The Broncos are still in good playoff position, but this was a humbling reality check

DETROIT — The thing is, the Broncos are likely still a playoff team. Saturday’s 42-17 thumping at the paws of the turbocharged Detroit Lions doesn’t change that.

The Broncos face three losing teams the rest of the way — all with backup quarterbacks starting. Pittsburgh is flailing. Cleveland or Cincinnati will take at least one more loss, barring an unlikely tie — since they play each other in Week 18 — and the Broncos hold tiebreaker edges on both. Houston and Cleveland face each other. Houston faces Indianapolis in Week 18.

You get the picture.

But what Saturday’s defeat revealed is that there is a type of game — and a type of matchup — that these Broncos will be hard-pressed to win.

It is one against a team that possesses ample speed at the offensive skill positions, an offensive line that can drive off the snap and a defense that can devise creative pressure packages.

The first two are the most crucial elements, and in that respect, the Lions were perfectly poised to pulverize. Jared Goff effectively spread the ball around to Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Josh Reynolds and Sam LaPorta, and with the defense spread thin attempting to handle all of those threats, running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery sliced through the massive gaps in the box on the ground.

By the time Gibbs dashed into the end zone with a 15-yard touchdown 2:48 into the fourth quarter, the Lions had 7.7 yards per carry on the ground, 4 touchdowns through the air and the Broncos were on the business end of their worst day since the Miami debacle. A final LaPorta touchdown catch — on a fourth down, no less — was a fitting coda to the carnage.

“We sucked tonight,” inside linebacker Alex Singleton said.

It was “Miami Lite” in downtown Detroit, but it served as a reminder that the Broncos, while still in good playoff position with three games against lousy teams led by backup quarterbacks, have a ceiling — and a matchup they don’t possess the horsepower to win.

And that is likely to keep them short of authoring the ultimate turnaround to this once-doomed season.

The Broncos are good, as Courtland Sutton noted in the locker room after the defeat. You don’t win six of eight games — including five triumphs against teams firmly in the playoff discussion — without being at that level.

The playoffs remain in their sights, for all the reasons stated above.

But something beyond that, which would allow them to go on a stunning postseason run? That seems beyond the Broncos’ grasp, at least at the moment.

Dissecting a Broncos loss in which some issues that had been lingering bit them in a big way tonight.

My postgame wrap from Ford Field: pic.twitter.com/PL6OzAxnj2

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) December 17, 2023

BRONCOS DOOMED AT THE START

If the Broncos were going to pull off the road upset, the clearest path was by taking an early lead to sow the seeds of doubt in the Lions’ long-battered fan base — and the team itself. An early Broncos lead, piled atop two defeats in the previous three weeks, and the Lions’ raucous home-field advantage could have turned into a disadvantage as 64,560 nervous onlookers watched with tightening sphincters.

And after Russell Wilson hit Jerry Jeudy off a play-fake to Jaleel McLaughlin to turn a quick slant into a 40-yard gain, the pieces appeared in place for that fast start. After the defense got off the field allowing just a single first down, the offense appeared poised to step in front.

And then came the first of a slew of blitzes that confounded the Broncos — and, in that case, left Russell Wilson exposed. Detroit safety Ifeatu Melifonwu engulfed Wilson, the ball came loose, the Lions recovered … and the threat ended.

“Yeah, I was trying to pitch it forward, get it to ‘Traut’ (Adam Trautman) – either get him to it or incomplete pass – I thought I pitched it forward and they called it a fumble,” Wilson said.

This would have been a moment where it was better for Wilson to eat the football, Peyton Manning-style, accept the loss and move on. Instead, the Broncos wouldn’t run another play in Lions territory for 27 minutes and 40 seconds of game time … by which point they trailed 21-0.

It wasn’t that the Broncos didn’t show any signs of life. A 44-yard pass-interference penalty on their initial second-half drive set up a short touchdown pass to Lil’Jordan Humphrey that briefly revived the Broncos.

But by then, their margin for error was gone. And when Gibbs sliced to the right flank on back-to-back plays for 11 and 34 yards just two minutes after Humphrey’s touchdown, the Broncos were back in chase mode.

Gibbs’ trampling came was the Lions were in the midst of five-consecutive touchdown drives. What’s more, all of them covered at least 61 yards. There wasn’t a cheapie in the bunch. Gibbs and Montgomery combined to average 6.6 yards per carry, dashing for 185 yards. And Lions quarterback Jared Goff had his way with the Broncos’ pass defense, sprinkling the football round. Six of his targets had at least two receptions apiece.

On Thursday, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph warned about the speed the Lions possessed, saying that it was comparable to that of the Miami Dolphins.

You don’t need an elephant’s memory to recall what happened that day.

And Saturday night, against one of the elite five teams with 10 wins this season, the Broncos received a reminder that they can only mask their deficiencies and treat their wounds with bandages but for so long.

Some of the issues will require profound roster work.

This team should still be a playoff team. And that will be the measure of a successful season.

But a team that struggles to stop the run on defense … that wants to run it on offense but can’t consistently generate explosive runs … and that sees its aerial game go into neutral too often … that team will find the going rough more often than not when confronted by the league’s top tier.