The good, the bad and the ugly from Saturday’s loss to the Bills

The Broncos had perhaps their most embarrassing loss of the season on Saturday against the Bills. In a game that was somewhat close at halftime, the Broncos ended up getting crushed by a final score of 48-19.

The offense didn’t do anything special and struggled to move the ball on the ground or through the air. However, the defense was abysmal. They couldn’t stop the Bills passing attack, led by MVP-caliber quarterback Josh Allen, and at the end of the game when the Bills were just trying to run out the clock, they couldn’t stop running back Devin Singletary.

Even though it was 21-13 at halftime, things fell apart for the Broncos in the second half. Broncos head coach Vic Fangio knows many things contributed to the team’s second-half struggles on Saturday.

“A lot of things went wrong there. The kick return, the sack-fumble that got returned for a touchdown. We just didn’t play well. The entire team, all three phases,” Fangio said.

Can the Broncos show something during the final two games that gives hope for the future? Up next, the Broncos travel to take on division rival the Chargers. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly from the Week 15 loss.

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The Good

I don’t know how much “good” can come from this game. The one thing that springs to mind is the play of tight end Noah Fant. He has flashed most of this season when healthy, but Fant hadn’t scored a touchdown since Week 2. That all changed on Saturday.

With time winding down in the first half, Fant caught a beautifully thrown pass in the corner of the end zone to make the score 21-13. Fant worked through plenty of contact to make the catch and showed great concentration to come through for his quarterback. The 2019 first-round pick needs to stay healthy, but he is obviously tough, athletic and the type of playmaker who can be a weapon for years to come.

Fant is clearly a “core” player for the Broncos and they can continue to feature him as an important part of their offense for years to come. As a young leader on this team, Fant feels the frustration of losing.

“Both words you used, motivated and upset about it, obviously we don’t want to be losing. I know guys are not going out in the games to lose and things like that. We have to get wins on the board. That’s what it comes down to. It might not be pretty all the time, but we got to get some wins. That’s definitely frustrating, me being a part of it too, the first two losing seasons for me. None of us like to lose and I know we got competitors on this team and a big nucleus of young guys that are going to fight and get this thing turned around,” Fant said.

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The Bad

I’m only going to pick one “bad” here, but everyone knows there are multiple problems that could go in this category. I’m going to put another Drew Lock turnover here. In every game he’s started this season, outside of Week 1, Lock has committed a turnover – whether that’s an interception or losing a fumble.

With the score 28-13 in the third quarter, the Broncos were driving to try and get back in the game when the turnover bug struck Lock again. Actually, it was Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White who hit Lock and he fumbled the rock. The ball was picked up by Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes and he rumbled his way down the field for a 21-yard touchdown. That made the score 35-13 and things only got worse after that moment.

Yes, running back Phillip Lindsay missed on another pass-protection assignment that cost Lock, but it’s still the young quarterback’s responsibility to take care of the ball. He clearly has ball-security issues, and this team is not good enough to overcome those woes. Lock needs to get better and stop having excuses made him – by the fans, by himself or by the coaching staff.

After the game, Fangio commented on Lock’s play – and kind of took it easy on him.

“I thought in the first half, it was pretty good. We moved the ball and we had some first downs. We had a chance for 17 points, which would have been a nip-and-tuck game. In the second half, we just couldn’t get anything going until late. We didn’t help him with the rest of the team either; we had a hard time slowing them down. It was a total team failure in the second half. Give Buffalo credit; they’re really, really good,” Fangio said.

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The Ugly

Like the ‘bad’ section, there is plenty of “ugly” to go around with the Broncos performance. The worst part of this horrible game was the way the Broncos secondary couldn’t make a play. They were down to just a few healthy cornerbacks and were starting De’Vante Bausby and Michael Ojemudia on the outside. Both of those players were torched by the Bills wide receiving corps and Ojemudia was kicked out of the game for throwing a punch.

This was a bad day for the Broncos defense, surrendering 41 of 48 points to the Bills on Saturday. This was the worst total given up by a Fangio defense since he became the head coach of the Broncos last year. In 10 of their 14 games played this season, the Broncos have allowed 26 points or more to their opponent. That’s an awful number for a defense that is led by a defensive guru like Fangio and it must drive him mad.

Allen had his way with the Broncos defense, finishing the game with 359 yards and two passing touchdowns. It didn’t help that the Broncos pass rush was almost nonexistent with just 1.0 sack recorded on Allen. The rushers weren’t getting there and that was causing these bad or inexperienced players in the secondary to have to cover longer – and that was nothing but trouble for Denver.

Fangio didn’t really have an answer for the secondary’s poor play.

“It’s a challenge, no two ways about it. We couldn’t help them enough with the pass rush when we were trying to play coverages to help them. It was a challenge. It obviously is. I’m not going to deny that, but we have to find a way to play better than we did and get a couple more stops than we did,” Fangio said.

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