8 losses in a row.
0-4 this season; 4-12 in their last 16 games; 8-24 in their last 32 games; 16-32 in their last 48 games including two separate 8-game losing streaks in the last 32 games.
Those depressing numbers describe the Denver Broncos organization after their Super Bowl 50 victory.
Now the Broncos are 0-4 for just the 3rd time in team history.
To add insult-to-injury (literally) star 2nd-year pro, Bradley Chubb tore his ACL and is now done for the season. The Bradley Chubb news most certainly should change the outlook of the season by the Broncos fans and coaching staff. With one of your better defensive players seriously injured and a 0-4 record, it’s about time for the organization to look themselves in the mirror and move forward towards a re-build in Denver. 
They say all losses are different and one single play doesn’t win or lose you a game, so let’s take a look at what went wrong for the Broncos against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Four players have rushed for over 200 yards in the last 2 seasons. The Denver Broncos defense has given up three of those four performances. The first two happened in 2018 with Isiah Crowell and Todd Gurley. The third happened Sunday afternoon with Leonard Fournette rushing for a career high 225 yards.
Coming into the game, the Jaguars have not had a 100-yard rusher in 23 straight games which was the 2nd longest streak in the NFL (PHI,32).
The Denver Broncos flat out got embarrassed by the Jaguars physicality and the Broncos proved they may very well be a soft team.
The turning point for the Broncos defending the run came in the second half when 2nd-year pro Josey Jewell was ruled out of the game with a hamstring injury. This particular injury limited Jewell in practice the last couple of weeks and ultimately led to Jewell not being healthy enough to get through the game.
The Broncos have very limited depth at the inside linebacker position, so a injury to a starter was costly. Todd Davis is the other starter at inside linebacker in the Broncos 3-4 scheme, but he is working his way back from injury as well. Davis missed most of training camp, all of the preseason and the first game of the year with a calf strain.
Von Miller, Bradley Chubb and the Broncos pass rush, finally showed up in a big way with five sacks. Von Miller got the sack-party started early in the first half with a huge hit on Gardner Minshew. That sack was followed up by Bradley Chubb, who was able to grab Minshew by the ankles to record his first and last sack of the season. Von Miller was able to reach Minshew for a second time in the second half as well as DeMarcus Walker. Malik Reed also had a timely sack in the 4th quarter for his first sack of his career.
The Broncos had momentum and the lead during the first half going into halftime with a 17-3 lead. The Jaguars then raddled off 20 points in a row which gave them a 23-17 lead.
What started that Jaguars comeback was a interception by Ronnie Harrison on a terribly thrown football by Joe Flacco. That interception in the 2nd quarter gave the Jaguars momentum and confidence going into halftime to win the game. Flacco was attempting to hit Emmanuel Sanders on a crossing route which was a relatively easy throw but Flacco sailed the ball 3 feet over Sanders head causing the pick.
During the 3rd quarter, the Jaguars out-gained the Broncos 195 yards to 8.
The 3rd quarter flipped the game around.
The Jaguars controlled the clock dominating on the ground with Fournette. Jacksonville ended up running 22 more plays than Denver by the final whistle. Head coach, Doug Marrone and the Jags coaching staff kept the ball away from Denver which took the Denver offense completely out of rhythm.
That 3rd quarter performance from the Broncos was the worst overall quarter I’ve ever seen from a football team. Complete domination by Jacksonville after a great first half performance by the Broncos.
The Broncos only ran 18 plays in the second half.
Similar to the first three games, Joe Flacco and the Broncos offense were able to put together a great drive late, with less than 3 minutes remaining. Flacco went 5-for-5, including what looked to be the game-winning touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton who had another impressive performance.
On the ensuing Jaguars possession with less than two minutes remaining, a penalty was thrown that changed the outcome of the game. Von Miller was flagged for a roughing the passer penalty, which put Gardner Minshew and the Jaguars offense in position for Josh Lambo to hit the game winning field goal.
That penalty gave me immediate deja vu and it felt like Gardner Minshew was definitely going to get the Jaguars in field goal range, which indeed happened.
The 15-yard roughing the passer penalty on Miller wasn’t as egregious as the penalty thrown against Bradley Chubb week 2 in the the Bears game, but still was a play that could have been ignored. Von Miller’s hand did fly in the face of Minshew but it was minimal contact and it came after the ball was thrown. Credit Minshew for selling the flag as well with a flop.
The legend of Garden Minshew grew today as he completed 19 of 33 passes for 213 yards and 2 touchdowns. Besides his mustache, style and charisma, Minshew’s ability to keep plays alive and make accurate timely throws has quickly made him among the NFL’s most popular player early in the 2019 season.
The reason to blame for the Broncos demise is solely on the shoulders of John Elway.
After the legendary free-agent signing of Peyton Manning, Elway had a magical off-season acquiring Aqib Talib, TJ Ward and DeMarcus Ware on their way to a Super Bowl 50 victory.
After that season it’s been all downhill for the Broncos organization.
John Elway has cycled through four different head coaches, multiple bad draft picks in numerous drafts including a few first round busts.
Before losing Malik Jackson to free-agency, Jackson criticized Elway on not paying his players. Jackson said Broncos could have kept him, and multiple other players if Elway would have offered them a decent contract before their deals were up. Elway declined, so Danny Trevathan as well as Malik Jackson found new homes leaving a weak spot on the Broncos roster at their positions.
John Elway also traded star cornerback Aqib Talib to the Rams to “save money” for a quarterback who turned out to be Case Keenum, who only lasted one season with Denver.
Elway also drafted Paxton Lynch, Shane Ray, Bradley Roby and Garret Bolles in the first round of drafts. All of which are not currently on the roster except Garret Bolles.
Another bad organizational move by the Broncos was placing rookie quarterback Drew Lock on injured reserve. Drew Lock was injured during the 3rd pre-season game when he landed on his throwing-hand causing a sprain to the thumb. The injury was initially a 3-6 week injury, but Drew Lock is already cleared to begin throwing again. Since the Broncos put him on IR, he is not eligible to come back and practice or play until week 8 of the NFL season. John Elway and the Broncos mistakenly believed they were a playoff contender this season, so they wanted Lock on the sideline to learn from Flacco. Now that the Broncos are 0-4, in hindsight it was a bad decision because the Broncos need to see what they have in Drew Lock.
Right now, the Broncos are in prime position for a top-5 draft selection and there are many great quarterback prospects available next April. Drew Lock was thought to be the future franchise quarterback but the Broncos robbed themselves of a opportunity to see how well he performs by placing him on IR. With the 0-4 start, Lock should be getting ready to take over the reigns at quarterback since the post-season is almost out the window. Lock can’t play until later in the season shortening the length of time we get to see Lock perform.
Tua Tagovaiola, Justin Herbert, Jake Fromm, Joe Burrow and Jacob Eason will all undoubtedly have a higher draft grade than Lock, so the Broncos should play Lock ASAP to evaluate their future plans at the quarterback position.
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