The Broncos narrowly avoided a baffling loss to the Jets in London on Sunday with another fourth-quarter defensive stand, improving to 4-2 through six games after a 13-11 victory. Here’s The Denver Post’s report card from the day.
OFFENSE — D+
Sean Payton got Bo Nix rolling in the first quarter Sunday, calling for a bunch of quick throws over the middle. Nix looked every bit the same guy who torched the Eagles in the fourth quarter last week, dicing up the Jets for 112 first-quarter yards and a beautiful end-of-quarter drive. And then, in a baffling combination of play-calling and execution, Payton downshifted Denver’s offense into purgatory for three quarters.
Nix had just a handful of completions after the first quarter. The Broncos had their worst rushing game of the year, with just 40 yards on 14 carries for the steady J.K. Dobbins. Star receiver Courtland Sutton finished with just one catch for 17 yards on three targets, and Denver had just one first-quarter touchdown to Nate Adkins on a secondary breakdown to show for themselves.
DEFENSE — A+
This was a “defensive team” today, as Sean Payton said postgame. And as Denver fumbled its offensive identity away with Troy Franklin’s first-quarter giveaway, the Broncos’ pass-rush scooped an entire organization up again, as Vance Joseph’s attack has so often done. Jets quarterback Justin Fields looked like a fawn in the headlights of a London double-decker bus, and the Broncos finished with a ridiculous nine sacks. That’s tied for the second-most in a single game in franchise history, according to StatMuse.
Don’t forget about the Broncos’ secondary, either, as Pat Surtain II held another top receiver in purgatory in the Jets’ Garrett Wilson. Denver’s linebackers had one of their best games of the season, too, as the Jets’ running backs had just one catch for minus-1 yard and tight end Mason Taylor had one catch for 2 yards. And Talanoa Hufanga continued to fly around like a calamity let loose from Pandora’s box, adding a key third-down pass-breakup on the Jets’ final offensive drive.
SPECIAL TEAMS — D
No way else to put it: Darren Rizzi is off to a bad start in his Broncos tenure. There was the Week 2 leverage incident. There have been consistently meh returns on kickoffs for Marvin Mims Jr. and breakdowns in kick coverage. And Week 6 in London was the worst day yet, as the Jets nearly stole a game thanks to Jets special teams coordinator Chris Banjo — an assistant on Denver’s staff last year — out-executing Rizzi for four quarters. New York had a 72-yard kickoff return, outgained a tentative Marvin Mims by 89 combined yards across punt and kickoff returns, and beat the Broncos on one fourth-and-1 fake punt that Rizzi had sniffed out.
COACHING — D
Vance Joseph is single-handedly pulling this one up from an F. Again, the Broncos’ defensive coordinator mixed in a variety of pressures and went with a gutsy all-out blitz on a first-down sack on the Jets’ last drive, matching his game-calling perfectly with the Jets’ utter lack of juice in the passing game.
Payton and Rizzi, though, nearly lost Denver the game across their individual phases, even as Payton said postgame he didn’t think the Broncos’ offensive issues were schematic. The Jets would earn a massive F in this space, though, after Jets head coach Aaron Glenn confused even Payton by simply bleeding the clock out to end the first half rather than try and put points on the board.
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