GLENDALE, Ariz. – Sean Payton hadn’t seen enough of his starting offense just yet.
Or maybe he hadn’t seen enough from them.
After 14 snaps of inconsistent work Friday night, the Broncos coach sent Russell Wilson and company back onto the State Farm Stadium turf for a fourth series. Maybe a different start would have prompted Payton to put his No. 2 unit in on the front end of his estimated 15-18-snap range for the first-team offense. But not on this night.
“We looked at the numbers and we went one more (drive) with the offense,” Payton said. “… Shoot, I wanted to score and leave a good taste in our mouths.”
Wilson and the No. 1 offense did just that.
The veteran quarterback capped his first preseason game since 2019 with a 21-yard touchdown pass on a slant to Jerry Jeudy that came on fourth-and-4, one play after Jeudy dropped an easy first down completion along the sideline.
That sequence might be the best microcosm of the Broncos’ starters 20 snaps worth of offensive work.
“I just seen the end zone and lost focus on the ball,” Jeudy said of the drop. “That’s just a concentration thing.”
“He would have scored on the first one,” Wilson said. “But the thing about Jerry is you have so much confidence in all the things he can do. I thought Jerry and Courtland (Sutton) both played great games. We’ve done a really good job the past couple weeks of really pushing in practice and that showed up on film.”
The Cardinals eventually won the game, 18-17, with a touchdown and two-point conversion from its third stringers with two seconds remaining. That came after third-string QB Ben DiNucci led the Broncos on a go-ahead scoring drive capped by Jaleel McLaughlin’s four-yard TD run.
“Regardless of whether it’s a preseason game, regular-season game, just can’t stand losing,” Payton said. “Especially in that fashion.”
Suffice it to say, Payton will have plenty of teach tape for his offense when the group gets back to Colorado to start its fourth week of camp.
“There will be a number of things we’re excited about and a number of things we’ve got to clean up,” Payton said. “We’re in a race to do that now that we have an opponent on film against us.”
Wilson’s numbers didn’t look bad in the end – 7-of-13 passing for 93 yards and a touchdown, good for a 102.4 quarterback rating.
“He was sharp. He had a good week of practice and we’ll keep working,” Payton said.
All the same, Wilson was fortunate to get a fumble back on a sack in which he tried to flush backward out of the pocket instead of climbing – a recurrence of a bad habit from 2022 – and was inaccurate on several other throws. Wilson missed Adam Trautman in the flat on his first throw of the night and didn’t give Courtland Sutton a chance for yards after the catch on an easy throw later, but he also looked comfortable in the play-action game in delivering shots down the field to Sutton for 14 and Jeudy for 19.
Wilson was hit four times in the first three drives, an inauspicious start for a rebuilt offensive line that played Friday night without right tackle Mike McGlinchey.
Running back Javonte Williams went through warmups but did not play. In the starting spot, Samaje Perine looked strong and difficult to tackle while picking up 26 yards on six attempts.
Payton is not going to call 14 pass plays to every six rush attempts during the regular season the way he did Friday night with Wilson on the field.
“It just kind of went that way balance-wise,” Payton said. “They’re a defense similar to ours where they get some heavy fronts. I think early on we’ll be frustrated with our run tape when we look at it.”
Wilson and the offense scored once and put themselves in position for points one other time. But they also squandered a golden chance for points and went three-and-out on their first drive.
Payton is a stickler for situational football and the Broncos had more bad than good in that department early.
The offense couldn’t convert after Essang Bassey set them up at the Arizona 41-yard line with an interception. The starters went 1 of 5 on third downs. Jeudy had the drop. Both kickers in Denver’s competition, Brett Maher (47 yards) and Elliott Fry (50 yards) missed their first field goal attempts before Fry hit a 55-yarder at the end of the first half to put Denver up, 10-0. Later Maher had a field goal blocked when reserve offensive lineman Luke Wattenberg got bowled over at the line of scrimmage.
