The Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers with ease in Week 2 of NFL preseason, defeating their cross-conference foe 27-2 at home.
It must be noted, of course, that the Broncos built a 10-0 first-quarter lead with their starters playing against the Packers’ backups. But even Denver’s backups outplayed their opposition later in the game.
Both teams also played their starters in a joint practice scrimmage last week, and the Broncos also came out on top in that duel. After two “losses” in Denver, Packers coach Matt LaFleur said his team was humbled.
“Well, that was a long night,” LaFleur said after Sunday’s game. “Certainly, I think I was hoping that our guys would come out with more strain, effort, and grit after kind of getting humbled the other day in practice, and then to have it happen again, not where we want to be.
“I think it’s a good lesson for our guys in terms of, it doesn’t matter who’s out there, if you don’t put your best foot forward each and every time you go out on that field, these things happen to you. We’re going to have to regroup, take a long hard look in the mirror, and you’ve got to get better. We need that urgency from everybody.”
The game undoubtedly could have had a different feel if both teams played similar personnel. Broncos coach Sean Payton wanted more reps for his starters, though, and they performed well against the players across from them.
“We can’t control that,” Payton said when asked about the Packers not playing their starters. “We were able to control it on Friday when they did. We’ve got to worry about our team and what our plan was. Our plan — after the practice that we had … I felt like a month ago I had an idea and that changed after we finished because we got a lot of reps on Friday. We kind of stuck to last week’s pitch count if you will.
“Normally that second preseason game I’d like to get in the high 20s [of reps] with the ones and I think we were short of that, but I felt like we certainly had plenty of snaps on Friday. Matt didn’t start his players, I get it, but we did.”
The Broncos out-gained the Packers 263-168 in net yards and Green Bay’s offense was limited to 3.7 yards per pass attempt (Denver averaged 6.7).
“[I] just want to see more fight from our guys, that was frustrating, the lack of ability to move the football, both at the running game and in the passing game,” LaFleur said. “We definitely just have got to reevaluate and take a long hard look at everybody.”
Sure, it’s only preseason, but dominating a game matters for confidence. It was a convincing win for the Broncos and an ugly result for Green Bay.
