The Denver Broncos fell in lopsided fashion to the Buffalo Bills in the second preseason game.
For the second week in a row, the Broncos left a good portion of their starters on the sideline as they continue to prepare for the season opener against the Seattle Seahawks. But the backups left much to be desired in a 42-15 loss to the Bills.
While the Bills are a Super Bowl favorite and played their starters for a bit in this game, the Broncos were completely dominated from start to finish.
Denver took the opening drive down the field and put a field goal on the board. But Josh Allen and the Bills came out with their first possession and went 70 yards on six plays before Allen found Gabriel Davis for a 28-yard touchdown.
It was all downhill from there.
The Broncos have one more preseason game next Saturday against the Minnesota Vikings and before Tuesday, they must cut five more players from the roster.
But first, here are the main takeaways from the defeat in Buffalo.
The Broncos’ defense looked absolutely awful
It was painful to watch this defense in this game, as it could not stop a single thing that Buffalo did. The Bills were getting big chunks of yardage through the air and the ground and it was the run defense of Denver that was particularly bad.
The Bills ran for 208 yards in the game and averaged 7.7 yards per carry. In addition, they scored four touchdowns on the ground with Zack Moss and Duke Johnson each finding the end zone twice.
The Broncos were getting pushed backward at the point of attack regularly and the linebackers at the next level were missing tackles and trailing the play. No matter which running back carried the ball for Buffalo, they were finding huge lanes to run through.
It should not be hard to evaluate which players deserve to be on this roster on the defensive side of the ball when the film of this game is reviewed. It was bad.
The Broncos’ running game was abysmal, again
We can only hope that things will look much, much better when Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon are carrying the ball for the Broncos because through two preseason games, Denver’s rushing attack has been non-existent.
The Broncos’ leading rusher on the day was Stevie Scott with 13 yards and as a team, the Broncos gained just 32 yards on 17 carries. That’s less than two yards per attempt and a clear recipe for failure if it continues into the regular season.
The Broncos are going to need to be a team that runs the ball to set up the pass and the belief is that Williams and Gordon will be able to do that, but the backups have shown nothing thus far.
Mike Boone had a 13-yard reception out of the backfield and seems to be the clear option as the team’s No. 3 back but beyond him, none of the players on the roster offer much so you can expect general manager George Paton to skim through the players that are waived following final roster cuts to see if he can find an upgrade.
In two preseason games, the Broncos have rushed for just 74 yards on 39 carries, an average of 1.8 yards per carry.
Ouch.
Brett Rypien is keeping the backup QB race interesting
Josh Johnson was given the start for the second week in a row and he should be the clear favorite to win the No. 2 quarterback job behind Russell Wilson this year. But Brett Rypien is certainly keeping things interesting and was the better of the two in this game.
Johnson played the first half but completed just 50 percent of his passes (8 of 16) for 70 yards. He led the team to two field goals.
Rypien played the second half and with the Broncos trailing big for that entire time, he was given the chance to drop back and let it rip quite a bit.
Rypien completed 22 of his 26 pass attempts in the game and he had 191 yards passing on the day. In the fourth quarter, he finally directed the Broncos on a touchdown-scoring drive, finding Eric Saubert in the back of the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown pass.
Both quarterbacks should expect to get work against the Vikings and this competition could come down to that game. It will be interesting to see if the Broncos keep three quarterbacks on the roster, regardless of who wins this job.