The Broncos Got Their First Win. Nothing Else Has Changed.
Photo Credit: Andy Cross, Denver Post
Week 4 in the NFL contained a lot of the improbable. We saw the Eagles and Commanders play a shootout, the Colts come back to force the Rams into OT, and the Buccaneers get a big win over the Saints, even without wide receiver Mike Evans for most of the game. We also had a bit of the seemingly impossible, what with the Bengals getting completely outclassed by the Titans and Houston’s embarrassment of Pittsburgh.
However, in addition to all the chaos that we saw this week, we also came extremely close to seeing the truly unfathomable transpire in Chicago. The Broncos escaped Soldier Field with their first win, but for a long while, it looked like Denver was going to take over the Bears’ title of “most hapless team in the league.” They didn’t take their first lead until minutes before the end of the game, and were aided by some jaw-dropping mistakes and poor decisions by Chicago. Turnovers, coaching mishaps, and a general lack of talent doomed the Bears on Sunday; But this article isn’t about the Bears. Enough has been said about how terrible that team is, and how bleak their short-term future looks. This article is about the team that beat them- or, more accurately, the team that Chicago lost to.
A lot of Broncos coverage will use the phrases “feel-good win” or “turning point” to describe the Broncos comeback on Sunday. These descriptions are counterfactual. What happened in Chicago is not indicative of a team going in the right direction. The Broncos did not play like a team that’s figuring it out, or like a team that’s prepared to compete with much-less-inept squads they will face down the road.
Comebacks are great for mood and morale, and those things absolutely matter in this sport; But all the morale in the world cannot change the fact that this team, for the vast majority of the day, got outplayed by these bears. A win is a win, but not all wins are good ones. Optimism in the face of adversity is always a good trait to have, but fans who are convincing themselves that Denver’s win is indicative of anything except Chicago’s incompetency are setting themselves up for disappointment.
The Denver Broncos are a bad, bad football team. There’s a good shot they are 2-6 at Halloween, with a real chance at 1-7. The win saved the situation in Denver from turning truly disastrous, but it seems like an inevitability we will get there eventually.
Photo Credit: Andy Cross, Denver Post
The only place to start when dissecting Sunday’s contest was, again, Denver’s defense. Coming into this game, many fans had already dubbed it the “Caleb Williams Bowl” because whoever lost this showdown of futility would likely be on their way to taking the prized quarterback in next year’s draft. Williams has been strongly linked to Chicago in particular because third-year QB Justin Fields has struggled mightily through the early portion of the season. So naturally, he had the best game of his career against the Broncos.
For the first three quarters of the game, Fields and the Bears marched up and down the field against the Broncos. The bleeding stopped when Denver strung some stops together, including a scoop and score that tied the game and will go down as one of the funnier plays of the year (Sorry, Justin!) The Bears proceeded to make some of the most inexplicable decisions we’ve seen in a good while and lost the game on a Justin Fields interception on their final drive. It was great to see the defense finally play up to their ability in the fourth quarter, but those first three did absolutely nothing to ease concerns over their play. The fact that they required so self-inflicted mistakes by Chicago to pull things out also isn’t ideal.
Figuring out what to make of Denver’s offense is… complicated. On one hand, they just completed a comeback in which they scored 24 unanswered points to win a thrilling contest. But that comes with the massive caveat that this effort came against the Bears…and also didn’t start until the late second half. Russell Wilson looked efficient and executed the offense well, and though he took his sweet time to do so, Sean Payton eventually schemed guys open to get the offense moving. The problem with Denver’s day on offense is the same as the one on defense: They played well enough to pull out a victory, but this is the easiest opponent the Broncos will have for the rest of the year, by a significant margin. If it takes until the third quarter to get going against the Bears defense, what are they going to do against the Jets? If they’re giving up almost 30 points to Chicago, how are they supposed to stop teams like Buffalo, Kansas City and Detroit?
I’m fully aware of how Eeyore-esque this article might sound, especially in light of the fact that Denver won this game; But it’s hard to have many glowing takeaways about a game in which the Broncos beat a team as dreadful as Chicago by the skin of their teeth. As I said before, I don’t see this team as one on the right track, because that kind of team would have beat the brakes off the Bears. It took everything they had, in addition to the Bears making unforced errors, to get out of Chicago with a win. That can’t bode well for the rest of the schedule. If this is truly who these Broncos are- and that isn’t a crazy assumption, given that it’s now October- then they are not going to win many games this season. The defense is historically bad. The offense is only good in spurts. The coaching and decision making has been questionable at best. The Broncos have an array of problems that seem to be getting better only incrementally and one of the toughest portions of their schedule is on tap. To say things look bleak right now is an understatement.
Photo Credit: Andy Cross, Denver Post
And yet, they’re coming off a win. A thrilling, exciting win that required grit and perseverance. A win that, on paper, should provide plenty of morale, which could be processed into momentum if they can beat the Jets next week. The Broncos absolutely need more than morale to turn this thing around, but they need somewhere to start. If they can win that game against New York- one that has been circled since the beginning of the year- that might be just the spark that Denver needs to become the team that they say they can be. Getting that win won’t be easy. The Jets defense is one of the best units in football. The Jets offense, for all their problems, has an abundance of talent. I, for one, don’t believe they win this game. I think they lose to New York fairly handily, and most people seem to feel the same way. But that means the opportunity for Denver is all the more fertile. They can prove me wrong. They can prove a lot of people wrong. Their backs are against the wall, and they’re facing a heavily favored opponent that they also have personal beef with. If you’re looking for a real turning point, this is the one. Whether they turn this wagon around or they keep driving down the road to failure is entirely in the hands of the Denver Broncos. Whatever happens, Sunday will be the day we find out who these Broncos really are- for better or worse.
