LONDON — The Broncos are flying home on a three-game winning streak and atop the AFC West.
They have a whole lot of work to do up front along their offensive line, however.
There’s no single problem, but Denver struggled mightily in trying to replace injured left guard Ben Powers with Matt Peart on Sunday against the New York Jets.
Peart had three penalties — a false start followed by a pair of holding calls, the second of which negated a big play to Troy Franklin — and generally struggled to generate push in the run game.
“We’ll go back and look at the tape,” head coach Sean Payton said, “but it wasn’t just him.”
That’s true enough.
All-Pro right guard Quinn Meinerz, who was called for a holding in the end zone that resulted in a safety that put the Jets up 11-10, also said Peart was put into a tough spot.
“That’s a very hard position Matt got put into,” he said. “It takes someone with a lot of heart to be able to step up and get in there and play their best. He’s obviously more of a natural tackle — he’s played more tackle and in and out at guard as well. He’s obviously a really talented player, strong player. I like him as a person.
“And we’re going to keep continuing to get better moving forward together. We miss Ben, but it’s next man up, and we’ll continue to get better. Weird week for someone to come in and play.”
Penalty bug travels: Overall, the Broncos’ offensive line was called for five penalties — three on Peart, two on Meinerz — four of which were accepted.
Denver had six total penalties accepted for 37 yards — a better number than recent weeks. Several of them, though, came in critical situations.
That included the offensive line penalties and rookie receiver Pat Bryant false-starting on third-and-1 from the Jets’ 39-yard line. The Broncos actually nearly overcame that because Nix hit Franklin for a big play on third-and-6, but that play also came back because of holding.
Talk about scuttling a drive.
“There’s going to be a number of things we look at that we need to clean up,” Payton said.
No overturn qualms: Payton said he didn’t get a good look at the nearly very impactful decision by the officials to overturn what was originally ruled a fumble forced by Pat Surtain II and recovered by the Broncos.
Denver would have taken over, trailing by one, deep in Jets territory. Instead, the pass was ruled incomplete and New York kept possession of the ball. The Jets eventually punted, resulting in a 43-yard swing in potential starting field position.
While Payton didn’t get a clean look, he said his staff upstairs figured the play was going to get overturned.
“The guys upstairs felt like it was the correct call,” Payton said.
Debuts galore: The Broncos had four players make their season debuts on Sunday: DT Malcolm Roach, RB Jaleel McLaughlin, OLB Que Robinson and practice squad OL Calvin Throckmorton.
Denver’s defense immediately benefited from Roach’s return.
“He just brings that fire for the team,” OLB Jonathon Cooper said. “He brings that spark, and he’s out there talking, getting us together, making sure our minds are right.
“We rely on him.”
The Broncos didn’t give RB Tyler Badie a game designation, but Payton said the running back “was going to miss a day or two” after being limited earlier in the practice week with a shoulder injury. McLaughlin had one carry for zero yards.
“(McLaughlin) has been having some good weeks of practice,” Payton said. “Probably didn’t get enough touches today. There’s a little spark with him.”
Robinson, the fourth-round pick, made his NFL debut and was thrown right into the rotation with Jonah Elliss out. Throckmorton played special teams.
Ops game ball: Payton said the defense got a game ball, but so did the Broncos’ operations teams, which made the week in England a smooth one.
Payton also gave VP of operations Chip Conway and his staff a game ball last year after Denver’s trip to West Virginia and back-to-back wins at Tampa and the Jets.
“The whole week was outstanding,” Payton said.
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