Broncos start Christmas Eve night against Patriots by hitting on several season-long themes, including an ominous offensive trend

The Broncos’ start to their Christmas Eve outing against New England was about as Broncos as it gets in 2023.

They won the toss and deferred. The defense forced a turnover on the first play of the night when D.J. Jones came unblocked up the middle and smashed New England quarterback Bailey Zappe, forcing a fumble that set the offense up at first-and-goal at the 6-yard line.

And Sean Payton’s offense continued its season-long struggle in goal-to-go situations, getting stoned on three rush attempts and a pass, including a fourth-and-goal failure from the 2-yard line.

All of that added up to hit on several themes of the season, all in the first 1 minute, 42 seconds of action at Empower Field.

No game day surprises. Denver entered Sunday mostly healthy and had no surprises on its game day inactives list.

Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto (knee) led the inactives after he was ruled out Friday. Head coach Sean Payton said Bonitto is recovering well so far from an MCL injury sustained Dec. 10.

The rest of Denver’s inactives: practice squad quarterback Ben DiNucci, defensive lineman Elijah Garcia and a host of rookies — safety JL Skinner, tight end Nate Adkins, center Alex Forsyth and outside linebacker Thomas Incoom.

DiNucci’s now been elevated three times and will spend the final two weeks on the practice squad unless another team signs him to their 53-man roster down the stretch.

The Broncos also elevated outside linebacker Ronnie Perkins from the practice squad for game day, the first time he’s been elevated since being waived off the active roster last week and signed to the practice squad.

Broncos get help. Several other teams around the NFL were in the holiday spirit as it pertains to the Broncos on Christmas Eve.

In a jumbled AFC playoff picture, Sunday couldn’t have gone much better away from Empower Field.

Cleveland’s dominant win over Houston dropped the Texans to 8-7, but Houston wasn’t the only AFC South team to lose. In fact, both Indianapolis (against Atlanta) and Jacksonville (at Tampa) also got beat, dropping them to 8-7 each, too.