Stat’s positive: Denver Bronco game 4 stat review

The Denver Broncos have not come back from 21 or more points down to win many games. In fact, according to the Denver Post, this was only the third time in this century that the Broncos won a game when they trailed by 21 or more points.

• Date Opponent Score at time of deficit Final
• Oct. 15, 2012 at Chargers 24-0, 0:24 left in 2nd quarter 35-24
• Sept. 23, 1979 vs. Seahawks 34-10, 9:28 left in 3rd quarter 37-34
• Oct. 23, 1960 vs. Patriots 24-0, 11:59 left in 3rd quarter 31-24
• Nov. 1, 2020 vs. Chargers 24-3, 7:33 left in 3rd quarter 31-30
• Dec. 12, 1982 vs. Rams 21-0, 10:24 left in 2nd quarter 27-24

On Sunday, the Broncos trailed the Chicago Bears 21 with 20 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.

This was only the second time that the Broncos have come from 21 or more down on the road with the last time being that amazing comeback win in 2012 over the Chargers in San Diego that evened the Broncos record at 3-3.

So that’s the good part, along with the facts that the Broncos offense produced 24 points and the Broncos defense had four sacks and nine QB hits, one that led to the tying touchdown.

Now some of the bad parts.

The Bronco defense allowed 471 yards a game after allowing 726 yards. That’s almost 1200 yards allowed over two games (1197). The 2015 Bronco defense allowed 4530 in 16 regular season games. So the 2023 Broncos have allowed one third of that in two games.

The most ever yards allowed in a season was by the 2012 Saints who were coached by Sean Payton. They allowed 7042 yards in 16 regular season games or 440 yards per game. The Broncos have allowed 1846 through four games which is 462 yards per game. If they maintain this pace they will end up allowing an astounding 7846 yards during the season, or 800 more than any team has ever allowed.

The Broncos are currently last in the league in yards allowed per play with 7.05 YPP allowed. The Bears are currently second worst at 6.11. The record for most YPP allowed was set by the 2015 Saints (I’m sensing a trend here). They allowed 6.63. Both the 2012 Saints and the 2015 Saints finished 7-9. For the Broncos to even finish 7-10 this season seems like a pipe dream given how historically bad the defense has been over the last two games.

Justin Fields had the best game of his career against the Broncos. He set or tied career highs in TD passes, passer rating, completion percentage, completions and consecutive completions. While he didn’t run very much, he didn’t need to. It looks like any NFL QB could take apart our defense with how often our secondary was losing guys in coverage and how little pressure we were getting in the first half.

Through four games the Bronco pass rush is the worst in the league generating pressure on only 10.5 percent of dropbacks.

Our defense is allowing a comical 133.4 passer rating against. This is better than the best ever single season passer rating ever recorded, meaning that we are turning every QB in Aaron Rodgers in his prime.

Our run defense is not last in the league, but only second to last. We are giving up a league worst 176 rushing yards per game, but ONLY allowing 5.6 yards per carry. The Bills have faced far fewer rushing attempts but are allowing 6.1 yards per carry through four games. The worst ever rushing defense was the 1950 New York Yanks who allowed 5.63 yards per carry. The worst this century was the 2022 Chargers who allowed 5.42 yards per carry.

And now to the worst of it - the points allowed. The most points ever allowed in an NFL season was 533 by the 1981 Colts who went 2-14. The Broncos are on pace to allow 638 points. The 37.5 per game that we are allowing should come down some, but I could see the Chiefs and the Chargers dropping 50 on this sorry excuse for a Bronco defense.