Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton was a co-star in Denver’s horrific 70-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. But his role in one of the worst defeats in league history painted a good picture of how bad of a day it was.
Denver was already down 42-13 with 5:23 left in the third quarter, and desperately needed something to prevent the scoreboard from entering historically bad territory. That’s when quarterback Russell Wilson stepped into the pocket and threw to Sutton on a crossing route. The veteran wideout ran 29 yards down the sideline before Dolphins safety Jevon Holland punched the ball out of Sutton’s right arm and cornerback Kader Kohou recovered.
It was Sutton’s second fumble of the day. Throw in a dropped touchdown pass in the back of the end zone, and the positives of an eight-catch, 91-yard performance quickly faded into the background.
“Unacceptable,” Sutton said. “When carrying the ball, we have everyone’s dreams, goals and aspirations. I fumbled the ball twice, which is very frustrating.”
With the Broncos’ defense unable to contain Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and company, the offense needed to take advantage of every opportunity it had. In the final two minutes of the second quarter, the Broncos faced a second-and-10 when Wilson connected with Sutton on a short pass. He tried to maneuver past Holland to get a first down, but the safety managed to knock the ball out. Dolphins linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel recovered and ran 29 yards to Denver’s 3-yard line.
Mostert scored soon thereafter on a rushing touchdown to extend the Dolphins’ lead to 35-10 with 1:35 left in the second quarter.
Sutton had a shot at redemption with 17 seconds remaining in the first half and still couldn’t make the play. Denver was at the Dolphins’ 4-yard line when Wilson threw to Sutton in the back of the end zone but he couldn’t maintain control of the ball. The Broncos had to settle for a 25-yard field goal from Wil Lutz as they went into halftime with a 35-13 deficit.
Denver ended the game scoring one touchdown in four red zone visits.
“When we had opportunities, we shot ourselves in the foot,” Sutton said. “(Me) not being able to hold on to the ball and trying to do too much hurt us. I put our defense in bad spots and took the air out of (the offense). It’s unfortunate.”
Sutton had a 12-yard touchdown catch late in the first. Besides that, it seemed Sutton had bad luck throughout. On the Broncos’ first drive in the opening quarter, his reception on third-and-5 was ruled incomplete even though it appeared that he maintained possession of the ball.
With 7:21 left in the second quarter, Sutton’s 7-yard touchdown was negated after wide receiver Brandon Johnson was called for a questionable offensive pass interference. To top it off, he was a part of one of the worst losses in Broncos history.
Just like inside linebacker Alex Singleton, Sutton wants to hop on the plane to Chicago and play the Bears, hoping to put this performance in the past.
“That’s the tough thing about losses like this,” Sutton said. “You have to deal with it for a week.”
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