Glad you waited two weeks for that?
In Sunday night’s game against the New York Giants, a Week 6 matchup that was supposed to be a gimmee – a layup, a cakewalk, a formality – the Broncos came up woefully short. It was as ugly as ugly gets in Denver, an embarrassing loss made worse by a slew of injuries on top of the insult.
Decked out in all blue, the Broncos were manhandled by the previously winless Big Blue in front of a national audience.
Heading into the Buffalo game (the Broncos’ only loss prior to the 23-10 thumping administered by the Giants), head coach Vance Joseph warned everyone: There are no trap games in the NFL.
He offered the same warning this past week.
Either Joseph is dead wrong (and “trap games” are as real as the 266 total yards of offense the Giants tallied against the vaunted “No Fly Zone” and the newly dubbed “Ground Control”), or his 3-2 Broncos could quite possibly be a fraud. Frighteningly, one of those things must be true.
If trap games are indeed real, then Joseph and his staff deserve the lion’s share of the blame for (debatably) the worst loss Mile High Stadium has seen in a long, long time. Why? Because his team was ill-prepared. The Broncos looked like a team that knew (and believed) exactly what every NFL fan in America knew – that the darn good Broncos were going to beat the pants off a depleted Giants team. But the Broncos barely bothered to show up; the effort was anything but inspiring. Denver irresponsibly and obviously counted out the Giants long before the opening kickoff.
That’s on Joseph, who failed to have his team ready, and who failed what should have been an easy, take-home test.
But what if the other scenario is true? What if Joseph isn’t to blame? Could it be that these Broncos – the same ones who whipped the Cowboys by holding Ezekiel Elliott to eight yards, the same ones who’d ascended to No. 7 in the weekly power rankings – have basically been nothing but smoke and mirrors?
The Giants couldn’t possibly have been “0-5 bad.” And, realistically, the moment both the Chiefs and Raiders lost yesterday, the Broncos-Giants game should have taken on an “anything but a trap game” feel. In the AFC West, there was blood in the water, but no sharks were swimming in Denver. Even the most complacent Bronco should have perked up when the news that the Chiefs had lost percolated through the pregame locker room.
Instead, it was the Giants who played with intensity and urgency. Instead, nearly every deficiency the Broncos have was on full display. It looked as if the Broncos were the 0-5 team – not New York.
Either the Broncos abandoned the run game, or they just couldn’t run the ball. Funny thing is, everyone else thus far as run all over New York. Before the game, the Giants ranked 28th in the NFL against the run, allowing 139 yards on the ground. Broncos backs only amassed 46 yards on Sunday night.
And when a team can’t run? Better throw it, right?
Is it fair to start questioning Trevor Siemian?
It’s easy to pin this one on an inability to run or a porous run defense; after all, the aforementioned “Ground Control” surrendered a season-high 148 rushing yards to the G-Men.
But at some point, a team must lean on its quarterback to “go win a game.” Sixteen offensive points by your opponent is anything but unsurmountable.
Siemian couldn’t get it done. His 366 passing yards hardly tell the story. It’s often said that Siemian, a heady decision maker, “won’t get you beat.” Last night, his two interceptions (one of which was returned for a touchdown) “got the Broncos beat.” Denver’s inability to score in the red zone was only topped by Brandon McManus’ inability to convert field goals.
Last night, the Broncos defense was not good. For whatever reason though, that feels more like a fluke. The offense being bad feels more like the cold, hard truth.
Perhaps it was, as Derek Wolfe suggested after the game, just one of those nights. Where the Giants played beyond expectation. Where the Broncos – for whatever reason – didn’t play like the Broncos can play. If that’s the case, order should be restored next week against a Chargers team that was just as bad as the Giants were nine days ago.
Or, perhaps the Broncos, as we’ve suspected from the beginning, have been exposed for what they are: A mediocre team trying desperately to fill more than one hole in its bucket.
