Broncos fans are no strangers to watching the Rocky Mountain Horror Picture Show in recent years, but even the sturdiest might have wondered if they had stumbled into a Time Warp Dance on Sunday afternoon at Empower Field.
What year is it, again?
The parallels between Denver’s 2022 and 2023 season openers are downright scary.
New coach making an anticipated debut. An actually pretty efficient Russell Wilson-led offense. Red zone failures. Double-digit penalties. A defense that wilted one too many times. A pesky opposing quarterback new to his West-division team picked to finish at the bottom of the barrel.
Even the final score — 17-16 for the other guys, 363 days ago in sunny Seattle, and again on a cool, rainy Denver afternoon — fits snugly in this Broncos bizarro world.
Make it seven straight for those Raiders against these Broncos.
Make it three straight wins for Raiders Josh McDaniels over the team he once coached.
Make it another game that easily could have served as a jumping-off point for Denver and now threatens to become an anchor.
Make it another year of heading into Week 2 not with a tailwind but instead with one body blow already landed and more accomplished punchers ahead.
Denver head coach Sean Payton has spent the past seven months changing everything about this franchise he could possibly think of, hoping to change the Broncos’ fortunes by sheer force of will.
Instead, more of the same.
“Look, our plate is going to be full every weekend,” Payton said after he watched his offense go three-and-out with a chance to recapture a fourth-quarter lead and his defense allow the Raiders to bleed the game’s final 5 minutes, 8 seconds off the clock.
“The exceptions are the games that aren’t close, really. Playing in these one-score games, in the end trying to get a stop and use the time, obviously it was frustrating they were able to run the clock out. … And offensively we had our opportunities as well.
“Those close games aren’t going away. That’s kind of our league.”
Schematics? Talent? Yeah, they’ll matter over the next 17 weeks. But what Payton has on his hands now is a test fit for a psychologist: Convince this Broncos team, which looked a lot like past Broncos teams over a seven-year playoff drought Sunday, that this time is different.
“We’ve been in this situation too many times, so for us it’s all about finishing,” safety Kareem Jackson said. “Like I said, they finished and we didn’t do enough. We have to be better.”
If that sounds like something that’s been said in the past, check any of the nine one-score losses from last year.
Here’s the thing about parallel tracks, though: They’re not destined to run side-by-side forever. Divergence is possible.
A Week 1 result doesn’t have to preordain what comes next.
“It’s a new year and it’s Week 1,” inside linebacker Alex Singleton said after starting his own season with a team-high eight tackles, a pressure and a third-quarter tip that led to a Kareem Jackson interception.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got 16 more. It’s not college. You don’t have to go undefeated to make the playoffs. We’ve just got to learn from it, take these early ones and not treat it like the end of a season. It’s not Week 10, not Week 12.
“Every team has to get better. Whoever gets better the fastest will be the best team.”
Denver looked like it had a chance to best the Raiders when Jackson came down with that interception with 2:01 remaining in the third quarter, thwarting a 13-play drive.
Russell Wilson (27-of-34 passing for 177 yards, two touchdowns) then guided the Broncos to a first-and-goal at the 8-yard line, but three straight passes from there netted only three yards and Denver settled for a 24-yard Wil Lutz field goal and 16-10 lead.
Instead of vanquishing demons and a losing streak against the silver and black that dates to Oakland, Vance Joseph’s defense allowed Jimmy Garoppolo to complete four straight passes for 60 yards and put his team right back on top.
From there: a three-and-out and Vegas’ put-away drive. See you Week 18 for a rematch in the desert.
What will the Broncos be at that point? What will they be by Week 6, when they turn around after a bout with the New York Jets and prepare for Kansas City on a short week?
“The entire NFL tries incredibly hard, and it’s a race to see who can get really, really good in these first four weeks,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey told The Post, echoing his head coach last week that the opening of the season is a sprint. “Because of the limited training camp, because of the limited offseason, you’re still trying to catch your stride. We have a huge opportunity to continue to improve, and that’s all it’s about is trying to get better each and every week. It’s not about trying to reinvent the wheel to try not to lose.
“It’s just about getting better at the things we didn’t execute the right way.”
The Broncos aren’t among the NFL’s upper crust when it comes to talent, but that’s not a Week 1 revelation. It’s been clear even after a March free-agency spending bonanza. They’re not entirely outmanned, either. They’re right in the group of teams that can win or lose pretty much any time they take the field.
What ultimately will determine whether this picture plays out like recent renditions on the Front Range, or if Denver can produce a new script, is whether all the talk about improvement precedes actual, on-the-field gains next weekend against Washington and beyond.
“It’s a long season and I feel like we’re going to bounce back,” running back Javonte Williams said. “I feel like we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties, gave up a couple of explosive plays. I don’t think there’s too much that’s going to go into it.
“We’ve just got to shake back, put this one behind us and get ready for the Commanders.”
Sean Payton’s Rocky start
Does the Broncos’ 17-16 loss to Las Vegas in Sean Payton’s first game as head coach portend trouble ahead? Or is it a small bump in the road? Only time will tell. Judging by the debuts of each Broncos head coach since the end of Mike Shanahan’s 14-year tenure in Denver, things could go either way:
| Coach, Year | Opponent | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sean Payton, 2023 | Las Vegas | L, 17-16 | So many things changed, but too many remained the same in another lost opener. |
| Nathaniel Hackett, 2022 | at Seattle | L, 17-16 | Hackett’s decision to opt for 64-yard FG late served as harbinger of (bad) things to come. |
| Vic Fangio, 2019 | at Oakland | L, 24-16 | The beginning of an 0-4 start that crushed the Broncos’ playoff hopes before October hit. |
| Vance Joseph, 2017 | L.A. Chargers | W, 24-21 | Joseph won his debut, but got only 10 more W’s the rest of his two-year tenure. |
| Gary Kubiak, 2015 | Baltimore | W, 19-13 | A debut win set the tone for Kubiak and the Broncos to go 12-4 and win Super Bowl 50. |
| John Fox, 2011 | Oakland | L, 23-20 | A loss, but Fox went 64-46 in Denver and is lone Broncos coach to never miss the playoffs. |
| Josh McDaniels, 2009 | at Cincinnati | W, 12-7 | Denver started 6-0 under McDaniels, but it was all downhill after that. |
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