“Terrible with a capital ‘T.'”
And that’s not the assessment of a pundit, a writer or an angry fan. That’s from special-teams coordinator Tom McMahon, who watched with his frustration as his unit buckled and collapsed under the weight of self-inflicted miscues.
One resulted in two points on the scoreboard: the snap dropped by punter Sam Martin that resulted in a Pittsburgh safety. But that was just the beginning of the laundry list.
“Couldn’t tackle, poor tackling and we didn’t catch that snap, so no excuses,” McMahon said. “[Steelers special-teams coordinator] Danny’s [Smith] team outplayed us; Pittsburgh outplayed us. Their returner made us miss, also. You have to give credit to the guys who make plays. They made plays and we didn’t. We tackled poorly. I thought our coverage was not good, in terms of lanes.”
And the lack of preseason play and the full-speed snaps that go with it is not a viable excuse.
“It should be right no matter what,” McMahon said. “We missed six tackles, Mase, on one play. We’ve got guys that are trying to do other guys’ jobs, and we can’t do that.
“It’s something we’ve gotta fix and we’ve gotta learn from it, and we’ve gotta own it up, and we did.”
Levante Bellamy, Davontae Harris, Derrek Tuszka, Jake Butt, Jacob Bobenmoyer and Martin himself were all left grasping on Diontae Johnson’s 81-yard punt return 8:04 into the second quarter. But Cam Sutton’s push in Butt’s back led to the flag that that wiped the return off the scoreboard.
The memory was fresh in McMahon’s mind two quarters later, when another cluster of missed tackles allowed Johnson to weave through the Broncos for a 24-yard free-kick return after Martin’s drop.
And then there was K.J. Hamler’s decision to return a kickoff from 5 yards deep in the end zone early in the fourth quarter. He only made it to the Denver 13-yard line — a loss of 12 yards of field position from the potential post-touchback starting spot of the Denver 25.
“That was was a mental mistake on his part,” McMahon said.
The offense’s subsequent three-and-out from that field position ensured that Martin’s drop resulted in a safety.
“We gave [Hamler] a two-yard cliff,” McMahon said. “Anytime that you’re heavy on your heels, meaning that you’re going backwards, and your heels are getting heavy, you let the ball hit [the ground for a touchback]. So, there were two mistakes. Number one, you don’t even want to catch that football. We had a two-yard cliff going into the game, meaning that we weren’t going to bring anything out that’s two or more yards deep. So, it’s really simple.”
Special teams has long been a Broncos bugaboo. In the special-teams rankings compiled by longtime NFL reporter Rick Gosselin, the Broncos ranked 21st last year. That marked the sixth time in the last seven seasons that the Broncos were in the league’s bottom half of the rankings, which are compiled from 22 different statistical categories related to various aspects of special teams.
McMahon’s units have generally been improved over the 2017 season under then-coordinator Brock Olivo, when the Broncos ranked 31st in Gosselin’s rankings, ahead of only the New York Giants. But that improvement hits a roadblock when issues of execution arise as they did against Pittsburgh.
Furthering the disappointment was the fact that it came after a stellar Week 1 in which Martin’s outstanding placement punting combined with a perfect performance from kicker Brandon McManus and solid work in coverage to ensure that the Broncos won the field-position battle for most of the night.
With over $46 million of 2020 salary commitments on injured reserve and a backup quarterback under center, the Broncos have no margin for error, can’t afford unforced mistakes and will have to win games at the margins.
Special teams is a good place to start — if the Broncos can recapture their Week 1 form.
