Offense — D
Quarterback Jarrett Stidham talked extensively this week about how much he respected Maxx Crosby, his former Raiders teammate. Well, Crosby reacquainted himself with the now-Broncos signal-caller several times Sunday with a sack and four hits. Denver struggled again to run the ball and struggled to contain Crosby or the Las Vegas pass-rush.
Stidham got sacked five times overall and was impacted by the rush throughout the game. He fumbled a third-and-goal snap before Javonte Williams punched in a 2-yard run from the Wildcat. The Broncos’ two games with Stidham at quarterback resulted in their two lowest-scoring output games since the 1-5 start. Not a stretch to say the Broncos need to take a long look at every offensive skill position this offseason, to say nothing of the big questions at quarterback.
Defense — D
Watching Pat Surtain II and Davante Adams battle in this game was sort of like if you showed up to a weekend painting class and found yourself sitting next to Michelangelo while the high school art teacher gave the lesson. The pair was amazing to watch, as usual. The rest of it? Eh. The Broncos defense deserves credit this year for bouncing back from a horrid start and playing well for most of the rest of the season. Sunday certainly wasn’t their best outing. Wasn’t their worst, either. Miami will always be tough to top. Didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. So if your eyes kept working to wherever No. 2 in white and No. 17 in black lined up, no judgment here. In fact, good on you.
Special teams — B
When Marvin Mims, Jr. was cleared off the injury report, you figured this would be a showcase game for him. No reason not to bring the ball out on kick returns or give punt returns a chance with any hint of daylight. And Mims did just that, running back two kicks for 55 yards and three punts for 33. Riley Dixon’s best result of the day wasn’t a particularly good punt, but he got a good roll and ended up netting 64 to the Las Vegas 2-yard line. Except then the Raiders went 98 the other way for a touchdown.
Coaching — D
Sean Payton’s late-game and late-half timeout usage has backfired twice in recent weeks. More costly against New England, of course, but a timeout Sunday helped spark a 98-yard touchdown drive by the Raiders late in the half. Payton took a timeout after a first-down snap, hoping to force a punt out of Las Vegas’ own end zone. Except he only had one to use, so the Raiders could have run the clock down to about 20 seconds if they wanted to. Instead they used the stoppage, got rolling and went the distance in 12 plays and 96 seconds. Ouch. Again, it didn’t really matter. But the fact that the Broncos were out by Week 18 given the way the rest of the AFC dealt with quarterback injuries and how Kansas City played the second half of the season, it’s still an underwhelming campaign despite the three-win improvement on 2022.
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