at home. It will be tough to see how they matchup with KC's offense, and it will be interesting to see if Keenum can get back on track against a suspect Chiefs defense.
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