The Denver Broncos are no longer undefeated following an ugly loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 4.
Now that the team has that out of the way, it needs to get that taste out of its collective mouth immediately. It was a lopsided, ugly loss to a team that had to fight and claw for each win it had this season.
Now, that’s not to say that the Ravens are a bad team, but they came into Denver and dispatched of the Broncos very easily. The Broncos must find a way to shrug that off and move onto the next one.
The next one happens to be against the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the proudest franchises in the league. The Broncos must find a way to win this game as the importance of a win here can’t be overlooked.
Week 4 looked sadly familiar
Since the Broncos won the Super Bowl back in 2015, they have been a team that mostly plays well on defense and just can’t score enough points. On Sunday, the defense was average but the offense was atrocious.
It was painful to watch.
Seven points is just not going to get it done in the NFL, against anyone, and the Broncos were fortunate to even have that many the way they played. Now some of the lack of offensive production can be attributed to the loss of Teddy Bridgewater, but frankly, he wasn’t very good when he was in there.
But did anyone really think Drew Lock was going to come in and rally for a win on Sunday?
It would have been good to see. I, for one, would have thoroughly enjoyed it as a longtime Lock supporter. But from the first snap he took, the writing was on the wall.
The Broncos came out flat against the Ravens and never really looked competitive in this game after getting up 7-0 on a Noah Fant touchdown reception. It was all downhill after that.
The Broncos better hope that this performance was an aberration and not the new normal.
Injuries are piling up
Bridgewater was knocked out of the game with a concussion just before halftime and his status for Week 5 is now up in the air. The Broncos also saw first-round pick Patrick Surtain leave hurt.
The losses of Graham Glasgow and Dalton Risner were also clearly evident as the tandem of Netane Muti and Quinn Meinerz struggled to hold up.
Injuries like these are not as noticeable when the team is winning, but when losses start to happen, those injuries start to hurt a lot more and can lead to questions being raised within.
Luckily, the only key season-ending injuries the Broncos have suffered are to K.J. Hamler and Josey Jewell. They will get back several big names at various points in the season, but the team has to show that it can win despite being shorthanded. That is what the good teams do.
But the Broncos have also had so many injuries that it could be difficult to do just that. They will need to find a way to get the depth players on the roster to step in and fill roles well and obviously, the rate of injuries for the team is going to have to come down or the season could be a long one.
Injuries are a part of the game, but the way the Broncos respond to them could be the difference between a decent team and a playoff team.
Doubt can creep in
The Broncos have been riding a wave of momentum following the start to this season by picking on some of the bottom feeders of the league. Many saw that the team finally saw some legitimate competition on Sunday and it fell flat.
While it’s way too early to panic, questions about how good this team really is are certainly fair at this point.
The Broncos are going to hear plenty of negativity from the media regarding this defeat and just how lopsided the loss was. The Broncos are going to have to keep the belief in the locker room and have that extend to the fan base.
But that is difficult for a franchise that hasn’t experienced winning in some time. These Broncos are used to defeats like the one they tasted on Sunday and the sooner they can shake it off, the better. If it remains and creates a hangover effect, things will go downhill quickly.
Going into Pittsburgh has never been an easy task for teams as the Steelers are almost always a competitive team. But the Broncos have to find a way to do that.
Pittsburgh will be desperate
The Steelers are a team that is fading fast and though big things were expected this season (they usually are in Pittsburgh), it seems clear this team is not capable of reaching them. The Steelers are 1-3 and many feel that it is time to put Ben Roethlisberger on the bench… for good.
But the Steelers are a proud franchise and Roethlisberger is a proud player. They know that a 1-4 start may be insurmountable and they have the Broncos coming into their house. They will see this as a must-win game.
That is exactly one of the reasons the Broncos must find a way to win.
The Steelers are going to be looking to pull out all of the stops and though they have lost three of the first four games to start this season, they are not a team that is going to go down easily. The Broncos could be a prime victim in Week 5, particularly if Bridgewater can’t play.
The Broncos can’t look for excuses. Every team has injuries and while the Broncos currently have more than most, as stated earlier, the good teams find a way to win anyway.
The Broncos need to prove that they can win a game on the road following a poor performance. They need to put points on the board and yes, this needs to happen no matter who starts at quarterback.
Because if the Broncos lose this game and fall to 3-2 with the Las Vegas Raiders looming in Week 6, this season will start to go downhill whether fans want to admit that or not.
Yes, you can beat up on the New York Giants, Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets but so can pretty much every other team in the league. Can you go on the road and beat a team that you should be better than?
If not, things could begin to unravel. A record of 4-1 would look a whole lot better than 3-2 with two losses in a row. The Broncos can’t afford to lose to this struggling Steelers team and should they lose, particularly in a loss like this one to the Ravens, then any criticism they receive from their doubters will be fair.