The Denver Broncos’ inexcusable loss in week one to the lowly Seattle Seahawks was more of the same from the team that we’ve seen in prior seasons. A new era in Denver means new results, right? I’ll be the first to admit that I had a feeling Denver was going to lose this game.
I’ve been a fan for 15 years and love the team, of course, but my gut was telling me that something bad was brewing. Unfortunately, my gut was right. It seemed to be more of the same for the Denver Broncos during their week one loss to the Seahawks.
Denver Broncos with the same old struggles vs. Seahawks
The Broncos opened up the game a bit slow on both sides of the ball. The defense was virtually nonexistent during the first half, allowing Geno Smith to look like Patrick Mahomes. He carved up the defense, throwing two touchdown passes to his tight ends in the first half. Denver has seen this before– being unable to account for tight ends on defense.
More of the same came during the Broncos’ slew of penalties, giving Seattle multiple first downs and stalling out other drives. Denver was never a majorly-penalized team the prior few seasons, but many of their penalties did come at inopportune times. This was the case on Monday night.
Costly turnovers also reared their ugly heads, once again, something that Denver has struggled with in the past. Two goal-line fumbles, one each by Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams, prevented Denver from essentially putting the game away.
Gordon has struggled with fumbles in Denver on the goal line in prior seasons, for whatever reason. The team also had a chance to win the game in the final seconds, but poor decisions and poor clock management prevented them from winning.
Once again, things we’ve seen in prior seasons. To be fair, the offense was able to move the ball pretty well, even if the team only has 16 points to show. In between the red zone, the offense was nearly unstoppable. Russell Wilson threw for over 300 yards, and Jerry Jeudy had 102 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Courtland Sutton had 72 receiving yards, Javonte Williams had 65, and Andrew Beck had 52. Denver rushed for over 100 yards, put up over 400 total yards, and had higher yards per play than Seattle. Denver was over 50% on third downs, had fewer punts, and won the time of possession battle.
They also ran 15 more total plays than the Seahawks. The Broncos dominated the stat sheet, showing a clear advantage in many categories, but self-inflicted wounds prevented them from winning. This has been a constant theme for the Denver Broncos since Peyton Manning retired.
Top 5 reasons the Broncos failed in season opener vs. Seahawks
The Denver Broncos dropped their 2022 season opener to the Seattle Seahawks in a nail-biter. But what went wrong in this game?
Perhaps there were simply too many emotions for Denver to sort out. This was essentially Seattle’s Super Bowl, and they had three notable former players on their sideline. Hopefully, Denver can fix their issues before they play the Texans, who won’t be an easy out, but it’s clear that the Broncos are facing similar issues after one game in 2022 that they also faced in prior seasons.