Bo Nix liked the Broncos’ plan for Pittsburgh before kickoff.
Sean Payton soured on it before the Steelers’ suffocation of Denver’s offense was complete Sunday afternoon at Empower Field.
Patience with the run game? The ability to go deep into the playbook? A grind-it-out, field-position battle there for the taking?
All of that deteriorated faster than an afternoon that started with 80 degrees and sun and finished with clouds swirling and wind howling through uprights that only saw two measly Broncos field goals in a 13-6 dud.
The Broncos are 0-2 with back-to-back road games ahead and a work week in West Virginia nestled in between. Payton remains winless in two Septembers as Denver’s head coach, dropping to 0-5.
More foreboding than yet another early season hole, the deer-in-the-headlights rookie quarterback play or the upcoming road tests, though, was Payton’s postgame posture.
This one rattled the cage.
It had Payton considering his options.
Not under center with rookie quarterback Bo Nix, but with the Broncos’ whole offensive approach.
“I just finished telling the offensive coaches, you know, that side of the ball needs to get cleaned up and that starts with me,” Payton said. “We’ve got to start really looking at who we’re asking to do what.”
That conclusion came after Nix and the Broncos offense were as scattered as they were ineffective for a second straight Sunday.
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Denver only mustered 62 first-half yards and three first downs in the first 30 minutes, but the 13-7 run-pass ratio in a low-snap start was as problematic as the three-and-outs themselves.
Nix missed open receivers and again saw his guys drop a handful of passes, but it was the late-to-the-line-of-scrimmage operation that made a tough task for a rookie — decoding Steelers coach Mike Tomlin’s defensive structures — all but impossible.
The Broncos are now 1 of 7 in the red zone through two games and 1 of 3 in first-and-goal situations. But if failing in the red zone is bad, the two interceptions Nix has thrown in Sutton’s direction from scoring range — Sunday’s directly to an unseen cornerback — are cataclysmic.
“We’ve got a mistake in the route, too,” Payton said in partial defense of his rookie quarterback. “So there’s some dirty hands on that play.”
“That falls on me. That was just a bad decision. Can’t happen,” Nix insisted.
Denver’s gone three-and-out 14 times, but more concerning is the fact that Nix has dropped back 88 times in his first two games as a pro despite a pair of low-scoring affairs and Payton’s stated goal of keeping the 24-year-old “off the high-dive.”
“That starts with me,” Payton said. “I’m the one calling the plays.”
He also found himself considering simplifying the offensive plan by the time he walked into his postgame news conference.
“When you run a play and it has success, you’re looking at the pieces,” Payton said. “When you run a play and it doesn’t have success, are we putting our guys in the best position? We’re rotating a lot of different personnel groups in and out and I don’t know if that is helping us, quite honestly.
“And we just need to evaluate that closely. Evaluate what we’re doing relative to our personnel.”
Payton’s offenses have always been a blitz of formations and personnel groupings and sniffing out mismatches and then pressing where it hurts.
Through two games Denver is just trying to figure out how to pick up a blitz.
Minkah Fitzpatrick (39) of the Pittsburgh Steelers tackles Greg Dulcich (80) of the Denver Broncos during the first quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
“We did that last year a little bit where we said, ‘Hey, let’s start to simplify this a little bit,’” tight end Adam Trautman told The Denver Post. “But there’s obviously a point, too, where you have to be able to do some of it. Because otherwise you’re a sitting duck with some of this stuff. And Sean knows that. He knows what he’s doing.”
The veteran tight end thinks Denver’s stuck in a rut now where one mistake here and another there is preventing any kind of sustained rhythm.
“I’m confident that it will work. I really am,” Trautman said. “But we have to do it now. We have to stay on the field. You can’t create an identity when you’re not on the field because you’re like, ‘We’ve got to try out these plays and see how (the opponent) is lining up to certain stuff.”
The game is moving fast for Nix and this offense and the season will, too. Next up: Another pair of defensive minds in Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles and New York Jets coach Robert Saleh.
Will a streamlining of the offensive plan do the trick? Players and coaches may feel like the group is close, but the statistics tell a different story.
Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton checks the clock during the fourth quarter of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 13-6 win at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Nix has four interceptions and has yet to throw a touchdown in the NFL. The Broncos have one offensive touchdown through two games. They’ll wake up going into Week 3 near the bottom in categories ranging from third-down rate to red zone efficiency and the run game.
The race is already on and the Broncos are already behind again. Last year the defense put the group behind the 8-ball. This year the opposite.
Is there another bounce back in the cards?
“We’ve got two weeks where we go on the road and we’re going to find out real quickly,” Payton said.
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