The good, the bad and the ugly in the Broncos 10th loss of the season

The Broncos could not make a late comeback against the Chargers on Sunday and fell by a score of 19-16. This makes for back-to-back losses for the Broncos, but also gives them double-digit losses (10) for the third time in the last four years. In addition, the Broncos now have the worst record in the AFC West with one game remaining.

The Broncos went 7-9 last year and many were expecting them to at least be a .500 team in 2020. COVID happened, but that’s not stopping other teams from winning around the league. Injuries happened – plenty of injuries – and that’s probably what has the Broncos in this current situation. The Broncos had a nice set of starters before the season, but they have always lacked depth on their 2020 roster. That lack of depth has been haunting them all season long.

They were able to get into Chargers territory seven times on Sunday, but the Broncos only came away with one touchdown. Their offensive woes have continued this year and is another big reason why they have such a poor record.

Broncos head coach Vic Fangio knows those missed opportunities in Chargers territory hurt his team.

“We didn’t finish them, obviously. We threw a red zone interception, we missed the field goal; that’s six points right there, at least. We got to come up with points when you get into the other team’s territory, and obviously we didn’t do a good job of that today,” Fangio said.

Can the Broncos finish the season on a high note? Up next, the Broncos finish off the regular season with a winnable home game against the Raiders. 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 16 loss.

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The Good

The Broncos played without Bradley Chubb in Week 16. He hasn’t been at full strength all season long, and a recent ankle problem caused him to miss this game against the Chargers. Denver’s pass-rushing unit is thin already with Von Miller out for the season, but they picked up the pieces without Chubb on Sunday.

One player who really stood out was Malik Reed. The second-year pro was able to harass Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert early and often. Reed registered 1.0 sack against the Chargers and now is tied for the team lead with 7.5 sacks.

Last year as an undrafted rookie out of Nevada, Reed did flash a bit of potential, but mostly his game looked really raw. Entering this season, one was left to wonder what Reed could do as the No. 3 pass-rusher behind Chubb and Miller. With Miller’s injury in training camp, it led to Reed getting a larger role from Week 1.

Reed has done a great job of taking his game to another level in his second season. Reed has a specific answer as to why he’s improved from year one to year two.

“I just feel like believing in yourself; that’s where it starts. I’m a firm believer in my faith. God has me here for a reason and person, for a time just as this. Believing that I can go out there and make plays, and that I was supposed to be in these positions to make plays, I feel like that’s been a big change. Not just in my game but in my mentality of how I view the game. That’s been huge for me this year and I look to continue to build off that,” Reed said.

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The Bad

The turnovers for quarterback Drew Lock continued Sunday. He has now turned the ball over in 11 straight games, the longest streak in the NFL. In every start this year except for Week 1 against the Titans, Lock has committed at least one turnover.

It didn’t take long for Lock to extend his turnover streak in Week 16. The Broncos first drive was coming together beautifully, but it ended in disaster. As the Broncos were on a 10-plus play drive, Lock ended up throwing an interception in the red zone. Instead of getting at least three points – and maybe seven points – the Broncos instead were thrust back out there on defense.

On that play, Lock broke out of the pocket and rolled to his left. Wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton broke off his route when his quarterback was in trouble and immediately found a soft spot. Lock did not see Hamilton immediately and held onto the ball longer as he galloped forward.

He could have run and kept the offense on the field, Lock could have thrown it away, but he was too late to get the ball to Hamilton in a proper manner. Instead, Lock tried to sidearm the pass to Hamilton and the pass placement was way off the mark. The pass bounced off Hamilton and into the waiting arms of a Chargers defender.

Lock didn’t pull any punches when criticizing himself for the early-game interception.

“Well, they ended up with the ball in their hand; that’s what I saw at the end of it and that’s what we can’t have happen. I rolled out, a defender to my left and a defender to my right, DeSean was running across my face, I put it in between the two defenders closest to me but it ended up being behind DeSean. It was a play that I just have to throw away — maybe try to knife it, get up a couple yards, went off the back of DeSean and they picked it off. That’s what I saw and it’s one of those plays I have to get out of me,” Lock said.

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The Ugly

It was a horrible day for rookie wide receiver Jerry Jeudy. After complaining about his lack of involvement in the offense on Twitter, Jeudy was targeted a whopping 15 times against the Chargers. Instead of coming up huge with the greatest day of his pro career, Jeudy had the most abysmal performance of his rookie season.

The numbers vary as of this writing, but Jeudy had anywhere from four to six drops against the Chargers. There were a couple of those drops that were especially damaging – one was in the end zone in a score that would’ve changed the outcome and the other was during a late drive with the game on the line that could’ve been the biggest pass play of the day.

Jeudy did not show great chemistry with Lock. In fact, these two are not on the same page and haven’t been for most of the season. That lack of chemistry showed up in a big way. Some of Lock’s passes were off the mark but close enough that Jeudy should’ve caught it. Jeudy needs to get better at those “go get it” catches instead of expecting everything to be perfectly placed.

After the game, Lock shared with the media what he told Jeudy.

“I told him that you’re one of the most-talented guys I’ve ever been around and you’re one of the most-talented guys in this league. You’re going to play for a really long time and you’re going to have days like this because of how good you are and how many chances you’re going to get to go out and catch the ball, you have to let it go. You have to go out there because, you never know when there’s 30 seconds left, and you might be able to have the ball in your hands to win the game and then all those drops are forgotten about. I told him that he’s just too good to hang his head and too good to be upset. There’s a lot of opportunities for me to hang my head this year and it’s all about how you respond how you get back up and I know Jerry has been so good to this point that this might be one of the first times he’s struggled. It takes a guy that’s struggled a few times here and there to maybe go up and say something him,” Lock said.

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