The Broncos will wake up Monday morning with nothing but coal in their stockings.
They’ve got only themselves to blame for a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas.
Needing three wins to close the season and hosting the 3-11 New England Patriots on Christmas Eve, the Broncos marred their own holiday weekend with a loss that all but seals their 2023 fate.
The offense: Putrid at the start, roaring to life too late.
The other two units: Strong early, only to sustain massive letdowns at critical junctures.
The final count: New England 26, Denver 23 after Chad Ryland drilled a 56-yard field goal with 2 seconds left to stick a fork right through the Broncos.
The real damage is this: Any hope of making it out of a jumbled AFC playoff picture practically speaking went out the window when the Broncos dropped to 7-8 for the season. It’ll take 10 wins minimum barring something exceedingly unlikely happening. The teams that hit that mark will undoubtedly be more injured than this Denver team is. At least a couple of them will be rolling with backup quarterbacks, unlike the Broncos, who have had a healthy Russell Wilson the entire season.
Some of them will likely earn wins against actual good teams down the stretch, which the Broncos didn’t even need with the Patriots, Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders left on their slate when they woke up Sunday morning.
With all of that opportunity sitting there and begging to be grabbed, however, the Broncos found a way to lose rather than survive and advance.
“I told these guys that I am disappointed. I’m disappointed for them,” head coach Sean Payton said afterward. “I’m sure they are too. Tomorrow, you have to spend time and enjoy Christmas with your families. Then we have to come back to work Wednesday and we have to focus on winning a game. We had a home game today and an opportunity to keep going.
“We didn’t take advantage of it, but we have our next opportunity next week and we kind of go from there.”
Despite their best efforts to the contrary, Payton’s team had a chance late.
They cut a 16-point deficit to 23-15 with an 83-yard touchdown drive capped by a 3-yard Wilson touchdown pass to tight end Lucas Krull, then tacked on the two-point conversion with a screen to Brandon Johnson, playing in Courtland Sutton’s spot after Sutton was lost in the first half to a concussion.
After a three-and-out forced by Vance Joseph’s defense, the offense went back down the field. Wilson made magic on third downs and eventually hit Johnson for a 21-yard touchdown and Javonte Williams in the flat for the two-point conversion to knot the game at 23 with 2:53 to go.
New England ran the ball twice and looked poised to take the game to overtime, but after a pair of Broncos timeouts, quarterback Bailey Zappe hit DeVante Parker over Pat Surtain II to get across midfield and then managed two more completions for 10 yards.
Then Ryland, who missed a 47-yarder late in the first half and doinked an extra point in the third quarter, absolutely piped a 56-yard field goal in the same direction that Denver kicker Wil Lutz missed from 57 before halftime.
The Broncos couldn’t have dreamt up a better start if they’d scripted it. On the first play of the night, defensive tackle D.J. Jones charged through untouched and walloped Zappe, sacking him, forcing a fumble and recovering it to set up Denver first-and-goal at the 6-yard line.
Except three Williams runs and a Wilson incompletion left Denver with nothing rather than a nice, shiny present from the defense. It was reminiscent of the sequence that caused Payton to ream out Wilson on the sideline the week before in Detroit and the continuation of a season-long struggle.
The Broncos entered the night converting just 53.9% of its goal-to-go chances on the season, way short of the 71.9% average league-wide. Denver’s defense continued to do the job, setting up the offense on its next drive at the New England 46-yard line. Three-and-out.
“Very frustrating,” center Lloyd Cushenberry told The Post. “When we get the ball for our first play at the 5-yard line or whatever it is, we have to get it in. Very frustrating.”
“We have to score on the first drive,” Wilson said. ” think that’s the thing, we have to be able to get the ball in the end zone there.”
Finally, rookie Marvin Mims, Jr. provided yet another golden opportunity in the opening 10 minutes with a 52-yard punt return to the Patriots’ 25-yard line. Denver’s offense cashed that in, eventually, with a short Williams touchdown run.
From there, though, Denver put forth a slogging offensive effort. The Broncos mustered just 121 first-half yards. Wilson completed 10 of 13 passes for just 66 yards and only one of them went to a wide receiver. The rest to running backs, fullbacks and tight ends.
For a while, Vance Joseph’s defense kept the team in front. They held the Patriots to a field goal on their first red zone possession. Coaxed a missed field goal out of Ryland just before halftime.
In the third quarter, though, Zappe led a touchdown drive that put the Patriots in front 9-7 and ended with the Ghost of Ezekiel Elliott Past hurdling over Denver nickel Ja’Quan McMillian and into the end zone.
It was a rare tough series for McMillian, the second-year man who has blossomed into a playmaker for Denver’s defense. Earlier, he got beat by Demario Douglas for 41 yards. More than an indictment of McMillian or the Denver defense overall, though, the series showed the razor thin margin this team is playing with when the offense is in this form.
One mistake? One hiccup? The game is suddenly in the balance against a team that entered 3-11 and in the running for nothing other than draft pick positioning.
“There were six or seven different situations in that game that any one of those play out a little differently—but unfortunately, they didn’t,” Payton said. “Our margin for error right now is not what it needs to be, and we end up on the losing end of the game.”
And it likely sent their playoff hopes packing before Santa Claus arrived.
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