Broncos can’t dig out from first-half hole in road loss to 49ers
Dec 9, 2018, 7:29 PM | Updated: 9:21 pm
By the time the Denver Broncos started mounting a comeback in the second half against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, it was too late.
Down too deep in a hole created by a miserable first half offensively and defensively, the Broncos couldn’t catch up to the 49ers, losing on the road 20-14.
“We didn’t play well, and it showed,” head coach Vance Joseph said of the first-half woes. “The second half, being down by three scores, it was tough to get back in the game. We tried. The guys played hard. But it wasn’t good enough today.”
On the defensive side of things, Denver gave up 210 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions to tight end George Kittle, a 49ers franchise record for receiving yards by a tight end … in an entire game.
Kittle’s monster half was the first time in the NFL since 1991 that a player had as many receiving yards in a first half, regardless of position.
“We had one blown coverage, and we had a couple where we just didn’t cover him. He beat us one-on-one,” Joseph said after the game. “He’s a great player. We knew, coming into the game, that he was going to be the guy we had to get stopped, and we didn’t get it done.”
Offensively, the Broncos had just 65 yards in the first half.
“Simply, we didn’t play well. No excuses. We can’t point fingers. That team came out and outplayed us, in the first half especially,” Joseph said.
Denver struggled specifically on third downs, converting on just 1-of-6 in the first half and 2-of-15 overall.
“… We put ourselves in tough situations on third down and didn’t convert, didn’t stay on the field, didn’t help our defense out,” said quarterback Case Keenum after the game.
Consequently, the 49ers controlled the ball 17 minutes and 59 seconds to the Broncos 12:01 in the first half.
The Broncos would mount a comeback in the second half, pitching a shutout on defense and scoring two touchdowns to pull within six.
But yet another slow first-half start meant too little too late for a potential Denver come-from-behind win.
“You can’t do that every week and expect to be successful. I think we rolled the dice too many times, and we came up short this time,” Keenum said. “We ran out of time, literally.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.
