Denver Broncos Drop To 3-8

It appears that a post turkey trance has lingered like the smell of an old sweaty sock in the locker room.

The Denver Broncos looked like they weren’t accustomed to playing at high altitude in this game. They started strong on their first three drives, putting a touchdown and two field goals up on the scoreboard. Their next five drives, however, ended in punts and a turnover.

That lull in scoring gave the St. Louis Rams a large enough jump on the Broncos to prevent them from coming back late in the game. It was a big 36-33 win for the Rams who had not won an away game in over a year.

In what has been an eventful week of Broncos football, the team was unable to dig deep and pull out a much needed win. Talk about this past week being a series of frozen moments with a shade of time in between. After handedly losing to the San Diego Chargers on Monday night, the team needed to be focused on the Rams, but the videotape incident put the Broncos in the headlines for all the wrong reasons once again. In between all of that, the team paused in their daily routine on Thursday to give thanks for what they have.

A win would have made the Broncos temporarily full and satisfied after all of the twists and turns that the week has brought. Instead, the team and its fans had to make a gloomy walk back to their cars after being saturated by the lights at Invesco.

Perhaps if the game had been five quarters long, I would be writing this in a different way. The Broncos put up 20 fourth-quarter points and held the Rams to just a field goal in the quarter. With 2:35 left in the game, Kyle Orton connected with Brandon Lloyd for a touchdown to bring the team to within three points. On the kickoff, they tried an onsides kick, but failed to recover the ball. The defense and special teams gave Orton a chance once again as they quickly forced the Rams to punt, and David Bruton got a finger on the punt to knock it off its flight path. The offense went back to its stagnant form and so did the Broncos’ potential to pick up a win. The final Broncos’ possession saw three incompletions and a sack. Game over. In-com-plete, In-com-pre-hensible. 

Kyle Orton probably has a giant ice pack on his throwing shoulder after going 24-for-41 for 347 yards and 3 TDs. His main target as usual was Brandon Lloyd with 4 catches for 76 yards and 2 TDs. The Broncos had over 100 rushing yards with Knowshon Moreno recording 56 yards on 12 carries, 1 TD, and 1 fumble. However, it was WR Eddie Royal who has recorded the Broncos longest rushing play of the season with a 20-yard first quarter run. He had the other Broncos’ fumble.

The Rams who were averaging about 19 points per contest, suddenly found their inner-Charger and harnessed their offensive game to prohibit the Broncos from outscoring them. Sam Bradford went 22-for-37 for 308 yards and 3 TDs. Danario Alexander led the team in receiving with 4 catches for 95 yards. Steven Jackson was relatively contained on the ground with 29 carries for 72 yards (2.5 yds. per carry).

The inconsistent play hasn’t only been the theme of the season, but it’s been the theme within their games. The Broncos go from 0 to 60 in their first few drives, but then they slam on the brakes, and can’t get back to their original speed until late in the game.

The 3-8 Broncos are as beat up as the marching band, and have a head coach that is more controversial than a presidential election candidate. The person who is seeing light at the end of the tunnel is Brandon Lloyd. He’ll most certainly be flying towards the Hawaiian light for the Pro Bowl this year.

As for the rest of the team, another roster shake-up is bound to happen this off season.

How far the cracks travel is another question.

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