They are worse than Washington and Carolina, teams starting over with first-year coaches.
They are worse than Jacksonville and Detroit, teams who are undoubtedly flawed.
And they are worse than Miami, a team starting a 37-year-old quarterback.
Ladies and gentleman, let us introduce you to the 2020 Broncos, an NFL also-ran whose season is spiraling down the drain before the first significant Denver metropolitan area snow sticks to the pavement.
Sunday’s 28-10 snoozer-of-a-loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Empower Field at Mile High dropped the Broncos to 0-3 in consecutive years for the first time in franchise history.
Their offense can’t protect the quarterback (13 sacks allowed in the last two games). Their defense struggles to harass the quarterback (four sacks in three games). Their special teams is uniquely awful (a safety allowed last week and a blocked punt allowed this week to the Buccaneers). And their coaching staff needs to quickly act or, gulp, this season could be headed toward a 3-13/4-12 train-wreck that results in myriad pink slips.
The Tennessee loss was bad — the Broncos blew a late lead. The Pittsburgh loss was bad — the Broncos lost Drew Lock and Courtland Sutton in the first half and spotted the Steelers a 17-3 lead. But the Tampa Bay loss was different — a different kind of bad since the Broncos did little to get the 5,700 fans out of their seats.
As soon as Tampa Bay turned a blocked punt into a 7-0 lead just 5:02 into the game, a feeling of inevitably gripped the stadium.
“We just have to all look in the mirror and just figure this out because we’re way too talented to be 0-3 and we’re way too talented to be losing these games,” said receiver Tim Patrick, who scored the Broncos’ only touchdown. “Thank God we have this quick turnaround.”
The Broncos will board their charter plane Wednesday afternoon for the trip to New Jersey and Thursday night’s game against the winless and hapless New York Jets.
The positive of a quick turnaround: The Broncos can begin grinding on the next opponent instead of wallowing in the first three losses.
The negative of a quick turnaround: The Broncos don’t have a starting quarterback for the game.
No, really.
Even last year, when the Broncos’ offense was consistently impotent, coach Vic Fangio never made an in-game quarterback change. After practice Friday, Fangio said Jeff Driskel was his starter “right now.”
Right now lasted less than a game.
Driskel (17-of-30 for 176 yards, one touchdown and one interception) was benched with 9:56 remaining for Brett Rypien.
“We were struggling with our pass offense and I just wanted to get a new guy in there and see if he could get the ball out of his hands a little quicker, direct the protections and provide a little spark there,” Fangio said.
Said Driskel: “As a competitor, you want to be out there and finish the game. But (Fangio) made a decision and we rolled with it.”
Rypien completed his first eight passes before a fourth-down interception at the goal line. In Broncos Country, that counts as a spark.
It’s hard to imagine Fangio returning to Driskel. So will it be Rypien (called up from the practice squad Friday) or Blake Bortles (two Broncos practices under his belt)?
“We’ll make that call quickly,” Fangio said.
Bortles, even though he’s new to town, may be the best option because of his experience in general and his experience in playing on short weeks in particular. But at least Rypien gave the coaches something to think about. He looked in command while directing a no-huddle situation.
“I’ve been preparing to be ready to go at any time,” Rypien said. “The drive went pretty well. Obviously, I wanted to finish it better on fourth down.”
Once Fangio answers the question about his Thursday night quarterback, issues that are just as serious need to be addressed.
What does their defense do well? They allowed Tampa Bay to convert 8-of-16 third downs, failed to create a takeaway to acquire any momentum and allowed three Tom Brady completions of at least 30 yards.
Can their offensive line be salvaged? The Broncos allowed 24 disruptions (seven sacks, 12 knockdowns and five pressures) to Pittsburgh and six sacks, including a safety, to Tampa Bay.
Who can the Broncos actually beat? The Jets will be looking at Thursday as their Homecoming Game. After that for the Broncos is a trip to New England and home games against Miami and Kansas City before the bye.
Yes, it’s possible: The Broncos could be 0-7 at their bye.
Play like they did against Tampa Bay and a goose-egg entering November is on the table.
The Buccaneers were never threatened in building leads of 10-0, 17-3 and 23-3. They spent the second half in semi-cruise control.
The Broncos’ first six possessions: Blocked punt, punt, punt, field goal and punt. Driskel’s only bright spot was a two-minute drill to end the first half with a seven-yard touchdown pass to Patrick.
“I know we have a young group on the offense as a whole and I think we aren’t where we can be,” Glasgow said. “Frankly, that is a case for optimism, but at the same time, the reality of the situation is we’re underperforming and underachieving. That’s something we have to work through as an offense.”
The Broncos have a lot of things to work through and a short time to work through them.
Already in the AFC West cellar, the Broncos are on the cusp of taking up residence in the NFL cellar. That’s how bad September has been … and how bad October could get.
