Denver Broncos Beat Jets 13-11, but Offense Exposed in Win

Rise and shine, Broncos Country; your Denver Broncos beat the Jets 13-11 in merry ol' England, blokes.

Broncos fans, you've got to be knackered after that game. Not only was kickoff at the break of dawn, but Denver's offensive ineptitude wore down fans' psyches too.

This was a game the Broncos had a chance to really prove they are legitimate contenders. Instead, they barely beat the Jets, who are so bad they'd be relegated if this was English football.

Denver Broncos Beat Jets 13-11 in Funky, FUGLY Game

How are we feeling, Broncos Country?

Even the Broncos official Instagram acknowledged it was an ugly win. The caption reads "A win is a win." lmao.

Hey, the Broncos are 4-2 and did lead the AFC West by half a game. (The Chargers won and now lead again.)

But, man, what a regression from Bo Nix and the offense. And it all has to do with Sean Payton's play calling. And his coaching.

Sean Payton Coaching Issues

We all knew this game was a trap game. It's why Payton was asked about it during the week and lead up to the contest. The Jets were 0-5 and the Broncos just beat the Eagles. And it was in London, which is a distraction all its own.

And yet, Payton didn't get this team mentally prepared enough to dominate and walk to a win.

That's on him and the rest of the staff.

Well, maybe not Vance Joseph. The defense again led Denver to a victory. It was the case all last season and has continued to hold true this year.

That says a lot about Payton, too. He's a supposed offensive genius. He drafted Nix as his quarterback, but still gave him too much to handle early on in his rookie season. And Payton is supposed to be able to call a good game offensively.

And yet, he was just faffing around most of the day.

The Broncos actually started out decently offensively, until Troy Franklin fumbled after gaining a first down. Their second drive they scored a field goal; points on the board is somefin' mate.

Then, their third drive was their best of the day. They went 69 yards in 9 plays and Nix spread the ball around, including a wide open touchdown to Nate Adkins. At that point, Nix was 11-13 for 101 yards and a touchdown.

But for whatever reason, Payton got really conservative and too cute with his play calling. They went nearly two quarters without a passing yard, from the 4:17 mark in the 2nd until 10:09 left in the game.

The Broncos beat the Jets, but on the day the Broncos drives looked like this:

• Fumble
• Field goal
• Touchdown
• Punt
• Punt
• Punt
• Safety
• Punt
• Punt
• Field goal
• Punt

And that final punt was even more frustrating because Denver had a chance to run the clock and secure the victory. They did that—for the most part—to beat the Eagles.

So, to see them do that against a great Eagles team and not be able to do it against the sorry Jets the very next week is maddening.

Great teams do the little things like take a lead and then run the clock out to win. Mediocre teams don't, and put themselves in jeopardy of losing.

The Broncos are Merely Mediocre, Mid

After last week's massive win, Denver seemed to be hitting their stride and like they could be legitimate contenders in the AFC.

Now, even after a third straight victory, it seems even more clear the Broncos are a middle-of-the-pack football team.

Denver's defense is arguably the best in the NFL this year.

On Sunday in London, they sacked Justin Fields nine times on the day. Nine! They played "to the nines" brov.

That came up one short of the team-record 10 sacks in a game which happened way back in the fall of '69.

The Good

Nik Bonitto is leading the NFL with 8 sacks on the season; he's on pace for 23 which would be a team-record. The Broncos are on pace for an insane 85 sacks, which would easily be a new single-season NFL record (72, Bears in 1984).

Denver held the Jets to -10 net passing yards on the game.

And yet, the Broncos are, as the Zoomers say, mid. All because the offense is playing like one of the worst units in the NFL.

The Bad

After the Broncos beat the Jets 13-11 today, their offensive points per game fell to 21.7 which will be in the bottom-half of the NFL when all the games are done this week.

Payton's offense had their worst rushing game of the year, with a mere 78 yards on the ground. Denver was supposed to dominate a bad Jets defense on the ground. But the line got bullied without Ben Powers at left guard.

The Ugly

Denver had 68 total yards in the second half. Their 246 total yards were a new low for this season, they went 5-15 on 3rd downs, and lost the turnover battle.

Quinn Meinerz held in the end zone, giving the Jets a free 2 points on a safety.

Oh, and the special teams quit on a play to allow a 72-yard kickoff return that set up the Jets' second field goal on the day.

There are multiple tiers of teams in the NFL. It can be as complicated as you want it to be, but I like to look at it as three tiers.

There's bad, mediocre, and great teams.

The Broncos were mostly bad for a decade. Outside of 2016 and last year, they were awful.

Last season, Payton and Co. pushed Denver from bad to the mediocre tier. That's a huge step in the right direction.

But the Broncos can't go from mediocre to great with the offense weighing down the whole team.

What Comes Next for the Broncos?

All Payton and Co. can do is continue to work on becoming a consistent offensive unit.

That starts at the top with his play calling, and then moves down to Nix's up-and-down play, and then to the other individual players.

A play caller needs to confuse and surprise his opponents while picking calls that play to his talent's strengths. It was frustrating to see him fall off after starting out by calling a good game.

On one 3rd and 4 out of halftime, he called a fake handoff, then screen to the back which was dead in the water. He called a fullback dive on 3rd and 10 later in the game. And when the Broncos need a first down badly, he ran the ball with Marvin Mims with multiple receivers on the field. It failed miserably.

Nix was good but not great today, and it's a thankless position at times. Quarterbacks have to be perfect or their small mistakes will be glaring. Like the throw that went out of bounds from the Jets' 9 yard line. Denver had to settle for a field goal and the 2-point lead with 5:06 left on the clock.

As for the others:

• Franklin has to hold onto the ball and not fumble.
• Menierz was an All-Pro last year. He can't hold in the end zone for a safety.
• Mims fumbled and luckily recovered it.

We saw glimpses of how good this offense could be in the Bengals and Eagles games. But they can't just have a few solid drives here and there throughout the course of a game. Payton needs to demand more and do more.

Next week, Denver faces the other New York team, the Giants, in New Jersey. The G-Men just beat the Eagles on Thursday night, so they've had a longer week off of rest. And they're high on confidence right now.

The Giants are 2-4, but if Denver's not on top of their game, they'll lose.