The Denver Broncos pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2019 season when they went into Houston and easily defeated the Texans on Sunday.
It was a strong performance all the way around despite the Texans being able to post plenty of garbage time points. The game was nowhere near as close as the final score would indicate (38-24).
There was plenty to take away from this game.
1. Drew Lock appears to be for real
Fans were skeptical after Lock helped lead the Broncos to win over the Los Angeles Chargers but skeptical with plenty of hope. Hope overshadowed by skepticism should start to fade following this performance.
Lock looks great. He throws the ball with much more zip than either of the other quarterbacks the Broncos started ahead of him this season and seems to be much more of a playmaker.
He completed 22-of-27 passes for 309 yards and three touchdowns in the game. His numbers would have been even bigger if the Broncos didn’t take such a conservative approach in the second half.
Best of all is seeing Lock’s teammates react to him. They all seem like they really want to play for this guy.
2. Why did the team wait so long to play Lock?
The Broncos kept Lock on injured reserve with a thumb injury sustained in the preseason and it really seemed questionable as to whether or not they would even take him off of it this season.
It’s a really good thing they did.
But the team continually insinuated that he just wasn’t ready to be on the field (but Brandon Allen was). He’s either been ready for a while or he picked things up really, really quickly.
How many more wins might the team have if it turned to him quicker? Like it or not, after these last two games, it’s a fair question to ask.
3. Wins like this make the close losses even worse
The Broncos started this season 0-4 and it’s just about impossible to recover from that. But professional football is often called a game of inches and that’s for good reason.
What if the team didn’t start 0-4? What if losses to the Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars and Indianapolis Colts were wins instead? Beating a team as easily as the Broncos did on Sunday, particularly one that is leading its division and just beat the New England Patriots a week ago, makes one wonder things like this.
The Broncos are not going to be a playoff team, but you have to wonder if they could have been.
4. There is a lot to be excited about
Just as you hear about football being a game of inches, you have also likely heard that the NFL is a week-to-week league.
That’s because one week a fanbase can be completely down on its team and after just one big win, all is right with the world again.
That’s kind of how things are for fans of the Broncos right now, but there is a lot to look forward to in years to come.
Lock throwing to Courtland Sutton and Noah Fant for the next handful of years sounds really good and seeing young defensive players such as Justin Simmons and Alexander Johnson play as well as they have this season gives plenty of reason to believe that the team’s future is bright.
Maybe we can calm down on all those “fire John Elway” takes?
