5 players and coaches to blame for Broncos loss to Bengals

5. The Denver Broncos quarterbacks

Once again, the Denver Broncos’ quarterback play is a primary reason for a loss.

Early on in this game, the offense with Teddy Bridgewater at the helm was as anemic as we have seen it all season. Sure, the Bengals have a tough defense, but it’s painful to watch the offense continually fail with how well the defense has played.

Teddy Bridgewater has shown so much better at times this season than we saw from him against the Bengals, and in a game of this magnitude, everyone expected him to play far better than he did.

Of course, at this point, the first and foremost concern with Bridgewater is his physical health. Here’s the latest update from the Broncos:

It is obviously great to hear that Bridgewater is okay and doesn’t have any damage to his neck or spine area. That was a huge concern watching the play he got injured live as he went to the ground hard.

As Bridgewater left the game, Drew Lock entered and the offense seemingly opened up. It was like the blinds were closed and then opened when Lock came in and started pressing the ball downfield a bit more in the passing game.

The threat of the downfield passing attack opened things up for the run game and the Broncos put together two really impressive drives on Lock’s first two possessions, only to have the second one end in complete disaster.

Lock went from playing really well to making one of the biggest mistakes at the worst possible time this season. His fumble inside the 10-yard line on the read-option is inexcusable for a guy who had an absolutely golden opportunity to get the Broncos a win.

7 Denver Broncos free agents and others who won’t be back in 2022

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Ultimately, there is blame to be spread around after this loss which ended with only 10 points by the offense, but it’s hard not to look at the guys under center as primary reasons why the offense couldn’t get the job done in this game.