Back in Week 6 I called the Jets-Broncos game in London maybe the worst football game I'd ever seen. A new hat has been thrown into the ring, with Raiders-Broncos last night.
The common theme (not just bad opposing quarterbacks who play or played for the Jets) is a defense that's shutting pretty much everything down right now. Denver through 10 games has more sacks (46) than all but 5 teams (one of which was Denver) had in 17 games a year ago. The Eagles had 70 two years ago, and the Bears had a record 72 in 1984; those are within reach. They've got two games against Patrick Mahomes and one against Jordan Love, which could mess with that, but they could definitely be up in the 4-5 range against the other 4 teams on their schedule: Raiders, Chargers, Jaguars, Commanders.
QUARTERBACKS
The Raiders were moving the ball early on, and Geno Smith was playing well. Las Vegas' first four drives constituted of a touchdown (with Smith completing a bunch of short passes), a second touchdown that was erased by an offensive interference penalty, and two other advances into field goal range (on a typical night; the wind was apparently swirling down there, causing some adventures with passes, punts and balls in the air of any kind). But twice he was sacked on third downs to take them out of field goal range, another time there was a weird play where he seemed to try a quarterback sneak on essentially 3rd and 3, and also an uncomfortable moment where he was berating Raheem Mostert for missing a blitz pickup -- valid, but Mostert is barely playing these days.
The big blow to the offense was when the Raiders lost guard Jackson Powers-Johnson to injury in the second quarter; they were having some success running the ball prior to that. And then they also their other starting guard, Dylan Parham. Blocking Denver's ridiculously talented defensive front of Zach Allen, Jonathan Cooper, Nik Bonitto and Dre Greenlaw was a tall order anyway; trying to do it down two OL starters; small wonder Smith got sacked 6 times that seemed like more. He also got hurt late (quad), which didn't help his already iffy mobility.
Rough outing also for Bo Nix, although let's only blame him for one interception (the second clanged off both his receiver's hands. Evan Engram dropped a catchable ball, Troy Franklin caught a short pass but then ran into the back of his own blocker, Tyler Badie dropped an easy pass, RJ Harvey caught a short ball that could have gone for more but he took a confusing angle to the sideline rather than just going forward, killing the play. Not trying to make excuses for Nix, but there were rumors that Denver wanted to add a receiver before the trade deadline, and watching this game it was not hard to see why. Nix himself has made some poor throws all year but more often than not these guys are not helping him. Somebody can make a difficult catch on occasion, right? Nix got you a touchdown and scrambled to make a couple of nice throws on the run, but obviously not a great week to start him (presumably nobody made the mistake of starting Geno).
RUNNING BACKS
Nice game for J.K. Dobbins. I wasn't sure about the signing at the time but he's an underrated part of why this team is 8-2. There's always the looming concern of injury, probably why he's on his third team in three seasons, but he's averaging 77 rushing yards and 5.0 per attempt -- the Chargers probably wish they'd kept him around. A big part of the wins at Philadelphia, last night, and some other close games. Frustrating he hasn't scored lately, the team likes to emphasize the pass near the goal line, , and throws more to other backs, making Dobbins just a so-so fantasy choice. But a good NFL player.
RJ Harvey was probably in a lot of lineups last night, the way he's been catching passes and scoring. But not much of either last night, including Denver for some reason deciding to use Tyler Badie in the two-minute offense before the half, so he could drop an easy pass that could have gone for a nice gain. Harvey himself didn't do much with his chances, including a strange route on a reception near the goal line: rather than run straight into end zone, I'm going to try to take the long way around the safety. But giving Badie any of those chances is typical Sean Payton getting a little too cute.
Ashton Jeanty ran for 60 yards (3.2 per attempt) and a short touchdown, which those who started him should feel fortunate about; the playclock expired but the refs were slow reacting and the play held up. He also had a 30-yard run wiped out by a holding penalty (rookie wideout Jack Bech, that won't get him more opportunities). They didn't get him much space, especially in the passing game (3 catches, 3 yards, and a Geno pick bounced off his hands) and also used Raheem Mostert on some third downs. But he played all but 8 snaps, so hard to really complain about his usage. The run game was working better on the early drives, not so much once the linemen got hurt.
WIDE RECEIVER
One team just traded away its top wideout, the other one was reportedly in the market for one. Yeah, that tracks.
