The Broncos committed to the turn-back-the-clock bit in every way

DENVER — The Broncos wore uniforms Thursday night that turned back the clock by a half-century. Coincidentally enough, they played the kind of game that set the sport back roughly the same amount of time.

Defensively, the Broncos turned in a performance worthy of the finest outings of the Orange Crush, which formed and found its stride throughout the 1976 season after defensive coordinator Joe Collier switched up his alignment from a 4-3 to a 3-4. Necessity dictated the shift in the wake of an injury to Lyle Alzado, but the move allowed Collier to maximize his stable of linebackers, align Rubin Carter at nose tackle and — voila — a monster was born.

How Vance Joseph got his defense to this point a half-century later was a process that saw some of its key junctures three years ago, in the ashes of a dreadful five-game start to the season that included the 70-20 debacle in Miami.

Thursday night’s performance was a masterwork that wasn’t possible in Joseph’s first season back on the staff as defensive coordinator. But with a unit featuring a slew of players who’ve been around for every step of the journey, he could throw myriad pressure packages at Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold — even with starting defensive backs Pat Surtain II and Talanoa Hufanga out with ankle injuries and Riley Moss playing just 20 snaps a rotational role — “getting my feet wet,” as he said after the game — as he completes his recovery from a rib injury.

“VJ was in his bag, and he was excited to call this one,” Moss said.

Seventeen quarterback hits, five sacks and three takeaways later, the quarterback who finished last season atop the football world departed Denver with a completion percentage of 52.9 that would have been mid-tier 50 years ago. Instead, it reflected a dreadful night in the present-day reality that saw his passer rating plummet to a 77.4 season-long figure that would have been a top-10 figure back in the pre-Saturday Night Fever disco era, but in today’s NFL places him among the NFL’s bottom five eligible passers.

The Broncos attacked with the ferocity of their forebears who once wore those royal-blue helmets, and made Darnold and the Seahawks offense look as though it belonged in the time of that franchise’s origin.

“The rush-and-coverage worked really well together,” defensive end Zach Allen said. “There were times we got home, and then times we weren’t, and the coverage held up and it gave us that extra half-second. It was a full-unit effort.”

And it dominated from start to finish, when Ja’Quan McMillian intercepted Darnold six plays into overtime to set the offense up at the Seattle 43-yard line.

All the offense needed at that point was to gain a first down or two and set kicker Wil Lutz up at a range from which he is nearly automatic.

BRONCOS OFFENSE TURNED BACK THE CLOCK, TOO

The problem was that the Broncos had spent the previous nine series setting offensive football back 50 years, themselves.

In this case, the retro groove wasn’t anything worth dancing to, because in 1976, the NFL was in the throes of its “dead-ball era.”

So lousy were the offenses in those days that by 1978, the NFL passed a series of rules changes to open up the passing game, permitting offensive linemen to extend their arms in blocking and use open hands and banning defenders from bumping and chucking defenders within five yards of the line of scrimmage.

And the Broncos fit right in, mustering just 168 yards of total offense — including only 43 on their final 10 possessions of the game, a span in which they gained a single first down.

Since 2018, teams with 175 or fewer total yards and 3.0 or fewer yards per play entered Thursday night 2-53. Now it’s 3-53. Kudos to the Broncos for winning in an unlikely manner; it was their first win with fewer than 175 total yards since John Elway’s first career start in 1983.

But it’s not something you can do regularly. In ANY era, because from 1975-77, those teams were 7-80.

Little about the offense worked. Bo Nix didn’t complete a pass 10 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage. Running back J.K. Dobbins had a 16-yard run in the second quarter — and still finished with fewer than 3.0 yards per carry, coming in at 2.4 by the end of the night.

“I know y’all gotta keep bringing up the average (per carry); a lot of you are used to seeing me be in the five (yards per carry) range,” Dobbins said. “That’s gonna come. It is. It’s gonna get fixed. I’m gonna fix it.”

The wait will continue for another 10 days, however. Because nothing got fixed from last Sunday’s 224-yard performance against the Los Angeles Chargers. Instead, the offensive devolution exacerbated.

NO COMPLAINTS ABOUT 4-2, BUT …

Their 4-2 mark against a daunting opening sextet of opponents is impressive. Wins over the Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams and Thursday at Seattle’s expense have an excellent chance of standing up to be among the most impressive collection of triumphs any team will accumulate this season.

And if you’d suggested a 4-2 mark upon first glances at the schedule in May, most in Broncos Country would have accepted it with gratitude. Of course, that was before the Chiefs roared to an unbeaten start through five games to re-establish their preeminence as a Super Bowl contender — albeit with a different style thanks to imported Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker.

Kansas City faces the winless Chargers on Sunday before traveling to Seattle on Oct. 25. The Broncos could use a little help from the Seahawks, because even with the Week 8 showdown and rematch of the Week 1 beatdown looming, the Broncos don’t control their own fate in regards to winning the AFC West crown. They need help, and Seattle could provide it.

Still, for the Broncos themselves, there’s nothing wrong with the Broncos’ 4-2 mark. Not considering the quality of foes they saw. Five of their opponents are in the top six in ESPN’s FPI metric, for what it’s worth; the Chargers are the exception. Denver defeated three of those five foes.

As a result, the 4-2 mark alone gave Payton reason to smile.

“Because those wins are hard to get,” he said. “So, we just played a real good team, and I feel like we can continue to improve.”

However …

“I’m a little bit of a realist to know that 4-2 could easily be 2-4.”

And the reason is an offense that continues to test the limits of just how thoroughly a defense can carry it.

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