Denver Broncos: Everything you need to know about loss to 49ers

Reactions: Offense

Joe Flacco and the starters

As with the last game, this was a mixed bag for the starting offense for the Broncos.

Joe Flacco and the number one offense made some big plays, including a beautiful throw on a zone beater to Courtland Sutton on third down and some great work for Flacco to get out of the pocket and make a nice throw to DaeSean Hamilton for a first down on third down.

Flacco also had a great pass deep downfield to Emmanuel Sanders negated by a holding penalty by Garett Bolles.

The running game was blown up despite the 49ers not having their four best players defensively, indicating to me the offensive line is still very much a work in progress.

The most important thing, in my estimation, is how well Flacco threw the ball and the positive signs he’s shown the last two weeks of work.

Emmanuel Sanders back

We don’t have to worry about Emmanuel Sanders, it appears.

Sanders is back from an Achilles injury and he looks phenomenal. He caught the first pass of the game, had this nice  gain on a jet sweep, had another great catch deep downfield that got called back for holding, and made another catch on a 2nd-and-10 play at the sideline where he got his feet in bounds, but was called out, and the Broncos never challenged.

He’s a huge piece of the offense.

Drew Lock

What more can you ask for than progression?

Lock looked like the game has slowed down continually for him. He and a number of starters put together a really long drive in the second quarter that resulted in a field goal, but Lock made some nice plays both with his arm and his legs throughout his time on the field. It was a shame he had to leave the game early.

Backup offensive line

This is a definite problem area for the Broncos right now, and we’ve been talking about it all offseason.

I don’t know what the Broncos are going to do about it at this point, but if Ron Leary doesn’t play every game this season, they are looking at the possibility of someone like Don Barclay or Austin Schlottmann actually starting games, and I’m not sure if I feel good about that.

Garett Bolles struggled a bit in this one, but his backup — Elijah Wilkinson — didn’t look any better against guys lower on the depth chart.

There were too many penalties, too many easy routes to the QB, and not nearly enough running lanes. This area must be cleaned up.

Kevin Hogan

Unfortunately, this was a bad outing for Hogan. He had a fun rushing touchdown but Hogan’s throws were mostly off the mark, and at times I wondered if he wasn’t just heaving the ball in the air hoping anything at all would happen.

He didn’t seem to have any real accuracy or timing on his throws.