Offense — D
The Broncos roared to life late and there’s merit in that. They gave themselves a legitimate chance at winning the game. But they needed to put New England to bed early on Christmas Eve rather than letting them get hyped up on sugar cookies and in the mood to wait up to see Santa. The Broncos had multiple chances to do just that. And they failed in far too many of those. Add another wretched third quarter to the ledger, and it’s hard to see this as any kind of good performance even though the numbers looked closer to season averages by night’s end. Average won’t get it done often enough in the NFL, as the Broncos learned the hard way.
Defense — C
Vance Joseph’s defense forced a turnover on the first play of the night and looked primed for a big-time outing. It held strong through the first half. But by the end of the night, they had left too much on the table. They didn’t get any favors from the offense, first in the failure to build a lead on their hard work and late with a 33-second three-and-out that put the defense back on the field in the final minute. In between those, though, Joseph’s group failed to generate another takeaway and let Bailey Zappe get in just enough of a rhythm that he was able to make some plays down the field, highlighted by five completions of 20-plus yards.
Special teams — D
Rollercoaster rides aren’t typically a good thing on special teams. And, boy, did Marvin Mims Jr. have himself a night of ups and downs. A 52-yard punt return set up the Broncos’ first touchdown of the night. But a fumbled kick return that turned into a touchdown for the Patriots gave the visitors a 23-7 lead with less than 17 minutes left in the game. That just can’t happen. Mims has made so many big plays for the Broncos in the return game this year, but he’s also fumbled two kicks. It’s something to clean up going forward for one of the team’s brightest young talents, but it obviously hurt big time in a critical moment Sunday night. Wil Lutz missed from 57 yards right before halftime. Nothing overly noteworthy about that, given the cold night, but it does look slightly different after Patriots kicker Chad Ryland buried the game-winner from 56 going in the same direction.
Coaching — F
No issue here with Sean Payton going for it on the opening drive on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line. He trusted his defense and they got the offense the ball back at the plus-45. The issue is that Payton hasn’t figured out a way for his team to be anything more than the NFL’s worst outfit in goal-to-go situations. That’s the damning part.
As for the final stretch, Payton played a super aggressive hand and got burned. Then talked after the game about how his team is one that doesn’t have any margin for error. How do you square those two things? There will be a long offseason to ponder those questions because all the little decisions that help make up the margin in the NFL went against Payton and the Broncos on Sunday night in a gotta-have-it letdown of a loss.
