Denver Broncos Week 1 offensive performance was very misleading, and here's why

Las Vegas Raiders v Denver Broncos
Las Vegas Raiders v Denver Broncos / Justin Edmonds/GettyImages
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The Denver Broncos only scored 16 points in Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season, but the offense was much better than the point total indicates. I know, the 16 points feels like a sick joke at this point for the Denver Broncos. The 2022 team scored just 16.9 per game, which was the worst in the entire NFL.

So, you'd think that a Sean Payton-led offense would be able to put out more than 16 points against a bad Raiders defense, right? Well, no. However, the Week 1 performance from Russell Wilson and the offense is a bit misleading, and it's misleading for two big reasons that need talked about. So, let's talk about them.

Firstly, Will Lutz. Lutz is the team's solution at kicker for now, at least. Not only did the former New Orleans Saint miss an extra point, but he missed a field goal too. Lutz was solely responsible for costing the Denver Broncos four points on Sunday. So, that would bring Denver's point total to 20 instead of 16, so you could say that Lutz cost Denver a win in Week 1.

That's really as deep as we can make it. Will Lutz stunk it up on Sunday and cost the Broncos four points.

The second reason why this offensive output is misleading is how many offensive drives Denver has. Andrew Mason outlined this nicely on Twitter:

Andrew Mason clears this up a bit and informs us that a typical NFL game yields about 10 possessions for the offense. Well, in six offensive drives, Denver scored 16 points total, so that is indeed 2.6 points per possession. If Denver had 10 drives on offense, they were on pace to score about 26 points, which would have easily won the game.

It's not fair to dog on the offense for only scoring 16 points when the Broncos' defense was much worse and the offense only got six possessions to score points, AND when your kicker misses four points worth of kicks. Russell Wilson looked sharp. Running backs Javonte Williams and Samaje Perine looked good, and the offensive line looked pretty stout as well.

Next. Winners/Losers Week 1. Winners and Losers from Broncos' Week 1 loss to Raiders. dark

Let's have some perspective here in Week 1. The Denver Broncos' offense was fine in Week 1.

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