Death by inches? In Oakland, the Broncos suffered death by yards

OAKLAND, Calif. — After an offseason of hearing about “death by inches,” the Broncos died by yards Monday night.

They died by the yards Oakland running back Josh Jacobs racked up as he rumbled through the Broncos’ defense for 113 yards from scrimmage, the most the Broncos have ever allowed to a rookie in a Week 1 game.

They died by the yards Oakland’s pass-catching targets were able to amass working short and underneath routes, allowing Raiders quarterback Derek Carr to dice up the Broncos, just as he did last year. Carr has now completed 83.3 percent of his passes against the Broncos with Jon Gruden as his play-caller. With the short, quick routes working, Denver’s celebrated pass rush was a non-factor.

They died with yards lost from gadgetry that blew up, beginning with an attempted end-around to tight end Noah Fant on the first play from scrimmage that resulted in a five-yard loss. Another attempt at trickery early in the second half — a lateral to Royce Freeman behind Fant and both offensive tackles split out wide to the left — resulted in no gain and squelched the momentum the Broncos had built on a drive that saw them march into the Oakland red zone for the first time.

And most of all, they died by the yards they left on the field through self-inflicted wounds in the 24-16 defeat.

“We were a little sloppy in how we executed,” quarterback Joe Flacco said.

To wit:

• A holding penalty against right guard Ron Leary when the Broncos had marched to the Oakland 31-yard line early in the second quarter knocked them out of field-goal range. A run, an incompletion, and a sack later, Colby Wadman was punting.
• A hold penalty by Fant — one of two infractions for which he was whistled in the first half — that turned a makeable 48-yard field goal into a near-impossible 64-yard try.
• A dropped pass by wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton that cost the Broncos an eight-yard touchdown and forced them to settle for a Brandon McManus field goal. That third-quarter sequence effectively cost the Broncos four points.
  • “No doubt in my mind, if I catch that, we win the game. Momentum is different,” Hamilton said. “The whole vibe of the game goes differently. And that was the spark we needed.”

Any one of those moments could have helped. In the aggregate, they cost the Broncos what could have been their first win in Oakland since the salad days of Peyton Manning and the “No-Fly Zone.”

The Broncos could have gotten at least 13 points from those yards they squandered — maybe even 17 if they would have sustained the drive that the flag on Leary short-circuited. Instead, they got three.

“We didn’t make the plays when we needed to make them, and they made them whenever they needed to make them,” said defensive end Derek Wolfe.

The game would have certainly flowed differently if not for those mistakes. Nevertheless, when you lose by eight points, it’s not hard to find the difference, and it’s why the autopsy of the Broncos’ fifth consecutive regular-season loss and 21st in their last 29 games requires little dissection.

But there is life after death.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The mantra was obvious in the locker room after the game: “Disappointed but not discouraged.” Vic Fangio said it. Safety Justin Simmons and outside linebacker Von Miller, among other players, repeated it.

“There’s a lot of things that you can say. Obviously, it’s a poor start,” Simmons said. “We didn’t play well at all, speaking defensively. We’ll learn from it, and we’ll get better.”

There were signs that indicate Simmons could be right about the team improving.

• Courtland Sutton had his best game yet, and showed that he’s adding branches to his route tree, something that often happens with second-year receivers who start to emerge. He lost 16 yards on one catch to a Fant penalty and still finished with 120 yards on seven receptions, single-handedly accounting for 61 percent of the Broncos’ first-half yardage.
• Kareem Jackson personally short-circuited a promising Raiders drive in the third quarter. In a four-play span, Jackson prevented a potential run of at least 50 yards by Jacobs — holding him to 11 yards — and then broke up two passes, including a 3rd-and-3 deflection that forced a punt.
• Denver’s rushing game strengthened as the night progressed. After Royce Freeman and Phillip Lindsay combined for 20 yards on six first-half attempts, they picked up 79 yards on 15 second-half carries, averaging 5.3 yards a pop. The offensive line helped; Freeman’s 28-yard third-quarter gallop hit the second level because rookie Dalton Risner engulfed Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict as Freeman moved to the right.
• While Flacco was not able to escape pressure and didn’t locate every pass exactly where he wanted it, he showed the vertical passing that the Broncos didn’t have last year with his 53-yard bomb to Emmanuel Sanders early in the fourth quarter.
• And finally, the Broncos didn’t curl into the fetal position and sob after falling behind 14-0; they rallied. But they had no margin for error, so they couldn’t withstand moments like Jacobs’ 28-yard fourth-quarter churn through three defenders or Hamilton’s drop.

“Vic was very positive,” Wolfe said of the head coach’s halftime demeanor. “He was like, ‘Look guys, coming back from a 14-point deficit, that’s not unheard of. It’s not crazy.’ I’ve been part of games where we came back from 21 and 28 points down.

“So I wasn’t discouraged at all. None of us were. We were all just like, ‘Let’s go out and play better football.’ And we did.”

It wasn’t enough for a win. It was enough to provide a resuscitating spark that the Broncos could nurture into new life next week.

“I’m really encouraged,” Wolfe said. “We’ve just got to have a short memory — get back to Denver, get rested up and come back home and get a win.”