The Denver Broncos‘ defense got off to a flying start against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
On the first snap of the game, Broncos pass rusher Jonathon Cooper sacked Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith. On the next play, linebacker Alex Singleton grabbed an interception. Later in the first half, Denver’s defense forced a pair of safeties.
That takeaway and the two safeties helped the Broncos build a 13-9 halftime lead, but Denver squandered that lead in the second half, eventually losing 26-20. After two sacks, a takeaway and two safeties in the first half, the defense allowed 17 points in the second half.
So what happened? The offense struggled to stay on the field in the third quarter — did the defense get tired from being on the field too long?
“Yeah, I don’t know,” coach Sean Payton said after the loss. “That’s a good question. It’s a fair question. The time of possession, certainly we would have liked to have had a drive to start the second half. We were three-and-out and then I think we gave up a touchdown on that next drive, so the momentum shifted there early in the third quarter, and, yeah, we struggled at that point. Took a while to get it back.”
That third quarter proved to be costly as Denver was outscored 10-0 in a game decided by six points.
“[There’s] a lot to learn from,” Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton said. “Stuff that we preached in the offseason was there. Defensively, obviously, we want that third quarter back. I think it wasn’t how we wanted to play. We started fast, we finished. They went into four-minute mode early, but we did what we can to get the offense the ball back and give them opportunities to score like they did. Just building off that, I think. We just need to know that it’s week one and keep getting better.”
Denver cornerback Pat Surtain did not pin the second-half slump on being on the field for an extended period.
“Not necessarily,” Surtain said. “When we go out there, we expect to do our job no matter what the situation is. We’ve got to hold ourselves accountable at the end of the day. I mean, no one else is out there playing for us. But we’ve got to execute the calls and execute the scheme and play to the best of our ability. We’ve just got to finish off all four quarters of the game, all four phases. That’s the main thing.”
Next week, the Broncos will face a Pittsburgh Steelers offense that scored 18 points with Justin Fields in Week 1 (it’s unclear if Fields or Russell Wilson will play in Denver). Surtain is confident the unit will bounce back.
“[W]e’ve got a long season ahead,” Surtain said. “We [will] learn from this one game and just move forward.”
