Broncos Have Chance To Right The Ship Sunday Against Texans
Two weeks of bad football though could already derail season
Nick Ashooh - Sep 15, 2022, 8:25pm EDT
The Denver Broncos are in a bad spot just one week into the season. After their embarrassing 17-16 loss in Seattle Monday night, the finger-pointing is everywhere, and there's a buffet of questions being asked about everything from their new coach to their realistic ceiling for the season now.
Obviously, a lot of blame has fallen on rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett's decision to kick a 64-yard field goal instead of going for it on fourth down late, but there were far more issues than just that.
The Broncos committed 12 penalties for 106 yards while fumbling twice at the Seahawks' 1-yard line. That's not gonna help you win games, that's for sure. That, along with going 0-for-4 in the red zone, and it's clear why the Broncos were in that late-game situation to begin with.
Wipe The Slate Clean
As with any team in the NFL, success is still run through the quarterback. Russell Wilson still had 340 yards passing and a touchdown, but it wasn't the homecoming he was probably expecting for Week 1 when it was all said and done.
It was clear the Geno Smith Show caught Denver off guard (it did the rest of us too), and they were never really able to recover. They have a chance to right the ship on Sunday though with the Texans coming to Denver, another team with better odds to have to worst record in the NFL than to make the playoffs.
The Broncos have to not only win this game but win it decisively. Keep in mind though, that Houston was 8-9 ATS last year, and considering they were underdogs almost every week, that's a big accomplishment. They still have that fight in them this year, coming away with a 20-20 tie against the Colts last week, despite 517 total yards of offense from Indy.
The mental side of sports matters, and there's no trends that can help gauge that. Denver needs to get things right on the field, before things fall apart on the mental side as well, killing their confidence, and derailing their season before we're even a quarter of the way through.
