The Denver Broncos lost their preseason opener to the Arizona Cardinals last Friday. Arizona scored late and converted a two-point attempt to take an 18-17 lead and held on to win by one point.
Denver’s first-team offense had three drives end without a score (thanks in part to a pair of missed field goals) before finally scoring a touchdown on the team’s fourth drive of the game.
It certainly wasn’t a perfect performance and while the starters left the game with a 7-0 lead, the Broncos ultimately lost the game. Even in preseason, Payton made it clear that losing is not acceptable.
“Just briefly, what I told the team, regardless of whether it is a preseason game or a regular season game, you can’t stand losing,” Payton said Friday night. “Especially in that fashion.
“We will look at the tape tomorrow and there will be a number of things that we will be excited about, there will be a number of things that we have to clean up. We are in a race to do that now that we have an opponent on film against us. We start from there.”
Denver was penalized six times for 46 yards and fumbled twice. The offensive line was spotty. The kicking game was poor. There’s plenty for the Broncos to work on ahead of their Week 2 game against the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday.
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