The Denver Broncos season unofficially ended shortly before half-time during Sunday night’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Down 21-10 with time running out in the second quarter, they lined up as if they were going to attempt a 53 yard field goal. Instead, kicker Brandon McManus took the ball, ran ... and failed to pick up the first down. The Broncos wouldn’t score again as the Chiefs would go on to win 33-10, securing a return to the playoffs while eliminating the reigning Super Bowl champions from postseason contention.
You can’t blame the Broncos for trying to get their offense going by any means necessary by that point. Before Sunday’s game, Denver had managed to score just a single touchdown in their previous two games, with their offensive struggles a huge reason why they only had one win, against the putrid Jacksonville Jaguars, in the last four weeks.
If this didn’t look like the same team that beat the Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl, that’s because it wasn’t. That team had a near-historic defense and managed to get just enough from the quarterback position. The Broncos would have found it difficult to replicate that formula even if they hadn’t lost both of their starting quarterbacks over the offseason. Peyton Manning made the wise decision to retire while on top, while Brock Osweiler made the even smarter decision to say yes after the Houston Texans offered him a four-year, $72m contract (with $37m guaranteed).
When the Broncos started the season with untested Trevor Siemian as the starter, most were skeptical of their chances of making another deep playoff run with a human question mark at the most important position in the game. The Broncos disarmed a lot of that skepticism by starting the season 4-0, which went a long way in justifying the team’s faith in Siemian. In a Week 3 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Siemian threw for four touchdowns and received AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. For a spell, the Broncos looked like they had a legitimate claim for being the best team in the league.
That didn’t last. Siemian eventually fell to earth, although you’ll be hard pressed to find any Broncos fan who would have preferred to see Osweiler out there, given his struggles in Houston. But the offense’s struggles later in the season weren’t entirely Siemian’s fault. It wasn’t a coincidence that the Broncos offense struggled with the ground game after losing running back CJ Anderson in October.
Not that the defense should be given a free pass. While the Broncos overall defense has been stellar, they been downright awful against the run. During Sunday’s game, the Chiefs put up 137 rushing yards in the first quarter alone, putting the Broncos offense in a position where they would need to make big offensive plays just to get back into the game. And that’s before we get to the bit where they allowed a 350lbs lineman to throw a touchdown pass.
6-3. 346lbs. @PoeMans_dream is a defensive tackle...
— NFL (@NFL) December 26, 2016
And he just threw a TD for the @Chiefs. Yes, really. https://t.co/lSTz7iB5kG
This Broncos team, particularly at this point in the season, just wasn’t built to make those kind of game-changing plays. If they were going to have a chance to repeat, they needed nearly everything to go right for a second straight season and, unsurprisingly, that didn’t quite happen.
Fantasy player of the week
Adam Thielen (WR, Minnesota Vikings). OK, as the Ringer’s Rodger Sherman has pointed out, it’s very, very doubtful that more than a handful of people would have started Thielen but if they did, they were rewarded. Thielen had 12 receptions, went for 202 yards, and had two touchdowns in the Vikings’ 38-25 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Quote of the week
“We’re not going to go 0-16. That’s for a fact. We’re not doing that. I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this, but we’re not going to go winless. We’re not.” - Cleveland Browns linebacker Chris Kirksey, after their 6 November loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
So it’s not exactly Joe Namath guaranteeing a Super Bowl win, but you have to give credit to Kirksey for being right. The Browns broke a 17-game losing streak with a 20-17 win over the San Diego Chargers on Saturday. The best news? Thanks to the San Francisco 49ers 22-21 win over the LA Rams, they pulled off a victory without jeopardizing their status as frontrunners for landing the No1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft.
Gif of the week
One stretch.
— NFL (@NFL) December 26, 2016
FOR THE DIVISION...
Well done, @AntonioBrown. #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/W9AP2lYmlA
Most receivers would be content with mere game-winning touchdowns. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Antonio Brown, however, makes division-winning touchdowns. With their dramatic 31-27 win over the Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers officially won the AFC North title.
Stat of the Week
17. That’s how many seasons the Buffalo Bills have now gone without a playoff berth following their 34-31 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins, who will be making their first postseason appearance since 2008.
Wait, there’s a more ridiculous number we could include here: One in six million. Those are the odds of a NFL team going that long without making a postseason appearance. To be precise here, those would be the odds if every team started out the season with an equal chance to make the playoffs. As long-suffering fans could tell you, the Bills’ actual real world chances have been significantly worse than most teams in the NFL for most of those years.
Elsewhere around the league
• Christmas Eve was an absolutely brutal day for leg injuries. The Oakland Raiders, who came into Saturday with hopes of securing the No1 seed in the AFC, ended up losing quarterback Derek Carr to a broken fibula during their 33-25 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Without Carr, a dark horse MVP candidate, it’s difficult to imagine the Raiders going deep in the playoffs no matter what the seed.
• Carr’s injury came just hours after the officially eliminated Tennessee Titans lost Marcus Mariota to a fractured fibula in their 38-17 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Seattle Seahawks, meanwhile, will be without receiver Tyler Lockett for at least six months after he suffered broken leg in what ended up being a 34-31 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
• The AFC South came down to a missed field goal as the Cincinnati Bengals missed a potential game-winning field goal in the game’s final seconds. The Houston Texans won by the fittingly unimpressive score of 12-10, which is the most AFC South thing to ever happen.
• The Green Bay Packers defeated the Minnesota Vikings 38-25, eliminating them from playoff contention. The Packers season comes down to this week’s game against the Detroit Lions for the NFC North title. That will be one you want to watch.
• Also over the weekend, the Atlanta Falcons clinched the NFC South. Meanwhile, the New York Giants secured their first postseason appearance since 2011 thanks to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-24 loss to the New Orleans Saints. That collective shudder you just heard came from New England Patriots.
