The Broncos have a third-down problem

The 22-17 loss the Broncos absorbed to the Houston Texans marked the second time in their last three games that the team’s offense died on third down.

But it was worse than the 2-for-12 performance in the Nov. 19 win over Minnesota. This time, the Broncos went 0-for-11.

“It’s not good enough,” coach Sean Payton said. “Obviously, it’s frustrating. It’s a combination of a handful of things—protection, guys open and us not making a play. I felt like the yardage and the distances were what we wanted. We have to be better in that area.

“Our third down plan has to be cleaner. It wasn’t a game where so many of them were third-and-long.”

And that was the thing: Seven of the 12 third downs came with 6 or fewer yards necessary to reach the line to gain. Only one was even a third-and-10. The Broncos consistently faced third-and-makeable … and did nothing.

And it had been many years since it looked like that.

470

Number of games played by the Broncos — regular season and postseason — since they failed to convert even a single third down.

The last time the Broncos had an 0-fer on third downs was during a Dec. 17, 1995 game at Kansas City, when they went 0-for-9 en route to a 20-17 loss that ended the Broncos’ faint postseason hopes.

It’s not just a one-week thing, either; the Broncos have converted just 21.6 percent of their third downs over the last three games. That is the eighth-worst percentage for any 3-game span league-side this year; of the seven that are worse, six belong to the quarterbacking-challenged Giants and Jets.

2

Number of plays covering at least 50 yards pulled off by the Houston Texans on Sunday — via C.J. Stroud’s tosses of 52 and 59 yards to wide receiver Nico Collins.

That tally of 50-plus gains exceeds the number accumulated at Denver’s expense in the Broncos’ previous eight games of the season combined. And during their 5-game winning streak, the Broncos never permitted a play from scrimmage that covered at least 50 yards.

8

Games as a starter for Russell Wilson in which he did not have at least 200 gross yards passing so far this season. This leads the league, one ahead of Carolina’s Bryce Young and two beyond New England’s Mac Jones.

As a team, the Broncos have just one game in their last eight with at least 200 net yards of passing — the Week 11 win over Minnesota.

And with 8 games so far this season with fewer than 200 net yards of passing, the Broncos rank fourth. Only the Panthers (10) and Jets and Giants (9 apiece) have fewer.

Further, the Broncos’ 1,248 net passing yards in their last eight games is their fewest in such a span since Tim Tebow was their quarterback, according to data compiled through pro-football-reference.com. The 2011 Broncos closed the regular season with 1,064 passing yards in their final eight games. Prior to that, the Broncos had not endured such a stretch since the end of the 2001 campaign.