Pritchard: Turnovers, sputtering offense do in Broncos once again
Nov 19, 2017, 10:05 PM | Updated: 10:06 pm
1. Turnovers do in the Broncos once again
The Denver Broncos officially have more turnovers than touchdowns.
After Sunday’s loss, Denver has collected five rushing and 12 passing touchdowns. Tack on two defensive touchdowns and the Broncos have 19 total on the season.
Compare that with the nine fumbles lost and 14 interceptions thrown, and Denver has a turnover-to-touchdown ratio of 24:19.
“We moved the ball offensively, but we had two turnovers. They both led to points. That’s 13 points there. That’s the game again,” head coach Vance Joseph said after the game.
“Effort is good. Guys are making plays, but you can’t turn the ball over. That’s the night. You can’t do it.”
And Brock Osweiler’s interception in the end zone, particularly, made it hard for the Broncos to win the game.
“Bottom line, no excuses. I can’t turn the football over. It’s something that we’ve talked about now going on over a month. Just protect the football, have zero turnovers at the end of the game and see where we are,” Osweiler said after the game. “And I think, tonight, if we would’ve played a brand of football like that, we would’ve been in a much better position.
“But at the end of the day, give credit to the Bengals. They came here, they had a great gameplan, they played hard and they forced two turnovers. We need to play better.”
2. You get what you pay for
The Broncos allocate among the fewest dollars to the quarterback position in the National Football League.
Per Spotrac.com, the Broncos spend just more than 2 percent of its cap space on quarterbacks to the tune of $3.56 million. That’s more than just five teams — the Houston Texans, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, and Green Bay Packers.
When you can’t convert on third downs and have trouble scoring inside the red zone, it’s a direct correlation to inability at the Broncos quarterback position.
Denver must upgrade this position soon.
3. Broncos fail to move the chains
Ordinarily, converting 57 percent of your third-down situations is pretty good. But not when you have 21 third down situations.
Twenty-one? Really?
The Broncos can’t generate big plays for chunk yards. They’re not staying ahead of the chains by winning on early downs.
This has made playing offense way too difficult.
