DENVER — There was good, and there was bad. There was great, and there was awful. On Sunday, against the New England Patriots, the Denver Broncos were consistent on each side of the ball.
Unfortunately for Denver, although the defense was consistently stout against Tom Brady and the New England offense, the consistently poor offense was too much to overcome in a 16-3 defeat.
Against an offense featuring Tom Brady—a leading MVP candidate—and one of the leagues top rushing attacks, Denver’s defense only allowed 313 yards of offense on 4.3 yards per play. Although they allowed 136 yards on the ground, they did it on a respectable 3.5 yards per carry and held Brady to 177 net passing yards.
Naturally, after holding New England to almost 10 points less than their season average, the defense was frustrated with the outcome.
“Anytime you lose a game to the Patriots, a rival game, everybody is frustrated,” cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said. “We feel like we played almost good enough defense to win that game. I don’t know if I ever kept Brady to under 16 points and we did that today.”
On the other side of the ball, despite being the weak link, the offense had a different mindset, even after putting up just three points the entire game.
“There is no frustration right now,” wide receiver Demaryius Thomas said. “It’s tough that we weren’t able to put points on the board. We only got a field goal. We were able to move the ball a good amount in the first half but still wasn’t able to get points. It’s not frustration; it’s trying to figure out how to get better.”
Denver’s three points came in the first quarter, which turned out to be their best quarter of the game. After putting up 146 yards of offense after 15 minutes of play, the offense only managed 60 total yards of offense until the start of the fourth quarter.
“There is no reason to be frustrated now because if you are frustrated now, it will go into next week,” Thomas said. “It’s about getting better now.”
While the offense wanted to move forward after the game, the defense was unsettled after what they thought was a good enough performance to win.
“That’s what makes it sick, when we come out and play stout like we did today,” Harris said. “We could play a little bit better and get some turnovers, but they really didn’t have to take a lot of chances. They didn’t really have to throw the ball down the field too much, and it’s hard to make plays when we don’t get that many targets.”
After the game, cornerback Aqib Talib said he wouldn’t have believed the team lost if they held New England to 16 points.
“We own Brady; we aren’t scared of Brady at all,” he said. “So we going to line up and play just like he any other quarterback. That’s what we feel like we did today.”
Although holding a Brady offense to 16 points is well above average, linebacker Todd Davis knew the defense could have done even more to help the team win. Davis even went far enough to shoulder the blame for only putting up three points.
“We could have got a pick six and took it to the house and changed the game,” he said. “We could have forced a fumble, picked it up and took it to the house and changed the game. But we didn’t. So it’s just as much on [the defense] as it is [the offense].”
Riding a two-game losing streak in the month of December the Broncos’ playoff prospects are very much in the air. While the team, in general, is trending in the wrong direction, one side of the team is trending up while the other had their worst showing of the season, and their attitudes are now starting to reflect that.
