Maybe the Broncos had a champagne social gathering of their heads a bit too quickly.
Denver scored three touchdowns of their first three drives Thursday in opposition to the Chargers, who owned the league’s No. 9 protection when it comes to DVOA (Protection-adjusted worth over common) coming into the sport.
Issues fell other than there as their offense floundered the remainder of the sport, with Denver scoring simply six factors and punting on 5 of their remaining seven drives in an eventual 34-27 loss.
The Broncos averaged simply 3.4 yards per play in that span.
Quarterback Bo Nix advised reporters he was very pissed off with the consequence, because the Chargers gained the essential tiebreaker by sweeping the season sequence.
Denver is combating for a playoff spot because the No. 7 seed within the AFC.
“Just frustrated,” Nix stated. “The difference in our two games with them has been seven points and just got to find a way to get the ball in the end zone one more time. That’s the frustrating part, the margin of error is one touchdown.”
Maybe one more reason for frustration isn’t simply the dearth of touchdowns, however the belief that head coach Sean Payton has in his rookie quarterback.
After getting the ball at their very own 45-yard line whereas trailing, 27-24, with 5 minutes remaining, Nix took a sack to make it second-and-20.
Moderately than throw the ball in a transparent passing state of affairs, Nix handed the ball off to Audric Estime, who gained seven yards.
On third-and-13, Nix gained seven yards on a throw to Lucas Krull earlier than Payton determined to punt on fourth-and-6 from midfield.
Ben Baldwin, an analytical guru who tasks the proper choices for every fourth down, projected that essentially the most doubtful determination of the sport was on that fourth down play the place the Broncos elected to pun, since their win likelihood would have elevated by 5.2 p.c if they’d gone for it.
In the event that they transformed, they’d have had a 44 p.c probability at profitable, per Baldwin.
As an alternative they gave up a six-play, 90-yard landing drive that put the Chargers up by 10 factors and the sport basically out of attain.
The Broncos have to win only one extra recreation to clinch a playoff spot by their very own accord, although they might qualify by receiving assist from different groups.
On their tail are three 6-8 groups within the Colts, Dolphins and Bengals. Denver owns the tiebreaker over the Colts and performs Cincinnati subsequent week in a vital matchup.
