We live in a world where a chicken sandwich from Popeyes can get over-blown and hyped up seemingly over-night. The same is true in a negative way, when dealing with your favorite sports team and its fans.
“Broncos twitter” went crazy during the Broncos season-opening loss on Monday night football.
Tweets like “we suck”, “Trade Von Miller and CHJ for draft picks” and “get ready for another 5 win season” were among the overreactive tweets I saw Monday night. It’s almost like Broncos twitter was waiting for Denver to fail so they can criticize the team.
Living in Denver, I understand how high the expectations are for the Denver Broncos every season, but at some point you have to be realistic. The Broncos are coming off five and six win seasons the last two years and have a new head coach this year. Denver also has a new starting quarterback and a third of the roster consists of Broncos players that we’re not on the roster last season.
I’m not here to make excuses because this was a very critical road loss in the AFC west.
However, I will say 80% of the fans need to relax on their frustrations of the team, and maybe change their expectations slightly.
Now let’s break down what happened Monday night.
The Denver Broncos got punched in the mouth.
The Oakland Raiders came out firing! It was a noticeable difference in attitude and intensity between the two teams. Denver is coming off back-to-back losing seasons including two previous losses in Oakland at the coliseum. Therefore I expected Denver to approach the game differently but sometimes you have to credit the opposing team for their effort, as well as the game-plan the opposing coaching staff came up with.
What makes Oakland’s performance impressive was the mess they were dealing with as a organization from the Antonio Brown saga. 
At this point everybody knows how much of a distraction Antonio Brown caused to that team but the Raiders didn’t let that noise effect them. Before Antonio Brown was released, Vegas sports book had Denver as a 3-point underdog on the road at Oakland. After the release of Brown, the line changed and the Broncos were favored by 2 points on the road. A 5-point swing over-night is rare in Vegas, and that was based off Antonio Brown and his absence.
I knew Oakland would use the entire situation as extra fuel on game-day. I knew they would come out inspired and motivated, I just didn’t know Denver would fall so short in matching their intensity. Oakland simply played harder and by the time Denver realized what hit them, the game was wrapped up.
The Raiders first drive of the season against the Broncos vaunted defense was picture perfect for head coach Jon Gruden and quarterback David Carr. Carr finished a 10+ play drive with a touchdown strike to Tyrell Williams, who the Raiders signed during the off-season from the LA Chargers. Oakland quickly jumped out to a 14-0 halftime lead, and Denver’s second-half comeback attempt proved to be too little, too late.
During the Pre-season, the Broncos played less than 30 snaps on offense and defense with their starters. The growing trend in the NFL is to rest your starters during pre-season to avoid injury, but that way of thinking can cause your team to be unprepared for the first few games of the season which I believe was the case Monday night for Denver. Offensively and defensively the Broncos came out slow and a step behind Oakland. It wasn’t until the second half of the game the Broncos displayed a pep in their step but at that point the clock was not on their side.
As the game developed, some of Denver’s old habits of not scoring touchdowns in the red-zone, came back to fruition.
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Denver and Oakland each had three possessions in the red-zone during the first half but there was one main difference between the two teams. Oakland capitalized on their three red-zone opportunities with touchdowns. On the other side, Denver finished their three red-zone opportunities with field goals, which led to a 21-9 lead deep in the 4th quarter for Oakland.
After the final whistle, Oakland scored three touchdowns in the red-zone out of four opportunities and Denver scored just one touchdown out of four opportunities, late in garbage-time. Denver MUST score touchdowns in the red-zone and stop kicking so many field-goals. This has been an on-going issue for a couple years now especially after the departure of Peyton Manning. In the NFL you can’t win by kicking field-goals especially in today’s quarterback friendly league. To win games, you must score touchdowns and the Broncos could not convert in a timely fashion.
I place majority of the blame on new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello who had a few interesting calls throughout the game.
I think Scangarello wanted to put his own stamp or flavor in to the game. Scangarello is a new offensive coordinator from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree and nobody really knows his style as a play-caller. The majority of offensive coordinators at the college and NFL level script their first ten or so play-calls, so I was curious to see what play number one would be and who the ball would go to. The first play of the game from Scangarello was a good play design except who that particular play-call went to. Scangarello ran a jet-sweep to Noah Fant a rookie tight end, to start the game. A play that went for negative yardage and forced a three-and-out.
The Broncos led the NFL in first possession three-and-outs last season.
In 2018, the Broncos started the game going three-and-out, 13 out of 16 games.
The worst call of the night came in the red-zone when Scangarello tried a trick play inside the 10-yard line to score.
The Broncos broke the huddle in the “swinging-gate” formation. All the offensive lineman lineup outside the numbers like wide receivers would, with a skill position behind them. On the other side of the ball is a wide receiver, typically one on one with a defensive back. In this type of play there are three options, the quarterback can run with the ball up the middle, he can take his one on one, on the outside with the wide receiver, or he can throw the ball to the other side where the lineman are lined up. Usually, this play shows up on 2-point conversion attempts and it’s usually a bluff. I’ve also seen it around midfield, but I’ve never seen this play in a situation where your team is desperate to score and the running game carried you that whole particular drive. Rich Scangarello decided to run that on 3rd down in the red-zone on a drive where the Broncos had momentum. The Raiders sniffed out that play, which led to a McManus field goal.
Opportunity for a touchdown missed.
