The Broncos raced out to a 20-0 lead in Minnesota over the heavily favored Vikings and it looked like Denver was going to pull off the upset of the week in the NFL. Unfortunately, the Vikings rallied in the second half and came all the way the back and won 27-23 and handed the Broncos their seventh loss of the season in devastating fashion. The Broncos are now 3-7 and officially playing out the string the rest of the season. Here are my thoughts and observations on the game....
1) Everything the Broncos did in the first half was perfect. They played some of their best football all season long. Everything was going their way in this game. Brandon Allen was throwing bombs to Courtland Sutton and Noah Fant, their defense was getting stops, sacks and takeaways, and the Vikings were falling apart.
2) The key play of the first half and the turning point was when they took a 20-0 lead on Brandon McManus field goal and the Vikings fumbled the ensuing kickoff. Denver recovered deep in Minnesota territory. The very next play resulted in a Brandon Allen interception at the Minnesota goal line and the Broncos went into the half with a 20-0 lead instead of a 23-0 lead or a 27-0 lead.
3) The Vikings turned it on in the second half and the Broncos defense had no answer. Kirk Cousins led four straight touchdown drives and the next thing you know, they are down 27-23. You could almost see it coming after the Vikings scored on their first drive of the third quarter.
4) The huge play that probably decided the game was when Brandon McManus missed a 43 yard field goal with 8:19 left up 23-20. If he makes that kick, then the Broncos are up 26-20, and it changes everything if the Vikings score a TD, which they eventually did.
5) The Broncos put together a 19 play drive and converted three fourth downs to keep the drive alive, but Vic Fangio made the mistake of challenging a pass interference call with just over 2 minutes to go and burned a timeout when the challenge failed. They also mismanaged the clock when Allen scrambled for a first down and didn't get out of bounds with 33 seconds left. They took too long and didn't run another play until there were 10 seconds left on the clock. Three straight throws in the end zone were incomplete and the Broncos choke job was complete.
6) This is as bad of a loss as you can get, but with the way the season went this year in Denver, I'm not surprised at all. The losses to the Bears, Jags, and Colts were bad, but this takes the cake. As frustrating as it was, the truth is that this Broncos team is going nowhere anyway. Even if they won and were 4-6, they weren't going to make a miraculous run down the stretch. At 3-7, they are basically done and now it is all about 2019.
7) Denver heads to Buffalo to take on the 7-3 Bills this Sunday, and this looks like another game on paper that the Broncos will lose. It looks like Drew Lock won't be active again, but I hope that he is ready to go and start the game at home on December 1st against the Chargers. He better be because Lock is the only reason left for any Broncos fan to watch for the remainder of the 2019 season.
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