DENVER — The Broncos became the first team in the league to reach eight wins this season with Thursday night’s 10-7 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders at Empower Field at Mile High. And they did it — again — with their defense at its quarterback-harassing, lockdown best.
But after the win, Broncos running back J.K. Dobbins spoke for many of his teammates on offense who believe it’s time for the offense to stop making it hard for the team.
“Yeah, cool, we’re 8-2 … [but] the defense is winning us the games, and we’re not helping them. We’re not doing them any justice,” Dobbins said. “I feel bad the way we play on offense and the way they play on defense because they’re doing so great and we’re doing so bad. They’re our brothers, too, and it just sucks because they’re just out there so many plays, playing their butts off. We can’t keep doing this to them.”
Said Broncos quarterback Bo Nix: “At some point, we’ve got to start moving the ball and scoring some points. Between penalties and sluggish football, we’re just not playing very good. It starts with me. I’ve got to be better. … We’ve got to find some juice.”
Nevertheless, the Broncos lead the AFC West, and their current seven-game winning streak is the team’s longest since it opened the 2015 season 7-0 — Denver won Super Bowl 50 to close out that year. The Broncos’ defense allowed one touchdown or fewer for the fourth time this season and also had six sacks, pushing its league-leading total to 46, the most after 10 games since 1990.
The Raiders were held without a first down on seven consecutive possessions and finished with 188 total yards.
However, the Broncos were still in a slugfest because their offense finished with 220 yards and punted seven times as Nix threw two interceptions. The Broncos have trailed in all but one game this season — the Week 5 win over Philadelphia — and have scored 18 or fewer points in three of their past five games.
Thursday night was also the fourth game this year that the Broncos did not score in the first quarter. They had four possessions in the game that went for negative yardage, with three of those coming in the third quarter. It got so ugly in the second half that fans in the sellout booed as the offense left the field before a punt.
“I mean, they should [boo], they should,” Dobbins said. “We’re not very good at times. They should be mad because we have so much talent. We’ve got to figure it out … and we will.”
The Broncos finished with 11 penalties for 78 yards in Thursday’s win, with eight of those coming on offense. It was the fourth game of the season that the team had at least 10 accepted penalties.
Denver has the second-most penalized offense in the league, with 52 in 10 games, including penalties that have been declined. Only the Jacksonville Jaguars have more penalties on offense (53 in eight games).
“[The Raiders] did some things that were challenging [on defense] … but too many penalties on offense that put us in a hole, and I’ve got to be better also,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said.
Nix added: “We got to do better. At some point, 10 points isn’t going to be enough.”
Even the Broncos’ game-winning field goal came as a result of a blocked punt by safety JL Skinner that gave the offense the ball at the Raiders’ 12-yard line with 1 minute, 29 seconds left in the third quarter. The Broncos lost 2 yards on the next three plays combined, and Wil Lutz kicked a 32-yard field goal that was the difference in the game.
But Denver’s defensive players said their offensive counterparts still shouldn’t worry. Even as the Broncos remain on pace to challenge the league’s single-season sack record of 72 by the 1984 Chicago Bears, they say they’re ready for anything else thrown their way.
“Whatever we need to do, we do,” Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton said. “Just continuing to give [the offense] the ball, give them every opportunity.”
“We don’t look at what the offense does, what the special teams does. Our job is to go out there and get stops,” said Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto, who had 1.5 sacks in the win. “So, we have that mentality, and we have the right guys who come in with that mentality.”