The next thing you know, an 18-point lead turns into a 35-24 deficit and put the Broncos, not Washington, in scramble mode.
The next thing you know, you’re going back to December 1995 to find a bigger blown lead at home for the Broncos.
The next thing you know, a Payton team is 0-2 for the sixth time in his 16 seasons as a head coach. Teams in this position have missed the playoffs 22 times in 23 tries since the playoff field expanded to 14 teams three years ago.
The next thing you know, rookie wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. goes from two catches for 113 yards and a touchdown in the game’s opening 17 minutes to not getting targeted again the rest of the afternoon.
The next thing you know, a quarterback who started 5-of-6 for 146 yards and a pair of touchdowns is getting chastised by his coach in the postgame news conference.
“It was more than just one drive,” Payton steamed. “It was a number of drives where we were late with personnel, it took a while. It’s got to change. We had to burn timeouts in the first half and I’m not used to doing that. We’ve got to be better. I’ve got to be better. Russ has to be sharper with getting the play out.
“Maybe we have to look at how much we have in, but if we have to wristband it, we will.”
You don’t need a wristband or a top-flight red zone play selection to know, however, that giving up an 18-point lead in a section of the game where you had every advantage is not going to end well.
That’s how the game ends up in the hands of the holy and the back judge.
“Unfortunate that it bounced that way,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said of the closing sequence, “but you can’t ever let the game get to that. There’s no way that that game should have ever come down to that, where we needed a miracle to get it done.
“We … we just let this game slip away.”
Mary made good on the Broncos’ prayer request Sunday.
Brad Rogers’ officiating crew delivered no such intervention on an equally imperative two-point conversion attempt.
Denver’s Week 2 fate hung in the balance as Russell Wilson’s last-play, Hail Mary rainbow caromed twice and landed in the waiting arms of Brandon Johnson in the end zone. It was sealed in the loss column when Wilson turned down a wide-open Jerry Jeudy to the left and fired a pass right for Courtland Sutton, open by a sliver but getting tugged at by Commanders cornerback Benjamin St.-Juste.
The driving force behind Denver’s 35-33 loss to Washington, however, was neither the divine nor the adjudicators.
The bulk of the blame after Sean Payton’s team tied the fourth-largest blown lead at home in franchise history does not rest on whether Wilson should have stayed with Jeudy or whether Denver should have had another chance from half the distance.
Unlikely as this frantic finish was, it doesn’t materialize if not for a calamitous sequence in the middle 10 minutes of the game.
Head coach Payton thinks the recipe for a Broncos turnaround includes his players mastering situational football. Denver on Sunday failed so spectacularly late in the second quarter and early in the third that he couldn’t bring himself to even provide analysis after the game.
“It was not good, obviously,” he said. “Disappointing.”
Coaches and players often point to the importance of the “middle eight,” or the final four minutes before halftime and the first four minutes after.
The Broncos had already started to falter when that stretch arrived Sunday but had multiple opportunities to steady their ship and avoid the late-game hysterics altogether.
Denver’s collapse from a dominating 21-3 start began with a Wilson fumble and ensuing Washington touchdown drive. But Wilson and company got the ball back with 1 minute, 47 seconds remaining before halftime holding a 21-11 lead.
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Source:: The Denver Post – Sports
