Denver Broncos: Loss to 49ers deflates playoff hopes

The Denver Broncos’ devastating loss on the road to the San Francisco 49ers deflates the team’s playoff hopes and adds more questions to the future.

The Denver Broncos have fallen to 6-7 on the season after a very disappointing 14-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

Riding high on a three-game winning streak heading into this late-season matchup, the Broncos felt they had enough to overcome some very disappointing injuries to important veteran players like Chris Harris Jr. and Emmanuel Sanders.

As it turns out, the injuries made a huge difference in this game, as the Broncos were unable to cover George Kittle in the early goings and unable to get anything going offensively, being shut out through the first two quarters by a team that has lost 10 games this season.

This loss is infuriating for Denver because even in the early goings of the fourth quarter, it looked like the Broncos had a chance to pull ahead and maybe even pull away.

Inability to execute offensively and poor play calling certainly contributed.

Let’s take a look at three major storylines from this game.

Rookies still look (mostly) good

The defense was unable to stop George Kittle in the early portion of the game, and certainly rookies like Isaac Yiadom and Josey Jewell had their part in that.

Still, Bradley Chubb finished with two sacks in this game and DaeSean Hamilton caught his first career touchdown. Both players helped the Broncos in their comeback attempt in the second half, including an incredible catch by Hamilton in traffic and a nice touchdown as well.

Chubb moved up to 12 sacks on the year, but his two sacks were not enough for the Broncos in this game as the 49ers converted on two pass plays in the late fourth quarter on third down where the pass rush didn’t quite get home.

Vance Joseph back on the hot seat

Even though it seems very knee-jerk to say that the head coach is back on the hot seat after a three-game winning streak and some really good football of late, Vance Joseph and his staff did not have the team ready to play in a critical game against a terrible team.

The Broncos were unbalanced offensively, undisciplined in terms of penalties, and were shut out by one of the league’s worst teams in two quarters. Even in the fourth quarter during the comeback attempt, it took the Broncos a number of fourth down conversions just to even get within six points.

Joseph is definitely back on the hot seat because now, the Broncos are almost completely out of the AFC playoff race with three games to play. Too many other contending teams won this week (Titans, Dolphins, Colts) for the Broncos to be able to afford to lose such a ‘gimme’ game on their schedule.

Give me a break with the tight ends

Honestly, give us all a break with the tight ends, already.

The Broncos have to figure out a solution to covering the opposing team’s tight end. And no, shutting George Kittle out in the second half completely doesn’t really count.

After Kittle had run buck wild over the Broncos for over 200 receiving yards in the first half alone, the game proved to be out of reach. If the Broncos had properly planned for the 49ers’ best player, perhaps this game wouldn’t have been out of reach so quickly.

It’s getting tiresome talking every single week about covering the tight end position. For the life of me, I can’t fathom why it’s so difficult and no team in the NFL struggles as bad as Denver does, or at least that is the way it feels.

Bottom Line

The bottom line from here on out is, the Broncos need to continue making sure they evaluate their young talent and put guys in position to succeed, hopefully, a lot better than they did in this game.

Losing in the NFL is never easy for any fan base but perhaps no group of fans takes losing harder than the Denver Broncos. Winning is the expectation, and when the head coach makes questionable decisions throughout a game that ultimately contribute significantly to a loss, extreme reactions are to be expected.

The Broncos have a ‘short’ week this week, playing a Saturday night game at home against the Cleveland Browns. Obviously, if they want any chance of making the postseason whatsoever, that game will have to be won.

They won’t win playing the way they did against the 49ers. They have to be more prepared on Saturday.