Initial thoughts from the Broncos’ loss to the Raiders in Week 18 at Allegiant Stadium:
1. Payton gets too cute again: Sean Payton’s got at least two things in common with his old pal (and predecessor) Vic Fangio: He trusts his defense too much at the end of the half, and his game-management gets all kinds of warped as a result of it. Armchair quarterbacks on “X” will blame Fabian Moreau — and the dude had a rough, rough day in Las Vegas — for the touchdown drive that put the game away, but ultimately, the root of it was Payton getting cute, just like he did against New England. Having stuffed the Raiders for a 1-yard gain after a great punt pinned Vegas to its own 2-yard-line, the Denver coach called a timeout before a second-and-9 opportunity from the home 3-yard-line with 1:40 left in the half. Six plays later, a 47-yard pass from Aiden O’Connell to Tre Tucker put the Raiders on the Denver 15 with 39 seconds left. Five plays after THAT, Davante Adams outfoxed Ja’Quan McMillian for a 3-yard catch and 16-7 lead, effectively putting this one away. If Greg Penner is paying for genius situational coaching, he hasn’t gotten it yet.
2. Third quarter blues: Jarrett Stidham or Russell Wilson behind center, it didn’t matter. No NFL offense came out of the locker room as tepidly as the Broncos. Sunday’s scoreless third quarter was the franchise’s 10th in 17 games this season. Although, hey, Denver’s 2.6 points per third quarter is actually a slight improvement over its post-halftime clip a year ago under Nathaniel Hackett. Very slight, given an average of 2.5 points in third stanza during the dumpster fire that was the 2022 season.
3. Jeudy’s moves: Jerry Jeudy’s 24-yard, zig-zagging, second quarter touchdown didn’t just leave FOX Sports analyst Matt Millen, and this isn’t hard, breathless (“That was stupid great,” the former NFL player and GM gushed). It was his longest TD catch of the season — 11 yards back in Week 8 was the previous high, which was as sad to discover as it was to type — and his longest score since Week 1 of the 2022 campaign (67 yards). Jeudy’s TD catch was his third of 20 yards or more in his last two seasons after he’d recorded two as a rookie in 2020 and one in 2021.
4.Crosby? Yep, again. And again: If you were worried coming in about the matchup of utlity/swing tackle Cam Fleming and Pro Bowl pass-rusher Maxx Crosby, those fears were almost immediately justified in the first half. Crosby’s penetration, or even the threat of it, had the Broncos behind the sticks for most of the first half. Over the first two quarters, Denver faced eight second-and-9-or-more scenarios and five third-and-9-or-more chances. Chipping helped early, but not much. At halftime, the hosts had sacked Stidham three times and hit him six.
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