Penalties, missed opportunities doom Broncos in road loss to Ravens
Sep 23, 2018, 3:11 PM
Missed opportunities and costly penalties doomed the Denver Broncos third comeback bid in as many weeks as they fall to the Baltimore Ravens on the road Sunday 27-14.
After the game, head coach Vance Joseph estimated that the penalties on his team cost the Broncos nearly three scores.
“You’re playing a tough Baltimore team on the road and you have 13 penalties for 120 yards and it really honestly cost us 20 points out there,” Joseph said. “That obviously killed us today.”
One in particular, a personal foul by Phillip Lindsay, not only took Denver out of field goal range late in the first half but also saw the rookie running back ejected for throwing a punch.
“I didn’t see what happened, but obviously, he can’t do it. If that’s accurate, he can’t do that,” Joseph said after the game. “He’s obviously a big part of what we do offensively. He’s our double returner today. He’s kickoff and punt returns today.
“Losing him, that’s a big deal. Plus, the penalty yards after that. We can’t do it.”
Despite an ugly performance at times, however, Denver still remained within striking distance late in the game.
“To play as bad as it felt at times and to still have a chance to be in the ball game, I think it means we can be really good,” quarterback Case Keenum said after the game.
But ultimately, Denver was unable to take advantage of its opportunities to get back into the game, including a costly red zone interception by Keenum with nine minutes to go down two scores.
“They’ve got a great team, but there was moments in there where we could have had the game. But we weren’t able to capitalize,” linebacker Von Miller said after the game. “Whenever you go on the road and play a great team like that, you’ve got to capitalize. You’ve got to put the ball in. You’ve got to get off the field on third down. You’ve got to do all of those things just to have a chance to win.
“We didn’t do any of that stuff and we still had a shot to win until late in the game.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.
