On the Broncos, everyone’s to blame for 1-5

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the Denver Broncos, everything is just … off.

After all, you don’t get to 1-5 without the reasons for the slump being myriad. A team struggling as the Broncos are gets there because when one problem appears fixed, another two arise. It’s not unlike a 35-year-old home in need of renovation. You remodel the kitchen, but then the bathroom needs new fixtures and plumbing. You get new windows, and then you have a leak through a skylight.

And after yet another defeat, this one a 19-8 loss to the Chiefs, the Broncos’ house is in disrepair.

Thursday night, they patched up the defense.

But then the offense staggered to its lowest point total in 36 games.

Eight points. Even during the ill-fated Nathaniel Hackett era, the Broncos never managed to muster so few in a game.

And while the defense flourished in the red zone, it wasn’t great over the entire field; it still conceded 389 yards to the warp-speed Kansas City attack. The Broncos are just the third team in NFL history to concede at least 200 points and 2,600 yards in its first six games.

“Obviously, winning’s the most important thing, and we’ve been a big part, defensively, of why we haven’t won,” safety Justin Simmons said. “And that’s just being real with it. And we need to be better. And I think tonight was a step in the right direction, but by no means is it satisfactory to our goals and what we need to accomplish.

“It just is what it is.”

Indeed, Broncos are 1-5, and everyone is in some way culpable.

“Anything different is good,” Bill Murray’s character said at the end of “Groundhog Day.”

So, this was a different kind of loss, at least in this season. But the result is the same, as a Broncos team that plugged one hole sees others develop.

My @DenverSportsCom wrap from KC: pic.twitter.com/K5IP1pHPKl

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) October 13, 2023

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM, THE DENVER BRONCOS EARNED THEIR 1-5 PLACE

That includes the head coach, of course. And Sean Payton has — to his credit — spoken of how problems with the team “start with me.” He said it twice after the 31-21 loss to the New York Jets five days earlier.

On Thursday night, he admitted to losing track of the downs and calling timeout after Russell Wilson absorbed a third-down sack with 22 seconds left before the half and the Broncos facing a punt.

It didn’t make a difference; Kansas City would have gotten its timeout called, too. But it was a perplexing moment.

In the press box somewhere in orbit over Arrowhead Stadium, speculation roared that perhaps referee Shawn Hochuli botched the announcement. This notion wasn’t inconceivable. After all, in the fourth quarter, Courtland Sutton scored on a pass initially ruled incomplete — and which saw not one official signal whether he caught Russell Wilson’s pass or not.

But the Amazon Prime Vision broadcast — with an all-22 view — showed Payton near one of the officials, gesturing after the sack.

Yep, he’d signaled timeout.

“That’s a boneheaded mistake,” he said.

Sean Payton on calling a timeout after Wilson was sacked late in the first half: “Boneheaded mistake by me” pic.twitter.com/a0OSwu2DZ0

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) October 13, 2023

AND RUSSELL WILSON DOESN’T ESCAPE RESPONSIBILITY, EITHER

In the first four games, Wilson largely — and justifiably — escaped much blame for the defeats. It was fair to say at 1-3 that the Broncos had 99 problems, and Russ wasn’t one.

That’s changed in the last five days. And on Thursday night, the Broncos had a meager 82 net passing yards. The last time they mustered such a puny total, they literally didn’t have a quarterback in uniform because of COVID-19 protocol violations, relying on a practice-squad wide receiver and running back Phillip Lindsay on that lamentable November afternoon three years ago.

So, on one side, you have a defense finding its footing in the red zone, but still allowing yardage by the truckload. On the other you have an offense that failed to muster 200 yards and didn’t cross the Kansas City 35-yard line until 8:16 remained in the fourth quarter.

Week after week, the Broncos come up with different ways to lose.

• Lose a one-point game in which the difference was a missed extra point? Check
• Blow a three-score lead? Check.
• Surrender more points than any NFL team in nearly 57 years? Check.
• Lose to your former head coach guiding an offense that accounted for just one touchdown? Check

And on Thursday, the Broncos lost when their offense couldn’t get out of first gear until the final moments.

This is what happens when you’re 1-5. When you’ve gone 6-17 since the start of the previous season and 6-21 since mid-December 2021. The Broncos were 7-6 at one point that season. They’ve won six of 27 since. It’s their worst 27-game stretch since the mid-1960s.

From the top down, everyone’s hands are on the mess that this 64th season of Broncos football has become. And that includes some who are no longer involved with the team, because the roster-building process evolves over years, with myriad free-agent and draft acquisitions made to clean up the mess from previous letdowns and disappointments.

This team finds itself trapped in a cul-de-sac of woe. And no one — not a unit, not a phase, not a player, not a coach, not a personnel executive, current or former — can duck responsibility for getting the club there.

Everyone has fingerprints on it. Everything is just off.

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