The Denver Broncos have had an almost unbelievable start to the 2022 season through six games.
The Broncos fell to 2-4 on the year following a 19-16 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football. It was more of the same for the Broncos. A mostly impressive defensive performance coupled with a terrible performance by an offense that simply can’t get out of its own way.
But it is poor execution at doing the little things that are turning this season into a complete disaster for the Broncos.
A couple of things stand out when you look at this game.
The Broncos were penalized 10 times for 151 yards in this game, adding to their league-leading numbers in this category. They also allowed the Chargers to convert 11 times on third down. Finally, and most critically, a muffed punt in overtime cost them the game.
But it wasn’t just any muffed punt. On this one, after the defense made a great stand to force the punt, P.J. Locke backed into his own teammate, return man Montrell Washington. The ball hit Washington and came free, with the Chargers recovering.
That led to the game-winning field goal by Dustin Hopkins and another tough loss for the Broncos.
When you look at what the Broncos’ defense has done this season, it has allowed 17, 9, 10, 23, 12 and 19 points in six games this year, yet the team has managed to lose four of those.
That is because the offense, led by Russell Wilson, is awful. He completed just 15 passes on the night and only nine of those went to wide receivers.
We heard all offseason about all of the playmakers that this offense has and how much better they were going to be with Wilson rather than the likes of Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater and if anything, they are much worse.
That could be related to a lot of things.
It could be because the team never played anyone on offense in the preseason. It could be because Nathaniel Hackett is just having a tough time figuring out a good game plan. But whatever the case may be, this is not a good football team and it is one that is failing with the basic fundamentals.
This season is not going to get any better until the Broncos get better with the easy stuff before they can think about executing the more difficult stuff. But at 2-4, it may already be too late for that this year.