When NFL teams aren’t very good, they get hype wins against good teams every once in a while and bad-looking losses against bad teams at about the same frequency.

The Denver Broncos just still aren’t very good.

I believe they are as talented as they showed last week against the Dallas Cowboys.

I also believe they are as bad as they looked this week against the Philadelphia Eagles.

I really wasn’t surprised in the least by the outcome of this football game, though. The coaching, game planning, and execution by the players of this team is too inconsistent to expect them to go on some big winning streak (though as a fan, I am always hopeful that I’ll see a winning streak at every opportunity).

Defense

I knew we were in trouble just by how the team looked against the Eagles in the first drive. I don’t follow the Eagles. I don’t watch NFC football much at all, honestly. But I can read articles about other teams and know before the game starts that the Eagles primarily run the football well and have a QB that can scramble. It didn’t look to me like Vic Fangio’s defense knew about that in the first drive.

The game defensively didn’t go well from there. The second level of the defense never looked up to the task of defending the Eagles and this largely led to the team looking pathetic on their home field.

Front 7

Baron Browning let up on the play thinking the pass was incomplete and his man on a crosser made the catch. It was pretty poor effort and I’d love to say he was the only player I saw this from, but that is far from the truth. The whole defense looked flat and unprepared to play football. The sad thing is, we lost Browning to injury and our run defense got much worse.

Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

Dre’Mont Jones was a silver lining on the defensive side of the ball. He had a great penetration up the middle for a TFL. On the next drive while double-teamed he causes a fumble to kill the Eagles’ drive. One of the most maddening things to see is having a team with so many talented players that just can’t get over the hump because too many areas of the team are lacking (in leadership namely).

Secondary

The only guy I want to talk about in the secondary is Pat Surtain II. On paper, the guy had a really bad game. I just want to point out that on most of the throws completed on him, it was the result of an absolutely spot-on throw by Hurts. Surtain was almost always in the right place, but couldn’t defend a perfect ball.

Offense

The thing that sickens me the most about this team is just how atrocious this offense looks most of the time. When we lose, watching the offense is very very hard.

The Broncos coaches may want to try paying closer attention to the people they have and what works. I have two examples here:

1. If one of your running backs breaks tackles at a freakish rate and opponents are almost always scheming against the run, you may want to put in that tackle-breaking back as your starter so you don’t constantly have short drives early that contribute to your team getting in a hole.
2. If the tight ends are getting the majority of the throws and your team has looked really good in 12 personnel, you may want to use it more often instead of always trotting out 11 personnel even if you think that is your more talented package

I find it pretty difficult to believe that we had a game without Pat Shurmur calling plays and the offense looked worse. Maybe we should thank our lucky stars for Shurmur?

Special Teams

Tom McMahon should have been fired 2 years ago. He’s easily one of the worst 3 ST coordinators in the NFL. We have had ST gaffes for what seems like an eternal string of games in a row. At what point do you hold your coordinators accountable for sucking at what they are paid to do?

Final Thoughts

I really am sorry, Broncos Country, but this team sucks. I am just as hopeful every week we play that we’ll see the good side of the Broncos and end the season with more wins than losses, but the No Bull in me sees a team that is still a coaching overhaul and a QB upgrade away from being a contender.