Pat Surtain II called it a slice of “humble pie.” Mike McGlinchey said the Broncos got their “ass kicked.” Bo Nix described it as “pretty pitiful.”
Those descriptors are probably enough to capture the tenor of the Broncos’ locker room after a 31-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night at Arrowhead Stadium. Denver got embarrassed on national television, and will now spend the week trying to rebound from the third-worst defeat of the Sean Payton era.
Here is The Denver Postap stock report on the loss.
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Zach Allen: Even in a game where Denver’s defense was dismal, Allen still managed to post two sacks. Albeit, one of them came when Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes seemingly tripped over his own offensive lineman, but the defensive lineman tied for the team lead in pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. He also didn’t miss a tackle — an anomaly for Denver’s defense Monday.
Without Jonathon Cooper, the Broncos’ pass rush is relying even more on Allen to generate interior rush. Monday was a bad night for Denver’s entire defense, no doubt, but it wasn’t at the fault of its star defensive tackle.
Evan Engram: Engram was the capper to a beautiful Broncos’ scoring drive in the first quarter. Denver lined up Jaylen Waddle in the backfield and Engram was the lone receiver to the left side of the field. Waddle ran a short curl route, while the tight end sneaked behind the defense towards the back left pylon. He got wide open, and Nix found him for an easy touchdown.
First of the year for 🙌
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That play was a hint of what the Broncos’ offensive play-calling could look like this season. Engram said earlier this summer that Waddle’s addition was going to help Denver’s offense a lot, saying “every time he’s on the field you have to account for him.”
Engram played 32 snaps Monday, 13 more than fellow tight end Adam Trautman and 19 more than Nate Adkins. His four catches for 43 yards led the team. He only had two games that crossed that threshold last season.
Pat Bryant: The darling of training camp was arguably the Broncos’ best offensive player. On Denver’s lone touchdown drive, Bryant recorded three catches for three first downs. He led the team in targets with six and recorded four catches for 42 yards.
Interestingly, Bryant split his time across the formation, playing 10 snaps in the slot and 12 on the outside on passing downs, according to PFF. But even Bryantap night wasn’t without blemishes. The second-year wideout committed a holding penalty inside the 5-yard line that backed up the Broncos’ offense after being flagged for a hold earlier in the game. Bryant took accountability for the hold near the goal line after the game, saying it was a bad penalty.
Jeremy Crawshaw: Never a good sign when a team’s punter is a “winner” of the night, but Crawshaw was on the field plenty Monday. The second-year punter boomed six punts for 314 yards, an average of 52.3 yards per punt. He pinned the Chiefs inside the 20-yard line three times and only had one touchback.
Kansas City’s offense was backed up for most of the night — not that it mattered much — and Crawshaw was a large part of that. Denver fans just hope they don’t have to see No. 16 on the field as much at any other point this season.
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Bo Nix: Courtland Sutton said Nix was “pacing like a mountain lion” ahead of Week 1. And while Nix said he wasn’t “necessarily filled with rage” after the game, the quarterback certainly did not play like himself. Nix played one of the worst games of his career, going 17-of-28 for 131 yards, good for a passer rating of 69.2.
Nix prides himself on limiting negative plays and turnovers. Monday night, he was sacked four times — tied for the most in his career — and coughed up the football three times (a career-high). He also threw an interception on the first drive of the game, gifting Kansas City an early score.
Nix did face significant pressure all night. The Chiefs forced Nix to flee the pocket several times and by the end of the game, it appeared the quarterback had lost some faith in the Broncos’ pass protection. He completed just 30.8% of his passes when under pressure, for a measly 11 yards. Not a good start to a massive year for Denver’s QB1.
Trench play: Arguably the most alarming issue from Monday nightap drubbing was the Broncos’ play at the line of scrimmage. The Chiefs’ offensive and defensive lines manhandled Denver’s respective units.
The Broncos couldn’t run the ball, couldn’t protect Nix, rarely pressured Mahomes and certainly couldn’t stop Kenneth Walker III. Denver’s units up front are expected to be the strength of this team, which won’t win many games if those two groups play as poorly as they did Monday.
“We didn’t play well enough, we didn’t execute well enough and thatap how you get your ass kicked in the NFL,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said.
Alex Singleton and the linebackers: Hardly any defensive player was spared from the tackling bug the Broncos had Monday, but Singleton and Justin Strnad had particularly brutal nights. Singleton missed five tackles, got stiff-armed by Chiefs rookie running back Emmett Johnson and committed a personal foul.
Stiff arm. Juke. Rookie Emmitt Johnson pulling out all the moves on this catch-and-run 😤
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Singleton was not overly concerned about the poor tackling postgame.
“We’re going to be fine. We’re gonna work on it this week, we’re going to do what we need to do and we’re going to be fine,” Singleton said.
Davis Webb: We saw glimpses of what a Webb-led offense could do Monday night, but the rookie play-caller’s debut was largely a disaster. Six of Denver’s 11 full offensive drives ended without a first down. The Broncos managed just 61 rushing yards. Prized acquisition Waddle had one catch for 2 yards.
Itap hard to get into a rhythm as a play-caller when your team is consistently behind the sticks, but Webb had also made some puzzling play calls. On a third-and-one near midfield, Denver went empty and failed to convert. The Broncos’ screen game was a non-factor, J.K. Dobbins was MIA in the first half and the Broncos committed a delay of game and used a timeout in the second half to avoid another one.
Nix put the blame on himself and the players in the postgame, saying “we just didn’t put anybody in a good spot today.” Thatap true, but fans’ scrutiny will continue to be directed at Webb if the Broncos’ offense doesn’t rebound next Sunday.
