“Nothing gotta change”: Broncos' offense in denial

DENVER — Up until Week 15 the Denver Broncos offense was nothing to write home about. In their eight victories, they did just enough to win, and in the five losses, it was typically their unit to fall short.

On Sunday, in a 16-3 defeat against the New England Patriots, the offense didn’t even give the team a chance to win. It was the first time since the Dan Reeves era in 1992 that a Broncos team scored less than 13 points in consecutive games after only putting up 10 points against the Tennessee Titans in Week 14.

However, amid all of the struggles, wide receiver Demaryius Thomas doesn’t feel the team is in need of something new.

“Nothing gotta change. We just got to take care of the ball, don’t turn the ball over,” he said after the game. “We are beating ourselves. We had a couple penalties a couple drops; I think that’s the main thing. You get behind early in the game, and you try to change up the game plan, so it doesn’t make it easy.”

Denver lost the turnover battle 0-3—two of the turnovers by the offense and one by the special teams—had 19 more penalty yards than New England and had five fewer first downs. Yet despite a season-low three points, starting running back Justin Forsett believes Denver has the right pieces moving forward.

“The pieces are there. Now we just got to get it together,” he explained. “We all got to get on the same page. But the talent is there; better than a lot of teams in this league. We have what we need; we just got to execute.”

Thomas echoed Forsett’s positivity on the offensive pieces moving forward.

“We just got to keep doing what we doing,” he said. “The first time a lot of guys have been together on this offense. A lot of new faces a lot of new coaches calling plays. So hopefully gel in the next week or so and if it don’t, we got to figure something out.”

In the first half, when Denver had the most success, they did try something different. The Broncos ran the no-huddle offense periodically, which had some success allowing Denver to move the ball down the field.

“They didn’t expect it,” Thomas said of the no-huddle offense in the first half. “We were able to do it last week and move the ball. That’s been one of the best things this season has been no huddle. It worked early, but we just couldn’t get no points.”

While Denver only put up three points in the first half, it was more productive than what they did in the second half. Not only were the Broncos held scoreless in the second half, but they also didn’t get their first first down of the half until the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

If nothing needs to change with the Broncos’ offense—as Thomas and Forsett suggest—then the question arises of how it can be fixed.

“We got to do a better job executing,” Forsett said. “Executing on those situations—like third down, red zone and being able to finish drives—those things we got to do better in order to win games.”

For another week this season, the Broncos were not able to convert on third down, only going 2-for-12, making New England’s 5-for-17 conversation rate seem acceptable.

“We weren’t able to extend drives,” Forsett said. “We got to have a better sense of urgency on third down and be able to execute. We got to block better, run better and catch better. Then we will be able to run the ball more and be able to have longer drives.”

For weeks, head coach Gary Kubiak has been preaching that the key to the offense is staying on the field and moving the chains. The message hasn’t matriculated on the field yet.

With only two weeks left, and the Broncos currently on the outside looking in and time is running out for the offense to find an answer.