What’s the deal with the Broncos’ false starts?

CHICAGO — “False start, offense …”

Five times Sunday, referee Carl Cheffers intoned those words to the Soldier Field crowd and the audience watching on screens and devices near and fear while the Broncos offense was on the field.

Curiously, in the first three games, the Broncos had 99 problems — and false starts weren’t one of them. They had just two false starts in September,

But on Sunday, false starts went viral. Every first-team offensive lineman save for left guard Ben Powers drew a pre-snap penalty. Denver committed five false starts, and with seven to date in the season, the Broncos have more false-start infractions than all but six teams, according to the data compiled by NFLPenalties.com.

“That’s something that is unacceptable and it’s one of those things that you have to clean up right away,” right guard Quinn Meinerz said.

“It’s already hard enough to get first downs, and when you set up in first-and-15 or whatever it is, it makes it that much harder. There’s definitely some things to clean up there.”

And it remains the one issue holding back the Broncos from the growth they need to have in getting their pre-snap process in order. Broncos coach Sean Payton focused two weeks ago on streamlining the process of getting the plays in to quarterback Russell Wilson and getting in and out of the huddle faster.

“I think the noticeable progress that still needs to be made is the false starts,” Payton said. “You can’t be third-and-1 and then end up third-and-6. You just can’t do that. I’m sure there are a number of things that are contributing to it.”

And some of that is beyond the offensive line.

“We’ve got to streamline the cadence so that we’re all on the same page and get that cleaned up,” Payton said.

FALSE STARTS ARE A PARTICULAR ISSUE AT ONE POSITION

But no player has struggled more with false starts than right tackle Mike McGlinchey. The free-agent pickup and team captain has four of the seven false starts this season — one each against Washington and Miami and then two on Sunday in Chicago.

McGlinchey owned up to it in the locker room Sunday when describing how the Broncos fell into a 28-7 hole from which they barely escaped.

Mike McGlinchey: “Offensively, the penalties and the operation have to be better — myself included. We stall drives. We kill drives. We don’t give ourselves opportunities to move the football because of not locking into what we need to do.” pic.twitter.com/LZsVu7v30R

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) October 2, 2023

“We understood that the position we put ourselves in was because of a lot of self-inflicted wounds. Offensively, the penalties and the operation have to be better — myself included,” McGlinchey said.

“We stall drives. We kill drives. We don’t give ourselves opportunities to move the football because of not locking into what we need to do.”

The Broncos’ penalty issues go beyond false starts, too.

Overall, the Broncos’ 38 penalties committed — 33 of which were accepted — is tied for the third-highest tally in the NFL, behind only Arizona and Green Bay.

But false starts are perhaps the most easily prevented of all.

“You can’t take anything for granted in the whole operation, whether it’s the play call, getting in and out of the huddle, communications with the cadence, anything that it is,” McGlinchey said.

“We have to be better. And I’m just thankful that we were able to overcome it and put some points on the board in the second half.”

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