The Broncos homefield advantage has disappeared, and that’s sad

The Denver Broncos amazing homefield advantage appears to be a thing of the past.

Unfortunately, the distant past. And that’s a sad development.

This isn’t on Broncos Country, let’s make that clear from the jump. The fans that pack Empower Field at Mile High during the fall and the winter are as loud and as passionate as ever. This is on the franchise, through a variety of mistakes, that has made one of the toughest places to play not a daunting challenge.

Just look at the start of this season.

The Broncos came out flat against the Steelers, Raiders and Chargers. They’re 1-2 at home and could easily be 0-3. If superstar cornerback Pat Surtain II doesn’t make an unreal play against Las Vegas, Denver would’ve been down 17-3. Do we really think Bo Nix and company were coming back from that deficit? Maybe, maybe not.

Instead PS2 took a 100-yard pick-six to the house, flipped the momentum of the game, and the Broncos got their only win at home all year.

Sunday against the Chargers was flat out embarrassing. Down 20-0 at halftime and 23-0 after three quarters, are you kidding me? And Nix had only 27 passing yards after 45 minutes of football. That’s simply not good enough.

“That’s three straight games we came out very slow. We’ve got to get it fixed. We’ve got to use this altitude, we’ve got to use the fan base. We’re not doing that right now,” Broncos OLB Nik Bonitto said after the game.

Bonitto isn’t wrong. All those things he outlined the Broncos need to start using as an edge and quickly.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a new trend. Since this team has been bad, going all the way back to 2017, they haven’t even been mediocre in Colorado.

The Broncos are 28-33 at home since the beginning of that season. Wrap your mind around that for a second. That feels damn near impossible for what used to be one of the most intimidating atmospheres in the NFL.

Denver’s also had just two winning seasons at Mile High in the last eight years. Two! That’s absolutely wild and frankly unacceptable. The Broncos went 5-3 at home in 2019 and 5-4 last year.

For perspective, when Peyton Manning played here, all he did was win in Denver. Manning lost just four regular season home games in four years as the Broncos starting quarterback. He was a perfect 8-0 in 2014 and 7-1 in both 2013 and 2012.

Yes, Manning is a Hall of Famer and one of the best quarterbacks of all time, but the franchise shouldn’t have fallen that much off a cliff.

The problem is the Broncos have had a revolving door at both QB and head coach. Whether it was Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio or Nathaniel Hackett, none of them could figure out how to win at home. Even Sean Payton is a pedestrian 6-6 in the first 12 games of his tenure.

And the list of quarterbacks is too long to rattle off, but Broncos Country knows it well. They hope Nix will be the answer they’ve been craving ever since Manning retired.

Here’s the thing about homefield advantage: every crowd is fired up at the start of the game. But the players on the field have to give them a reason to stay enthusiastic throughout. The problem is the Broncos didn’t do against the Steelers or Chargers. Things were teetering against the Raiders, until Surtain pulled off an unreal play.

The guys can’t press too much early, but it also might not be a bad idea for Payton to implore them to start fast. He can start by taking the football first no matter what. If he loses the coin toss, the other team will defer. If he wins it, he should get his offense on the field right away like he did in Tampa Bay.

And beyond that, the players have to look deep. Fans pay a lot of money to be in the building on gameday. It has to get fixed and it has to get fixed fast.

Broncos fans deserve better. Let’s make Mile High what is used to be, and that’s a daunting venue in which it’s nearly impossible to visit and win.

Related

Courtland Sutton could see his third-down target share cut dramaticallyBroncos preseason opener: Three players to watch against the FalconsBroncos sign a backup center to add depth to interior of O-lineBo Nix sitting out of the preseason opener changes absolutely nothingBo Nix cracks top-10 on two different QB traits ranked by ESPN’s Dan OrlovskySean Payton keeps raving about Pat Bryant as stock rises for Broncos WR