The biggest, singular play of the game was the dropped touchdown from DaeSean Hamilton. The score was 14-3, and the Broncos finally put together a good drive. Hamilton had safety Lamarcus Joyner in coverage, shook him on an inside cut and easily created separation in the end-zone. Flacco delivered a perfect strike for what should have been an uncontested touchdown. Until it wasn’t.
Hamilton, a second-year wide receiver taken No. 113 overall (fourth round), accepted full responsibility afterward.
“That’s a play that I know I should make and I’ll make 99 times out of 100,” Hamilton said. “That’s hard, especially when we were struggling in the red zone and we don’t get any momentum at all in that game. I told somebody earlier, ‘No doubt in my mind I catch that and we win the game.’ The momentum is different, the whole vibe of the game goes differently and that was the spark we needed.” (Nfl.com)
That one play killed all momentum and Iknew the game was over at thatpoint.
If Hamilton catches that pass which he would 99 out of 100 times, the Broncos cut the score to 14-10 and the game is completely flipped. Instead, the pass was dropped and the Broncos settled for another 3 points. On the ensuing kickoff, Dwayne Harris took the ball 90+ yards into Denver Bronco territory.
The Denver Broncos continue to struggle significantly on special teams. Special teams has been a HUGE problem for Denver these last fewyears, and that group looked bad on Monday night football. Not to my surprise because the special teams unit struggled in pre-season as well.
Emmanuel Sanders, The Broncos #1 wide receiver finished the game with 5 catches for 86 yards and a touchdown. Seemed like a good stat line until you point out the fact Sanders wasn’t targeted until nearly halftime. Rich Scangarello took to long to get his best playmaker the football. Watching the game, you can see the frustration from Emmanuel Sanders on the sideline as the Broncos were getting smacked up and down the field. The Raiders did a good job of double covering Sanders early on. The Raiders made sure there was always a safety over the top shadowing Sanders. If the Broncos want to have success as a offense this year, they have to get their main playmakers involved early and often. Even though Sanders saw extra attention from the Oakland secondary, he still needs to be targeted to keep the defense on their toes and for Sanders to get in a rhythm.
The bright spot from the Broncos receiving core was 2nd-year pro, Courtland Sutton, who finished with 7 catches for 120 yards.
Courtland was the one player that showed up ready to play. Courtland showed up on film making huge catches on dig routes, including a crucial conversation on 3rd and long. Many believe this could be Courtland Sutton’s breakout season and 2019 started well. Courtland focused this off-season on becoming a complete wide receiver, not just a guy that runs the “9” route for jump balls. The Broncos need for Courtland to take a step up this year as Emmanuel Sanders plays on the last year of his contract.
The offensive line from the Broncos played decent, but Ron Leary’s performance ultimately brought the group down. Leary finished the game with multiple holding penalties during crucial moments of the game and that is unacceptable from a veteran. I cut Leary a little slack because you can see he isn’t playing 100% healthy, but if you’re on the field you must produce. Period.
Garret Bolles surprisingly was not called for a holding penalty and held up pretty well against Arden Key who is the raiders best young pass rusher along with 1st round pick Clelin Ferrell. Bolles played okay but the competition level was still lower, it’ll be interesting to see Garret Bolles next Sunday against the Chicago Bears with Kahlil Mack and Leonard Floyd.
Defensively, head coach Vic Fangio was severely out-coached by Raiders coach Jon Gruden. The Broncos possess oneof the best pass rushing duos in the NFL and those two were “MIA” Monday night.
Why, or more importantly how was the Broncos two best pass rushers (Miller,Chubb) held in check by the Oakland offense?
The reason was Jon Gruden’s game-plan and Derek Carr’s play-style.
Derek Carr was in rhythm and had the Oakland offense in sync all night. Derek Carr consistently took his 3-step drop and the ball was out on that 3rd step every time. Typically, it takes 3-4 seconds for the pass rush to get to quarterback, but Carr made sure not to hold on to the ball. Carr was hitting quick slants, quick curls and quick out routes all night long. He literally “dinked and dunked” his way down the field the entire game. Carr finished the game 22 of 26 for 259 yards and a touchdown. He was very accurate and precise. 259 yards on 26 pass attempts isn’t great, but when you stay ahead of the chains and convert on 3rd down, you can win.
Von Miller and Bradley Chubb were held in check because the ball was out of Carr’s hands before they got a chance to get free. Credit Derek Carr and the Raiders coaching staff. Vic Fangio and the Broncos coaching staff failed to adjust.
In 2017, the Broncos started the season 3-1, andeventually finished 5-11.
Also, the Broncos have won their season opening game seven years in a row before Monday night.
Basically the fans shouldn’t put so much stock in game one because their is so much more football to be played. But with that being said this was a crucial loss for the Broncos football team.
This was a game Denver had to get if they wanted to win 10+ games this season.
With a 0-1 record and the second hardest schedule in the NFL coming up, I believe the Broncos will be lucky to finish with a winning record this season. If they can beat Chicago next week and split with Green Bay and Jacksonville, in weeks 3 and 4, maybe they can get back in the running fora wild card spot. By the looks of it, the divisionand 10+ wins went out the window with that Raiders loss.
This game was marked the final “Monday Night Football” contest played at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The Raiders are scheduled to move to a stadium currently under construction in Las Vegas in 2020.
#FreeGame 