5 Broncos who deserve blame after brutal loss to Texans

The Denver Broncos weren't in a "do or die" situation against the Houston Texans in Week 13, but the implications as far as the playoffs are concerned were huge. The odds of the Broncos making the playoffs would have increased drastically (over 60 percent) with a win and they decreased substantially (under 25 percent) with the loss.

Because this was such a significant loss, we've got to do some substantial finger pointing. Who is to blame for the atrocity we witnessed in Houston where the Broncos failed to convert a single one of their 11 third down attempts, and they failed to score a go-ahead touchdown with seemingly unlimited opportunities late in the game?

Let's play the blame game.

1. Alex Singleton, LB

Look, Alex Singleton played a great game. As a matter of fact, he was one of the best defensive players on the field for the Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, he made one absolutely critical, unforgivable mistake early on in the game.

The Texans were about to be called for a false start penalty as Singleton burst through the line of scrimmage. Houston was going for a 4th-and-2 in this situation, but the false start penalty would have unquestionably caused them to kick a field goal instead of go for it. A field goal at this juncture of the game would have put Houston up just 6-0 instead of 10-0, which is what they did after this interaction...

Yes, CJ Stroud head-butted Alex Singleton. No, the officials don't care about that. It's always the guy who strikes second that gets flagged in the NFL. Unfortunately for Alex Singleton, his decision to retaliate in the moment cost the Broncos four points in a game they ended up losing by five.

2. The offensive line

After pitching a shutout against the mighty Myles Garrett last week, the Denver Broncos offensive line was victimized in Week 13 a little bit. The Houston Texans were bringing a ton of pressure off the edge, especially with rookie Will Anderson Jr., who was having his way throughout the game.

The Texans finished this game with a whopping eight QB hits, five tackles for loss, and three sacks. And it was the pass rush of the Texans on third down late in this game that ultimately cost the Denver Broncos a shot at completing the comeback.

This has been a pretty good season for the offensive line as a whole, even though Russell Wilson has taken a lot of sacks. The line has seemingly improved every week this season but they regressed a bit against the Texans. The communication just didn't seem as on point with those guys, the Broncos were struggling to generate a consistent push in the running game, and the Texans made life hard on them in the trenches all afternoon.

Unfortunately for the Broncos, the offensive line is a reason why this team lost the game, and they're going to have to rebound quickly with a matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers on deck.

3. Russell Wilson, QB

We're going to have to talk about the elephant in the room, because Russell Wilson played the worst game we've seen from him in quite some time. Over the course of this winning streak for the Broncos, Russell Wilson had been playing relatively mistake-free football with some clutch performances and big-time throws when the Broncos needed them the most.

There wasn't a consistent enough passing game even during the winning streak, but the offense did what it needed to to get the team five straight wins.

Well, against Houston, the Broncos didn't have the benefit of 3-5 extra possessions offensively and they were forced to compensate by attacking a little bit more with the passing game, and pushing the ball downfield. That unfortunately resulted in Russell Wilson throwing three interceptions, one off of a tipped pass, one in desperation, and another one on a ball that probably could have had a little more heat on it from Russell Wilson.

Wilson threw three interceptions in this game against Houston, and certainly had some great plays both as a passer and runner, but missed opportunities and bad plays are defining this game for Russ.

Russell Wilson understands that he can't put the ball into harm's way, and his turnovers were a major reason why the Broncos dropped this game. Not that interceptions are ever timely, but each one of the three picks Wilson threw in this game came in the second half of a game where you're already trying to claw your way back in.

The Broncos punted on six of their first seven possessions in this game, and a lot of that is on Russ. The team also failed to punch the ball in for a touchdown before the end of the first half on their best drive (to that point) in the game.

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.

5. Sean Payton, head coach

A good leader is always going to fall on the sword, right? The Denver Broncos' head coach has been fantastic this year, and I think the fan base is realizing just how much of a difference he makes, but I also think he deserves some blame for this loss, and plenty of it.

Let's first discuss the fact that the Broncos were 0-for-11 on third downs in this one. That doesn't all reflect on the head coach, of course, and Payton had even designed some really good plays on third down for the Broncos that just weren't properly executed. Unfortunately, when you are that bad on third down, your play caller has to come under fire. Payton needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out where the team has been going wrong on third down, why they're not executing, and figure out what's going to work.

Beyond third down, let's talk about the way the situation at the end of the game was handled. The Denver Broncos came out of the two-minute warning and took a timeout immediately. Given the situation, burning a timeout there was super odd. Then, the Broncos ran a couple of plays and let time just bleed off the clock as though it wasn't valuable.

I get what they were trying to do by not giving the Texans time to come back. But the Broncos had three timeouts coming out of the two-minute warning, and even though it was 4th-and-1, taking a timeout there eliminated the possibility that you might fail on the 4th down play and be able to get the ball back by using your timeouts if need be. It was just an odd move.

And then after the 4th-and-1 conversion, the Broncos took 1:21 off the clock on two plays that gained eight yards.

Then when the Broncos got down inside the 10, it didn't feel like the players had a good grasp on the plays that were being called. The Broncos didn't have their best 11 out there with Lucas Krull getting some snaps (including the final target). It looked like Adam Trautman and another receiver were in the same vicinity.

The communication and execution just didn't seem on point offensively, whether we're talking late in the game or for the first three quarters, and the inability to move the ball is going to have to change if the Broncos are going to win some games down the stretch.