Sean Payton laments mistakes as Broncos score eight points in KC

The Denver Broncos offense was terrible in Kansas City on Thursday night, and head coach Sean Payton lamented their mistakes.

The Broncos lost to the Chiefs for an unfathomable 16th straight time, and this one can’t be pinned on Vance Joseph and the defense. They gave up yards in the 19-8 defeat, but largely kept KC out of the end zone, allowing only one touchdown.

QB Russell Wilson threw for just 95 yards to go along with two interceptions. Denver’s leading receiver was Courtland Sutton with four catches for 46 yards. He did make a nice grab late for what amounted to a garbage time TD.

Still, it felt like watching the 2022 offense under Nathaniel Hackett all over again. It was mostly awful.

After the game, for a second week in a row, Payton took the blame after sharing his initial frustrations.

“Tonight was a game where we certainly played well enough defensively, but offensively… from a third-down perspective, keeping drives going, we struggled to get anything going until really late in the game.” Payton said.

Denver went just 4-10 on third-down overall, had three turnovers and punted five times.

“Overall, it wasn’t good enough. And there’s a handful of things, plays that I even called, that I look back on and I was anticipating one thing and got something else. We’ve got to be better there. To win in our league, you’ve got to be better throwing the ball,” Payton continued.

Broncos Country is sick of coaches taking the arrows, they just want it fixed. Whether it be Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio, Hackett or now Payton, they haven’t found an answer since Gary Kubiak retired. And the honeymoon period with Payton is long since over.

The ground game actually looked pretty good early, but the Broncos bizarrely abandoned it on big third-downs and at key times. Javonte Williams had his best game this year, going for 52 yards on 10 carries, an average of 5.2 yards per rush. Jaleel McLaughlin also had 30 yards on the ground on seven attempts.

The 1-5 Broncos are firmly watching the scoreboard now, cheering for teams like the Panthers, Bears, Patriots, Vikings, Cardinals and Giants to win. That’s who they’re in a battle for the No. 1 overall pick with, a reality that becomes more depressing by the week.

And for now, Payton doesn’t look like he’s “fixed” Wilson. Those warm and fuzzy feelings after a productive first few games from the veteran quarterback are gone.

The trade deadline is in just 19 days, and it’s going to be fascinating to see who they move. An already brutal offense might get even more depleted if guys like Jerry Jeudy and Sutton are shipped out, then again Jeudy had just three catches for 14 yards against the Chiefs.

It’d be fun to say this is rock bottom, but it’s probably not. The worst is likely yet to come.

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