It was a loss highlighted by penalties, a terrible fumble, a defensive laceration and two potentially significant injuries to two key Broncos starters. With all that said, I’m going to give you five thoughts, opinions, complaints, and some explanations about this game, the Broncos’ current situation, and their future.
1. Injuries suck
The big injury to emerge from that game was promising young Broncos running back Javonte Williams. The physical back injured his knee during the game and was helped off the field by the coaches. Unable to put weight on his leg, he was seen using crutches after the game. That’s never a good sign, and post-game reports suggest the Broncos are concerned Williams suffered a serious knee injury.
#broncos It is feared RB Javonte Williams has suffered a serious knee injury, a source said. He will have an MRI tomorrow to determine the full extent but there isn’t much optimism about the injury.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 3, 2022
That sounds like a season-ending ACL injury. Hopefully it’s a less serious injury that puts him out for a few months, but regardless, the Broncos will be without Javonte Williams for at least some time.
Veteran Melvin Gordon will likely fill the starting role in place of Javonte (fumbling problems be damned), while Mike Boone will step into the 1B role behind Gordon. This is still a decent backfield, but losing Javonte for so long really sucks.
He’s getting an MRI later today to get an actual diagnosis, but it sounds like we should be preparing for the worst here.
Broncos edge rusher Randy Gregory suffered another injury. He also suffered a knee injury but it appears he dodged a bullet. After the game, he told reporters, “I’m fine. Do not worry”.
He’s getting an MRI to see the extent of his injury, but hopefully the injury will be minor. I don’t know if he’s out of the woods with a serious knee injury but the post-game talks seem a little more positive here than with Javonte Williams.
2. Where is Albert Okwuegbunam’s tight end?
At the start of the season, tight end Albert Okwuegbunam was considered a breakout candidate at the tight end position. Noah Fant was shipped off to Seattle, and Albert O. showed potential, has top athletics, and didn’t really have much competition for the job. However, he’s been quite a disappointment to the Broncos so far this season.
Things got so bad for him that he only played one offensive snap for the Broncos during yesterday’s loss.
Albert Okwuegbunam played exactly one offensive snap for Denver
— Nathan Jahnke (@PFF_NateJahnke) October 3, 2022
In four games, he has only 6 receptions for 45 yards and 0 touchdowns. Five of these six receptions took place in the first week. Since then, he’s been virtually invisible on offense and barely featured on the field for that game. It sounds like he’s been outclassed on the depth chart and isn’t even considered a threat.
Rookie tight end Greg Dulcich may come off injured reserve this week but likely won’t play given the short week. After Thursday night’s game, however, the Broncos have some time to finish off Dulcich and we could see the explosive rookie debut in week six. We’ll see how it plays out, but this seems like the ideal scenario for both parties.
3. The Broncos’ defense was shredded
For the first three weeks, the Broncos’ offense was lifeless, but their strong defense helped them win two hard-fought games and set a 2-1 record. However, the fortunes were turned today. Russell Wilson’s and the Broncos’ offense wasn’t great, but he still threw for 3 touchdowns and the Broncos scored 23 points. Unfortunately, the Broncos’ defense couldn’t stop the Raiders, despite looking like a top-flight defense for the first three weeks of the year.
Josh Jacobs makes Broncos defense look lousy.
It feels like I’ve seen this opera before.
—Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) October 2, 2022
What really stood out in this case was how bad her running defense was. They signed nose tackle DJ Jones and re-signed inside linebacker Josey Jewell to solidify the center of their defense. Things looked good in the first three games, but in this one the Raiders rushed for over 200 yards on the ground. Raiders running back Josh Jacobs were rarely held in check by the Broncos’ defense and consistently beat them to make big wins. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry and twice found the end zone against Broncos defenses.
A week after edge rusher Bradley Chubb said the Broncos had the best defense in the league, they were humiliated by their hated division rivals. After that game, he told reporters they needed this, calling this effort a “wake-up call” for her.
They have a short week ahead of them and host Matt Ryan and the Colts on Thursday night football. So if they want to get past this game, they can try to stop the Colts’ offense and help the team improve to 3-2 on the season.
4. This team doesn’t feel like a playoff team
After the Broncos acquired Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson, expectations for this season went through the roof. However, a month into the season it seems that we may have overestimated the performance of this team and are an average team at best.
This team is a couple of unfortunate leaps against the Texans and 49ers from being a winless team. They really didn’t play a clean game and their only two wins were “ugly wins”. It could also be argued that they were also overtaken in those two losses by 70-year-old Pete Carroll and former Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels.
This team just doesn’t feel like a playoff team and feels like a team that’s still looking for an identity.
It’s early days and things can and will change, but it’s hard to be confident that this team will move forward. Especially seeing them get passed by Pete Carroll and Josh McDaniels in their two losses, all of which came on the road.
A win against the Colts could change my mood here, but many of the issues that plague this team remain. We still see plenty of penalties, some weird play calls on offense and coaching decisions that derail this team. Injuries are also piling up, which is having an impact on the team.
I hope I’m wrong, but this team feels more like a disappointment that could be heading for another offseason full of question marks and changes than a contender ready to make some noise in the postseason.
5. Injuries affecting the offense
There was so much hype around this playmaker-packed offensive. However, we’re a month into the 2022 regular season and all of those playmakers are missing. Courtland Sutton appears destined for a Pro Bowl season and possibly a double-digit touchdown season, but after that it was all disappointing.
Part of the reason the offense was disappointing is due to player injuries that were designed to make this offense explosive. If you factor in bad play and/or players not performing up to par, you can see why this unit doesn’t live up to the offseason hype.
- WR Tim Patrick tore his ACL at camp and will miss the entire 2022 regular season
- Rookie TE Greg Dulcich missed all of camp and preseason and is currently on injured reserve
- Explosive receiver KJ Hamler has a catch in four games
- WR Jerry Jeudy has flashed potential but has yet to pull it all together for the Broncos
- Tight end Albert Okwuegbunam appears to be in the coach’s kennel, and the Broncos’ tight ends haven’t produced as much as we’d hoped
- RB Javonte Williams appears to have picked up a serious knee injury and will be out for a long time.
- RB Melvin Gordon has five fumbles in his last five games if you include the 2021 season finale
Many of you have probably already done so, but we need to reconsider our expectations of this offense. Injuries are piling up among key members of this unit, and they’re not going to suddenly flip a switch and become a top offense in the league. This will likely be a grind with some highs mixed in with some lows. Hopefully the injury virus stays away, but so far this season he’s bitten the Broncos a fair bit.