The Denver Broncos lost their season opener by a final score of 16-17. Wait, where have we all seen that before? The Broncos' loss in Week 1 to the Las Vegas Raiders hurts on a number of levels, and although it's easy to sit here and say it's just one game in the grand scheme of things, it's more than just one game.
The Broncos have lost seven straight games to the Raiders dating back to the 2019 season. They struggled with many of the same issues against Las Vegas that plagued them in the 2022 season, which was disastrous overall. There were some good things to take away from the game as well -- there is never all good or all bad -- but there are some seriously concerning issues facing the Denver Broncos as we sit here, stewing on yet another loss for this team.
Let's take a look at five of the biggest issues from this loss for Denver.
5 biggest problems for Denver Broncos after Raiders loss
1. Kicking issues continue to plague the team
The Denver Broncos have had shaky kicking all offseason, and that continued into Week 1 with former New Orleans Saints kicker Wil Lutz missing his first kick as a member of the Broncos, which was an extra point. He then missed a 55-yard field goal later in the game, an understandable miss from that distance, but also a kick he's expected to make given the fact the Broncos traded a draft pick to acquire his services.
Unfortunately, those four points were the dagger for this Broncos team, and even a made extra point would have changed the complexion of the game completely.
The Broncos will undoubtedly stick with Lutz until this becomes a multi-game thing, but nobody in Broncos Country is going to be forgiving or overly patient toward Lutz. Hopefully, he bounces back quickly and figures out a way to make at least the easy kicks.
2. Denver Broncos lack a go-to receiver
I'm not sure what we expected, but the Denver Broncos really struggled to find any sort of consistent go-to threat in the passing game at receiver or tight end. Now, we know that there are obvious reasons for that. Let's painfully list them all out.
Tim Patrick is on IR with an Achilles injury.
Jerry Jeudy missed the game with a hamstring injury.
KJ Hamler was waived with a non-football illness designation.
Greg Dulcich left the game with a leg injury.
Albert Okwuegbunam was traded.
Heck, even Jalen Virgil was lost for the season. How many "next men up" can you really have? I just don't understand the Broncos' borderline lackadaisical approach at the wide receiver position from a roster-building standpoint, and that includes using their top pick in the 2023 NFL Draft at the position. They simply haven't done enough in the slightest. Not that every asset has to be poured into WR and TE, but the Broncos traded away a guy who showed some good stuff in the preseason finale. They could have doubled up on receivers in the NFL Draft.
They could have added someone in free agency earlier this offseason. They didn't get anything done. The only guy they brought in as a free agent who moved the needle was Marquez Callaway, and he was so bad in the offseason that he didn't even make the practice squad.
Courtland Sutton had four receptions for 32 yards and a touchdown in this game on five targets. That's not good enough in a game where you really needed him to produce. The Broncos passing game became extremely conservative in the second half, which led to running backs Samaje Perine and Javonte Williams racking up 10 total targets. Broncos receivers combined for just 13. It's inexcusable in a game where you really needed the passing game to step up.
Does Jerry Jeudy emerge as the true go-to threat in this offense? How do the Broncos deal with losing Greg Dulcich as a potential go-to weapon? Can Courtland Sutton step up?
This position group leaves a lot to be desired at the moment.
3. Penalties, once again
The Denver Broncos were second in the NFL in penalties behind just the Arizona Cardinals last season with 113. They are on pace after one week this season to have 170 penalties.
They racked up 10 penalties against the Las Vegas Raiders, simply an inexcusable number for a team that really couldn't afford to shoot itself in the foot, all things considered.
They were penalties of all sorts of varieties, as well. Holding offensively a couple of times, defensive pass interference multiple times, roughing the passer, unnecessary roughness, illegal motion...You name it, the Broncos probably did it in this game against the Raiders.
And the crazy thing is, the Raiders ended up out-doing the Broncos in the penalty yardage department, and they still wound up winning the game. The biggest penalty came on the Raiders' final possession of the game in which they threw a pass short of the sticks on third down to Jakobi Meyers, who was hit by Kareem Jackson. Jackson seemed to get a clean hit on Meyers, who ducked in anticipation of the hit and unfortunately got hurt.
We obviously hope Meyers is okay, but also the hit by Jackson seemed to be a clean one. At any rate, it cost the Broncos a chance to get off the field and the Raiders were able to eventually run out the clock. 10 penalties for 83 yards. That's not going to work.
4. Vertical passing game was non-existent
The Denver Broncos won the battle for time of possession in this game 32:08-27:52. That's not a substantial difference, but there is something worth noting there -- Josh Jacobs was held in check all throughout this game.
The All-Pro back finished with just 48 yards on 19 carries, 2.5 yards per carry. His long run of the game was only for seven yards. What does that mean? Well, for one thing, it means the Raiders won their matchups in the passing game, but to me, it also means that the Broncos played too much small ball, and it cost them. Javonte Williams had six targets in the passing game. Samaje Perine had four targets. The Broncos got the ball out quickly most of the night, and just under a third of Wilson's targets went to his backs.
There was no vertical passing game to really speak of all night, and the Broncos needed some shot plays in the second half of this game. Let's look at some shots they did take or that they tried to take and what happened.
Courtland Sutton appeared to have beaten a defender downfield on a play, and he drew a flag for one of the Broncos' longest plays of the day. Marvin Mims drew an illegal contact on a play in which Russell Wilson fumbled the ball away, another massive play for the Broncos' offense. The biggest passing play of the game would have been a catch and run by Phillip Dorsett but he didn't have enough awareness of the sideline, and had one foot out of bounds with no defenders around him at all, eliminating a huge play.
The biggest plays of the game for the Broncos offensively were arguably just penalties by the Raiders. We saw no shot plays to Marvin Mims in this game, which was a surprise.
As conservative as Jimmy Garoppolo seemed to be in this game, he averaged 7.7 yards per throw while Russ averaged 5.2. That's far too conservative and I think it ultimately cost the Broncos in the second half of a game where they had the momentum, they were winning time of possession, and they did a good job keeping the Raiders' run game at bay.
5. The pass rush was an abomination
I don't think this can be overstated. The Denver Broncos pass rush against the Las Vegas Raiders was one of the worst displays of pass rush I have seen in the last 10-plus years, and probably much longer than that, from this franchise.
The team's top four pass rushers off the edge were the main culprits for the lack of pressure on Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo:
Randy Gregory: 0 sacks, 0 QB hits
Jonathon Cooper: 0 sacks, 0 QB hits
Frank Clark: 0 sacks, 0 QB hits
Nik Bonitto: 0 sacks, 0 QB hits
Not great. Oh, how about the team's big-money free agent pickup, Zach Allen? He did have one QB hit in this game. Shoutout to anyone who remembers it happening.
Vance Joseph's defense obviously placed an emphasis on stopping Josh Jacobs in this game, which meant that EDGE guys had to keep contain, but my goodness, Jimmy Garoppolo completed 20-of-26 passes. He had virtually no pressure on him all game. Blitzes didn't get home. The Broncos were somehow credited with three QB hits in this game but there were barely any pass rush plays that made an impact on this game at all.
For the most part, it was up to Denver's coverage units, and they got beat on a few too many critical plays. Specifically, Damarri Mathis got beat too many times. But Mathis might not have gotten beat so many times if it weren't for the pass rush being non-existent. I'm not sure what the Broncos are going to do here but they need to find a way to dial up pressure, and do it fast.
They had three sacks over the final three games last season and have unfortunately picked up where they left off, with zero sacks on Garoppolo in Week 1.