Rolling the dice on fourth downs backfired on the Broncos

The Denver Broncos were embarrassed against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday with a 41-10 loss. In their biggest game of the year, and perhaps the biggest since the 2015 playoff run, the Broncos failed miserably.

The Broncos have a 5-4 record with a potentially undefeated Kansas City Chiefs team coming up in Week 10 (they play on Monday night in Week 9). Can the Broncos flush the bad taste of this loss out of their mouth? I’m sure Broncos head coach Sean Payton will have quite the week of practice in store for his team after getting humiliated on the road.

“Obviously, a difficult, tough game. They beat us, pretty much in all three phases. We didn’t do a good enough job coaching. We lost to a good football team. It’s disappointing. There were a number of things that we could look back on. Prior to the half, we had a chance possibly to go in 17-10, then [the Ravens] scored before the half, get the ball back, so we had trouble possessing it the way we needed to offensively. I mentioned at the start of the week that some of the numbers can be a little misleading, relative to what they do well defensively because you end up in a game where you have to become one-dimensional. Obviously, that happened to us today.” Payton said.

Here are three observations from the Broncos loss to the Ravens in Week 9.

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Early Fourth Down Woes Hurt Bad

Entering this game, the Broncos had converted 16 fourth downs in a row. It’s a mark not many teams get to, but it was one Payton prided himself on. Against a tough opponent like the Ravens where points would be at a premium, the Broncos went for it on fourth down more than usual.

The plan didn’t work. The Broncos were 1-5 on fourth down against the Ravens. Turnover on downs was something they did early and often as Payton tried to keep the chains moving. When it did work, the Broncos scored a touchdown on a trick play where wide receiver Courtland Sutton tossed a touchdown pass to quarterback Bo Nix. Outside of that one play, Denver had no success on fourth downs.

“They’re obviously very important plays in the game, and you never know what happens at the end of the drive if you hit them. We came away with no points on several of those fourth downs, and you just never know. Obviously, if you hit those, the game I guess could change. [There were] a lot of what-ifs in this game, and the fact of the matter is we had our butts kicked.” Nix said.

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Broncos Must Improve Internally

This kind of loss can show the character of a team in the coming weeks. The game next Sunday against the Chiefs could be huge for the team morale. They are down after this Ravens game, but the team needs to quickly shake things off and get ready for a championship team looking for their third Super Bowl title in as many seasons.

The film study on Monday will be intense. The Broncos must study where they went wrong, and they must plan on being better against the Chiefs. Blocking needs to be better for the ground game to open clearer holes. Passing must be cleaner as Nix overthrew many receivers in Week 9. Receiving must be better as a pass that bounced off the hands of wide receiver Lil Jordan Humphrey wound up getting intercepted.

“This is miserable; it’s no fun. You never want to lose games like this. You never want to lose, period, but obviously, it’s inevitable sometimes. But you don’t want to lose like this, so it is miserable, and we do have to face it. You either sit there and point fingers at someone, someone else, or you sit there and take ownership of it. The only way to get over it and not be in the situation anymore and to continue to find ways to improve is to look internally. That’s what we’re going to do, starting with ourselves and starting with me. There are a few different things you can do, but it’s just a more important, more valuable, decision to say, ‘I, as an individual, have to get better,’ and it starts with each person, and then eventually, you start changing games like this.” Nix said.

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Broncos Defense Fails in Fundamentals

This game featured an elite Ravens offense against an elite Broncos defense, but it wouldn’t seem like that from the final score. The Broncos lost because their defense could not stop the Ravens, and they lacked the fundamentals shown in previous weeks.

Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph wanted to stuff the run and dare Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson to beat them. The defense failed to stop the run, as Henry went over 100 yards rushing on the day (pushing him past 1,000 yards on the year). Jackson was nearly unstoppable as a passer, especially when throwing to wide receiver Zay Flowers. It didn’t matter who the Broncos had on Flowers – Pat Surtain, Riley Moss, etc all failed at fundamental football.

“It just wasn’t fundamentally sound football. We gave up too many big plays and that will kill you, especially against a team like this. And, you know, we missed some tackles. Personally, I missed some tackles. And, you know, I have to wear that on the chin. And the biggest thing I think this week is we have to look within ourselves and have those hard conversations with each other and with ourselves. And we can’t be pointing fingers. We can’t make excuses. It’s look inward and figure out what you have to do better to contribute to this team.” Moss said.

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