Wilson: ‘We should have won that game tonight’

It’s getting old trying to figure out which element of the Broncos’ offense is the most to blame for its horrendous performance week after week.

Is it the coaching?

Is the quarterback?

Is it the O-line?

Is it not eating Wheaties for breakfast???

It hardly matters pinpointing the exact source to blame because ultimately it’s some of all four, including the Wheaties.™

But it is validating when former Broncos’ wideout Emmanuel Sanders - a guy who knows “wide receiver heaven” once existed in Denver - is asking the same questions we all keep screaming at the TV while watching the Broncos’ offense cruise right off a cliff.

1st-and-10: run the ball, gain five.

2nd-and-4: run the ball, gain four.

3rd-and-1: run the ba...oh wait. No obviously, Broncos should definitely go deep middle to KJ Hamler there, even though the run game is working, the QB has barely completed a pass since the second quarter, and you only need ONE yard.

Just ... ugh.

“I look at the overtime and you’ve got 3rd-and-1, you’ve got Latavius Murray, he’s averaging four or five yards a pop, so you’ve got 3rd-and-1 and you pass the ball,” Sanders said on the Broncos’ post-game live show. “For me, I feel like it’s kinda backward, y’know?”

It’s exactly backward, and it’s absolutely infuriating.

In the Broncos’ first drive of the game that ended in a field goal, Russell Wilson passed to five different targets to move the chains, including Courtland Sutton, Andrew Beck, Eric Tomlinson, KJ Hamler, and Kendall Hinton.

For the Broncos’ only touchdown drive, which came on the next possession, Wilson tossed the ball to Montrell Washington, Hamler, Latavius Murray, Jerry Jeudy, and then a touchdown pass to Greg Dulcich.

But then, as if the Broncos were scared to use what was working, the pass plays vanished and 1st-and-10 could seemingly be nothing other than a run.

Former Broncos safety Nick Ferguson was equally baffled.

“What happened to the pass plays?” Ferguson said. “Greg Dulcich finally came back, caught a touchdown and the tight ends disappeared.”

And all the head coach could offer was to express his disappointment.

“It’s very disappointing. I think all those guys know that. They’re disappointed. I’m disappointed,” Nathaniel Hackett said after the game. “Every single person has to look at themselves - how we can all get better? Whether it is the penalties or the self-inflicted wounds, what we can correct...we have to be better as a team all around. It starts with me and the offense.”

Russell Wilson, who went 10-for-10, 116 yards and a TD to start, completed just five passes out of 18 the rest of the game.

“We could’ve been cleaner in the second half,” quarterback Russell Wilson said. “That’s not good enough. We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to play sharper. We’ve got to find ways to make plays, we’ve got to find ways to continue to get first downs, touchdowns.”

Hackett said the offense needed to have a sense of urgency, but Wilson didn’t think that was really an issue Monday night.

“I definitely think we had the urgency this week. I thought we had that sense of urgency playing early on in the game, and I still think we had it throughout the game,” Wilson said. “But in these matchups, you have to have that knockout punch.”

And instead of delivering that punch, the Broncos just keep taking it to the chin and then asking for another.

“It’s a good football team out there, but we’re just as good, if not better, we feel like,” Wilson ssaid. “We’ve got to answer the call. Adversity is definitely challenging us right now, but the only way I know through it all is just continue to work hard, continue to believe. It felt like we should’ve won that game tonight.”

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