2 Broncos on thin ice (& 3 stars) from shocking Week 10 win vs. Bills
Star: Coverage unit
Outside of a couple breakdowns in coverage, the Denver Broncos' coverage unit was sensational against the Buffalo Bills and quarterback Josh Allen, building off of the great work they had done in the previous three games against Patrick Mahomes and Jordan Love.
The Broncos allowed Allen to complete just 57.7 percent of his passes, with 15 completions on 26 attempts. It was Allen's worst passing performance of the season, at least statistically speaking. He threw a pair of interceptions and the Bills were just 3-of-8 in this game on third down
Allen still had moments of brilliance throughout the game, which you expect from him, but the Broncos made life impossibly hard for him throughout, forcing interceptions and incompletions, and simply refusing to let the Bills get anything going through the air.
Arguably the biggest factor in Allen's struggles was the performance of Pat Surtain II, who held Stefon Diggs to just one catch in his coverage against him. Diggs caught three passes, but two were not against Surtain, and he was basically erased for the majority of this game.
On Thin Ice: Kicking game
The kicking game for the Denver Broncos needs to get it together, and quickly. Why is it that when the team finally scores a touchdown to go up 10-0, it ends up being just 9-0 because of a botched extra point? The Broncos need to get to a point where the kicking game is not an issue at all.
Now, some kudos are well deserved for the way the field goal unit rushed onto the field not once but twice in this game, and got in position to kick the ball despite the clock winding down and the pressure on. But with that being said, there were some critical errors that nearly cost this team the game.
- Missed XP by Wil Lutz after first TD
- Botched XP on snap exchange/hold from Riley Dixon
- Multiple punts from near midfield that were hit into the end zone
- Missed FG at the end of game, bailed out by Bills penalty
These are issues that need to be corrected, and issues that could have cost the Broncos a game they rightfully should have won.