Sean Payton Sends Message to Broncos After 'Tough Loss' to Chiefs
The Denver Broncos suffered their 16th consecutive loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night with a final score of 19-8. Although the Broncos defense performed surprisingly well, the offense could not find a rhythm.
The Broncos offense and special teams rewarded Kansas City with gifts in the form of turnovers and short fields. Russell Wilson completed 13-of-22 passes and ended the game with just 95 yards passing and a touchdown, with two costly interceptions.
The Broncos went 4-for-10 on third down. In fact, the Chiefs started several of their possessions just outside of their 40-yard line.
On the flip side, the Broncos defense was able to limit the Chiefs' offensive firepower. Patrick Mahomes completed 30-of-40 passes for 306 yards passing and a touchdown, and was picked off once. The Chiefs went 1-for-5 in the red zone.
Post-game, Sean Payton emphasized several things that went well at Arrowhead and touched on a few that did not go so well. But despite the disappointment, the Broncos' head coach had an air of optimism about his remarks.
“I said this (to the team) not five minutes ago that I’m not discouraged," Payton said Thursday night. "I thought they played particularly hard defensively and did a great job with red zone defense, which was outstanding. Offensively, we struggled… our third down numbers were poor.”
Despite the loss, Payton is not going to lose sleep as he was satisfied with the effort the team showed on the short week:
“We played an imperfect game, but I was pleased, as I thought we had great effort and energy tonight," Payton said. "On a short week, it’s still a tough loss, but I thought we played hard, and it’s not always good enough, especially when you turn the ball over, but I was encouraged with how we played mentally and physically.”
Now sitting at 1-5, the Broncos have a few extra days to reset before next Sunday’s matchup against the Green Bay Packers. The schedule also becomes harder, with a rematch of the Chiefs in two weeks and a meeting with the Buffalo Bills in Week 9.
Although Payton is not discouraged, this team has flaws that are coming out in the wash on a weekly basis. It's becoming more obvious how they're contributing to this losing culture.
Are there encouraging aspects of the Broncos? Sure. However, a re-evaluation of the entire organization is needed before the Broncos can reclaim their seat at the table of NFL relevancy.
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