In an off-the-rails affair in which the Broncos and Colts kept handing each other the game in the fourth quarter, Denver fell to Indianapolis 29-28 in their Week 2 matchup Sunday. Here’s The Denver Post’s report card from the day.
OFFENSE — B
On one hand, it’s pretty encouraging that the Broncos scored 28 points and hardly looked perfect offensively on Sunday. The most important ingredient here was Bo Nix, who made one visibly poor decision all day — a fourth-quarter interception — in a major Week 2 bounce-back effort. Head coach Sean Payton effectively balanced Denver’s rushing attack from the jump, too, as J.K. Dobbins ran for 76 yards on 14 carries.
Still, Denver largely cratered in the second half, scoring just one touchdown (Dobbins run). Their two fourth-quarter drives started strong and ended up wilting, first with the Nix pick and second with a couple of bad penalties on Dobbins (for spiking the ball after a run) and tight end Adam Trautman (facemask).
DEFENSE — C-
This is grading according to the Broncos’ standard, because they did hold strong in the red zone, holding the Colts to 2 of 6 on TD conversions inside the 20-yard line. But coordinator Vance Joseph’s unit was gashed for a whopping 473 yards — more than they gave up in all but two regular-season games last year — and looked ineffective at times in stopping the Colts’ arsenal of weapons.
Indianapolis running back Jonathan Taylor ran for 165 yards on 25 carries and broke off several massive gains. Rookie tight end Tyler Warren caught four balls for 79 yards and made Broncos linebackers Justin Strnad and Alex Singleton miss on the same 15-yard catch-and-run. Even all-world corner Pat Surtain II didn’t have his best day, with Colts quarterback Daniel Jones not hesitating to go after him on routes over the middle.
SPECIAL TEAMS — C
For a second straight week, rookie punter Jeremy Crawshaw quelled any concerns over a shaky preseason performance, continuing to pin the Colts back inside the 20 on all three of his boots on Sunday. And new special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi’s coverage units performed well, holding Colts returner Anthony Gould to just four yards on two punt returns. But normally steady veteran kicker Wil Lutz brings the grade down here after he doinked a critical fourth-quarter 42-yard field goal that would’ve extended Denver’s lead to five.
COACHING — A-
Payton showed early he’d taken the time this past week to look in the mirror, beginning Week 2 by using Dobbins as a battering ram to bludgeon Indianapolis’s defense on three straight runs. And the offensive operation looked much smoother, as Payton meshed the Colts to death and befuddled their defense on a second-quarter touchdown in which tight end Adam Trautman split out wide.
Vance Joseph’s pressure-happy defense, meanwhile, didn’t much solve the Colts’ offensive line on a day with a lot of clean pockets for quarterback Daniel Jones. But Payton nailed a gutsy fourth-quarter call, declining a holding penalty that’d have pushed back Indianapolis to a third-and-12 and instead trusting his defense on a fourth-and-2 — and Joseph’s unit came through with a turnover on downs. If only that mattered in the end.
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