5 Broncos who deserve blame after brutal loss to Texans

4. Special teams

It wasn't a Tom McMahon-level game for the Denver Broncos' special teams in Houston on Sunday, but there were aspects of the special teams that were really lacking in this one.

The return game with Marvin Mims could have been a major difference maker, but for whatever reason, the Broncos were bottled up in Mims's opportunities as a returner and he had just seven yards on his "lone" punt return attempt despite getting three chances to take one back.

When the Broncos tried to apply some pressure on Houston's punter, Delarrin Turner-Yell ended up getting called for running into the kicker, which thankfully didn't cost the Broncos.

Riley Dixon had some booming punts in this game, and flipped the field a time or two, but he had one of his punts blocked and it set the Texans up with great field position.

Again, it wasn't a "bad" game from the special teams, but Sean Payton preaches the game of hidden yardage and it felt like the Broncos left a lot of hidden yardage out there in this game against Houston with some little mistakes or plays that could have been made and weren't.