Kiz: Have the bungling Broncos become to autumn what the wretched Rockies are to summer around here? The difference: Nobody goes to Coors Field to see the home team win, but the collective mood of our dusty old cow town is tied to whether the Broncos win or lose. After that bummer of a loss to the hated Raiders in the coaching debut of Sean Payton, who has more to prove to Broncos Country going forward: defensive coordinator Vance Joseph or placekicker Wil Lutz?
Gabriel: I’m saying Lutz, the fourth kicker on the roster since Payton got hired. Lutz might have arrived via trade — Denver swapped a draft pick for him last month — with Payton’s trust owing to their days together in New Orleans, but he had a rough 2022 while Payton worked at Fox. The good news for him is that his performance, largely, is in his own hands. If he gets it together quickly, it’ll all be fine. But if he doesn’t and Payton sticks with him after jettisoning a trio of others, it’ll look like he’s playing favorites with guys who used to play for him.
Kiz: OK, I confess: I had no real problem with dumping Brandon McManus, whose salary had become outsized in relation to his recent mediocrity in Denver. What bugged me was the Broncos didn’t part ways with McManus until late spring, and then Payton nonchalantly acted as if finding a trustworthy kicker for field goals and PATs was as easy as walking into Dairy Queen on a summer afternoon to order a chocolate-dipped cone. Well, Payton looked as sad Sunday as a kid who dropped his cone on the sidewalk.
Gabriel: Had Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo been the kid who dropped the cone, he’d have been able to clean it up, tie his shoes, head back to DQ and order another without worrying too much about getting sacked by the Broncos. And he’d have picked up a few first downs and just enough points along the way. The explanation — Garoppolo gets the ball out quickly and Josh McDaniels schemed quick route concepts — makes sense, but the Broncos’ defense wasn’t very inventive in trying to combat that approach from the Raiders.
Kiz: I don’t think Joseph is a bad defensive coordinator. But his name is way too closely associated with seven years of bad Broncos football, and maybe the great and powerful Payton failed to fully understand the level of angst around here when he hired VJ as his DC. What alarmed me most about this loss to Las Vegas was the utter lack of pressure on the quarterback generated by Denver’s pass rush. I’m not sure how much Frank Clark or Randy Gregory have left in the tank. But if Joseph can’t get something out of them, Broncos Country will be on his case all season long.
Gabriel: Yeah, Kiz, remember when we debated “Can Randy Gregory and Frank Clark combine for 20 sacks?” Well, they were both on the field for a full complement of snaps Sunday — history says that won’t be the case all season — and they combined for no sacks and no pressures. Pro Football Focus is just one measure, but its grading of 13 Broncos pass-rushers put Clark at No. 9, Gregory last and Nik Bonitto right between at No. 11. Even still, it wasn’t all bad for VJ’s group. They held Davante Adams (66 receiving yards) and Josh Jacobs (48 rushing) to 114 combined yards and no touchdowns. And they forced a turnover after Lutz missed a 55-yard field goal attempt wide right — same spot he missed an earlier extra point.
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