Broncos defense falters on road against Colts in 29-28 defeat

Last week, the Denver Broncos defense came to play and the offense was mostly missing in action. The inverse was true today as the Indianapolis Colts under Daniel Jones torched the defense on nearly every drive — except when those drives got into field goal range. The Broncos’ offense also kept up with multiple touchdown drives of their own.

With a five point lead, the Broncos threw a red zone interception and had a missed field goal. Combining that with a defense that faltered all day long between the 20s gave the Colts the chance for a game-winning drive late. Denver has a lot of questions heading into Week 3.

Daniel Jones and the Colts came out firing on all cylinders to start the game. They could the Broncos pass defense sleeping a bit and quickly drove down into the red zone. However, the Broncos defense stiffened and held to a field goal.

On the Broncos first offensive possession, Bo Nix and the offense was flawless. The run game was picking up big chunks of yardage and then from the Colts’ 23 yard line, Nix lobbed a ball up into the back of the end zone to Marvin Mims Jr. for the touchdown.

The Colts offense couldn’t be stopped in the first quarter. They would tack on another field goal and the first quarter would end with them on the one yard line ready to plunge in for a touchdown to extend their scoring streak to start the season to 10-drives.

The Colts took the lead right out of the gates in the second quarter, but the Broncos offense answered in kind. Troy Franklin took over with four catches on the drive including this 42-yard bomb. He would then cap the drive with a 3-yard touchdown catch from Nix to put Denver back out in front.

The Broncos defense finally ended the Colts’ scoring streak of 10 drives to open the season with a fourth down stop near midfield. The Broncos would take that turnover on downs and methodically march down the field for back-to-back touchdown drives to secure an 8-point lead in the first half.

Bo Nix was 12/15 for 115 yards and 3 touchdowns in the first half up until that point. Daniel Jones and the Colts were not done as they drove down and scored in just over a minute to score a touchdown of their own. They did leave 91 seconds on the clock for Denver to work with before halftime. They wouldn’t do anything with that possession, however, and went a quick three-and-out.

The Broncos came out and drove right down the field to start the second half with a 7-play, 60 yard touchdown drive highlighted by a nifty third down run for 18 yards by Nix, a nice catch and run by RJ Harvey for 16 yards, and was capped by a five-yard touchdown run by JK Dobbins to put Denver back up by 8 points. The Colts would answer with a field goal on their next drive to keep the game tight midway through the third quarter.

The problem seemed to be that the Broncos’ defense simply couldn’t figure out how to stop the Colts offense until they were in field goal range. If Denver hadn’t been able to score touchdowns on all of their red zone drives, the score could have been a lot different entering the fourth quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Colts again fasted a fourth down and short near midfield and elected to go for it and for the second time in the game the Broncos’ defense made a play to stop the conversion. Indianapolis still hadn’t punted the ball this season, but two turnover on downs at midfield is not ideal in a tight game like this one was.

From midfield, Bo Nix was flushed out on the very first play of their next drive after that turnover on downs and as he threw it away the Colts defense shoved Nix down out of bounds for an unsportsmanlike penalty. Two plays later on third and three, Nix was hit when he released and the ball sailed where it was intercepted inside the 10 yard line.

Jonathan Taylor broke loose again getting over 100 yards in the game with a 68-yard run to set the Colts up for a game-changing score midway through the fourth quarter. Two plays later on third and eight, Jones was pressured and was almost intercepted by Jonathon Cooper to force another field goal for the Colts.

Broncos 28, Colts 26.

On the Broncos next drive, they were driving really good until they shot themselves in their own foot. After a 23-yard run by JK Dobbins down to the Colts’ 20, they would get two costly penalties pushing them back. Then on 3rd and 23 from their own 40, they got a nice screen pass to Troy Franklin to get most of their yards back to setup a Wil Lutz field goal attempt.

The kick would curve and doink off the uprights. With just over 3 minutes to go, the Colts offense would get a chance to win the game against a defense that hadn’t been able to stop them all day long.

The Colts drove down the field like they have all game long. Sean Payton used all of his timeouts, but the Colts converted anyway. They would run the clock all the way down for the game-winning field goal. AND HE MISSED IT!

Unfortunately, a leverage call negated the missed kick and the 15-yard penalty made it a chipshot for Indianapolis to win the game.

Colts 29, Broncos 28.

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