The Broncos offense and Russell Wilson vanish in a loss to the Chiefs

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The Denver Broncos lost Thursday Night Football to the Kansas City Chiefs 19-8 on the road, as nearly all of their supporters had predicted.

The Chiefs have defeated the Broncos for sixteen straight games, and it’s simply every week that they find methods to appear even worse than we initially believed. With each humiliating loss they suffer, they are currently 1-5 on the season and are getting closer to guaranteeing a top draft pick.

Even though analysts and critics have mostly criticized Vance Joseph and his defense thus far this season, that was undoubtedly not the case tonight. Broncos Nation, let’s be completely honest with us. In fact, they performed a rather good job of containing the Chiefs’ attack and forcing them to settle for field goals rather than touchdowns.

 

The offensive is primarily to blame for tonight’s defeat, which is justified. That’s not even up for debate. As maddening as it has been to watch, the Broncos’ offense has been terribly inconsistent throughout the season, with the exception of perhaps six or seven quarters of play. This evening was no different, and their shoddy play on that side of the ball was a complete failure.

The passing game lacked any dignity at all. Actually, the Broncos offense as a whole had fewer receiving yards in the first half than Travis Kelce had. How pitiful would that be?

In the first half, Russell Wilson was 7/11 for 37 yards and one interception. Going 12/21 for 94 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions, he concluded the game. He appeared disoriented, disconnected, and reluctant to launch the ball over the field.

Approximately $250 million dollars for that? Bad.

Image Credit: ESPN

Whether it was the third or fourth down made no difference. Time and again, when it seemed clear to put the ball in the air, he felt compelled to tuck it and run. Had he ever considered scaling the pocket and allowing it to tear across the field? Has he suddenly forgotten the fundamentals of being a quarterback? I’m not sure why, but his awful performance tonight was really annoying.

It also served as a symbol for the reasons the team should give carefully to replacing him at the end of the season. With him in charge, the club is unable to even execute a basic passing game with three- and five-step drops. Is he moving around a lot because of all these plays? They’re not really doing the job. Teams are already working on figuring that one out.

You know what the offense’s biggest source of frustration was? Although Head Coach Sean Payton mostly disregarded and abandoned the running game until it was too late, it was a rather efficient tactic. In the first half, Samaje Perine, Javonte Williams, and Jaleel McLaughlin were averaging close to seven yards per carry. It was undoubtedly one of the worst games he had ever coached, in my opinion.

Denver’s offensive drive chart looked like this prior to their touchdown drive with less than seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter:

That’s definitely not anything that any of us would ever be proud of. Remember that the Broncos paid hundreds of millions of dollars and sacrificed three first- and three second-round picks to acquire Wilson and Payton as their offensive leaders. I wonder if there’s any buyer’s regret beginning to show in ownership. Yes, I would assume.

Their next game, against the Green Bay Packers, is in 10 days. That would be the perfect moment to begin a thorough reorganization of a franchise that has entirely lost its direction. It is obvious that this squad is a long way from becoming significant in the National Football League, thus they need to deal anybody for anything.