Denver Broncos get what they need, a blowout

The Denver Broncos finished the preseason with a statement, hammering the Los Angeles Rams 41-0.

The Broncos were outworked at times in joint practices with the Rams earlier in the week and were embarrassed in Los Angeles to the poor-performing team last Christmas 51-14, which led to Nathaniel Hackett’s firing. Under his replacement—Sean Payton—a group of mostly back-up Broncos beat up mostly second and third-string Rams in Week 3 of the 2023 preseason. It was Denver’s first true blowout win in any contest since at least late 2021 when Denver topped the Lions by 28.

Saturday night’s effort got off to a quick 17-0 first-quarter start, with Denver only not scoring in the third. The star of the show was a stunner—Albert Okwuegbunam, who went for more yards in this game than he did in all of 2022.

He had a big night. I mean, holy cow,” Sean Payton remarked postgame.

Okwuegbunam caught seven passes for 109 yards and a touchdown as the Broncos gained 495 yards of offense. Backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham impressed with 236 yards on 17-of-28 with a touchdown while third-stringer Ben Dinucci also had a few nice drives tossing 117 yards on 11-of-16 with a touchdown.

“He’s (Jarrett’s) been consistent all during camp I thought,” Payton said. “He did really well. He started really hot he took a shot on the one deep completion. He bounced back, I thought he played well and made a lot of good decisions. I was encouraged.”

Meanwhile, Denver’s defense looked incredible, forcing multiple turnovers for the second-straight week, getting interceptions from Drew Sanders and Essang Bassey.

“I thought up front we played well defensively and offensively and when you play that way in the trenches you’re going to you’re going to have games with success,” Payton said. “The third down numbers were good on offense. they were good on defense, turnovers. All of those things I thought we were physical tonight, and even in the kicking game, if you watch the coverage units and return units. We did a lot of things well.”

Denver now has 15 days off before hosting the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 1 of the NFL’s regular season. The Broncos got through this final game relatively healthy but it’s been a tough preseason of injuries particularly at the wide receiver position—that makes Okwuegbunam’s targets all the more interesting, especially with roster cuts coming on Tuesday.

“You don’t want to lose a player when you had control over it and then have him have success somewhere else,” Payton said. “I to credit the players, a lot of guys will make this challenging with their efforts tonight, during the week really and even last week—it’s always difficult.”

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