Start with the Raiders. Tre Tucker played every snap and had a 31-yard touchdown, wiped out by an offensive interference penalty on Donte Thornton. That was one of two negative plays involving Thornton the other being a perfectly thrown 30ish yard pass when he'd beaten a defender but let it bounce off his hands. Geno Smith doesn't throw a lot of perfect passes, you gotta catch those when they're there. Would have put Las Vegas in field goal range in a game they lost 10-7. Thornton played the most after Tucker but had only 1 other ball thrown his way.
Tyler Lockett looks like he'll be the main beneficiary of the Jakobi Meyers trade. Lockett caught 5 for 44 on 6 targets, pretty similar to what Meyers has been doing all season. Not a player you want in fantasy lineups, probably, but there will be some better matchups than Denver. Jack Bech played sparingly and his notable contribution was a penalty to wipe out a big play. Not this year for the rookie.
Troy Franklin was the usable Broncos receiver, catching 5 passes and a short touchdown over the middle. Twice as many targets as Courtland Sutton, who I made the mistake of recommending, sorry about that. Nix didn't look his way very often and of course the passing game only managed 150 yards. But things won't be easier against Kansas City next week. Franklin didn't cover himself in glory either, dropping one pass that turned into an interception and having a maddening early play where a short pass might have gone for big gain except he decide to run up the back of the guy setting a nice block for him. Franklin has exceeded expectations this season and has been a nice start in fantasy leagues a lot of weeks, but he's also iffy enough that you never feel really good about putting him in a lineup.
Pat Bryant had the offensive play of the night for Denver, a 43-yard catch and run to set up their touchdown. He had another pretty blatant pushoff that wiped out another reception that might have led to points before the half, and just one other target. Still the No. 3 or 4 when Marvin Mims is healthy, but I'll be hanging onto him in dynasty.
TIGHT ENDS
Clearly the disappointment of the night was Brock Bowers. Benching the guy was not an option, no matter how good the opposing defense was, so you shrug it off and say that's fantasy, hope the rest of my lineup makes up for it. It was a little weird that he was on the sideline for 10 plays, with Michael Mayer playing only slightly less and seeing one more target while catching 3 passes (1 for Bowers). Bowers was out of the game for Las Vegas' only goal-line sequence when Jeanty scored, suggesting they wanted Mayer in there to block perhaps. I'm sure they had their reasons but in this offense it's hard to figure why any goal line plays wouldn't include Bowers as an option.
I had some interest in Evan Engram in the offseason. The Broncos are paying him a decent amount of money. It looks like money ill-spent. Engram is averaging 3 catches for 25 yards, making virtually no impact. One touchdown, in the win at Philly, fair play to him. But a couple of other balls last night that could have been caught. Engram is 31 and as we've seen, it's a position where some guys are still playing at a high level and some guys, due to years of mileage and injuries, are not. Denver's other tight ends are also old (in the case of wizened Marcedes Lewis, trying to block Maxx Crosby a lot last night, really old). This is a position Sean Payton might want to address in the offseason not with one of his old New Orleans cronies but maybe a decent draft pick.
MISCELLANEOUS
I don't know exactly what the winds were like last night; the adventures the teams had punting the ball suggested they were bad. But Daniel Carlson's missed 48-yard field goal with four minutes left (sparing us an overtime period, so thanks for that) looked off-target from the get-go, and just a week ago he missed an extra point in a 1-point loss.
As I seem to say every week, I hope Pete Carroll is enjoying himself most of the week, because it's hard to imagine he's having much fun on gameday. The Raiders have a few good or great players, but at the moment the defense is relatively poor, the wide receiver room is bereft, and the trade for and salary bump for Geno Smith is hard to defend. It's probably good that they're losing these close games because they need high draft picks in the worst way.
As for Denver, I saw a friend while walking the dogs this morning and he said "Denver, worst 8-2 team ever?" My take is that they seem to play to the level of their competition, highlighted by the fact that only two of their games (Cincinnati and Dallas) have been decided by more than one score. Their defense is fantastic and they're going to be in every game on that basis (maybe Andy Reid will cook up some things to dispute that, we'll see), but their offense might be a receiver short, certainly given what they're putting on the field at tight end, and maybe wide receiver at the moment. But they're pretty good, and going to be a tough out come January. Defense does make a difference then.