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Preliminary ideas from the Broncos’ loss to the Raiders in Week 18 at Allegiant Stadium:
1. Payton will get too cute once more: Sean Payton’s bought a minimum of two issues in frequent along with his outdated pal (and predecessor) Vic Fangio: He trusts his protection an excessive amount of on the finish of the half, and his game-management will get every kind of warped on account of it. Armchair quarterbacks on “X” will blame Fabian Moreau — and the dude had a tough, tough day in Las Vegas — for the landing drive that put the sport away, however finally, the basis of it was Payton getting cute, similar to he did in opposition to New England. Having stuffed the Raiders for a 1-yard achieve after an ideal punt pinned Vegas to its personal 2-yard-line, the Denver coach known as a timeout earlier than a second-and-9 alternative from the house 3-yard-line with 1:40 left within the half. Six performs later, a 47-yard move from Aiden O’Connell to Tre Tucker put the Raiders on the Denver 15 with 39 seconds left. 5 performs after THAT, Davante Adams outfoxed Ja’Quan McMillian for a 3-yard catch and 16-7 lead, successfully placing this one away. If Greg Penner is paying for genius situational teaching, he hasn’t gotten it but.
2. Third quarter blues: Jarrett Stidham or Russell Wilson behind middle, it didn’t matter. No NFL offense got here out of the locker room as tepidly because the Broncos. Sunday’s scoreless third quarter was the franchise’s tenth in 17 video games this season. Though, hey, Denver’s 2.6 factors per third quarter is definitely a slight enchancment over its post-halftime clip a 12 months in the past below Nathaniel Hackett. Very slight, given a mean of two.5 factors in third stanza in the course of the dumpster hearth that was the 2022 season.
3. Jeudy’s strikes: Jerry Jeudy’s 24-yard, zig-zagging, second quarter landing didn’t simply depart FOX Sports activities analyst Matt Millen, and this isn’t onerous, breathless (“That was silly nice,” the previous NFL participant and GM gushed). It was his longest TD catch of the season — 11 yards again in Week 8 was the earlier excessive, which was as unhappy to find because it was to kind — and his longest rating since Week 1 of the 2022 marketing campaign (67 yards). Jeudy’s TD catch was his third of 20 yards or extra in his final two seasons after he’d recorded two as a rookie in 2020 and one in 2021.
4.Crosby? Yep, once more. And once more: In case you have been frightened coming in in regards to the matchup of utlity/swing sort out Cam Fleming and Professional Bowl pass-rusher Maxx Crosby, these fears have been virtually instantly justified within the first half. Crosby’s penetration, and even the specter of it, had the Broncos behind the sticks for a lot of the first half. Over the primary two quarters, Denver confronted eight second-and-9-or-more eventualities and 5 third-and-9-or-more probabilities. Chipping helped early, however not a lot. At halftime, the hosts had sacked Stidham 3 times and hit him six.
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