Justin Simmons Makes No Excuses for Ravens' 91-Yard Go-Ahead Drive

Coughing up yet another squeaker on the East Coast — a 10-9 loss to the Baltimore Ravens — condemned the Denver Broncos to what is now their sixth straight losing season. One can only imagine how late team owner Pat Bowlen would have reacted to such ineptitude, but it likely wouldn't have involved procrastination and indecision.

Hampered and hamstrung by a generationally bad Broncos offense, Ejiro Evero’s defensive unit is being put in the nearly impossible position of having to be perfect. Still, sadly, the Broncos are coming up short.

Faced with defending 91 yards of turf, the Denver defense couldn’t stop Ravens' backup quarterback Tyler Huntley from pulling ahead with only 28 ticks left on the clock. In truth, this is yet another defeat of the Denver offense. Not crossing into the red zone even once throughout a game and putting up a paltry nine points is why Denver was defeated again.

That being said, the lack of extra internal fortitude from the defense in crunch time is a source of frustration for fans and Broncos players alike, and team captain Justin Simmons knows it.

“You talk about the plays that win or lose you the game, and for us, it was that two-minute drive,” Simmons said post-game. “We knew what type of game this was going to be—low scoring, defensive, just a dogfight. They’ve got a really good defense as well—scrappy. They’re good at stopping the run. So, for us, it’s just finding ways to finish those games—offense, defense. Obviously, we didn’t give our offense a chance much there at the end and they still almost made it happen.”

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Coming to rely on defense to win games, particularly in a pass-happy modern-day NFL, is a coaching folly of giant proportions. Add into the mix Hackett’s game plan to treat Russell Wilson like the 2021 version of Teddy Bridgewater, and the Broncos lacked the killer instinct to finish off the Ravens, who were suddenly without their star quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Ambling for a tiptoe win became self-evident when just before the half, Hackett opted to kick a 41-yard field goal when the Broncos could have gone for it on a 4th-&-1.

Hackett’s decision not to push the envelope would eventually expose the Broncos’ overworked defense on the Ravens’ game-defining 16-play scoring drive. When Hackett broke down his decision to kick rather than grind out the hard yard, he revealed that it was a predetermined objective.

“No, the feel of the game, I thought our defense was playing at a very high level. I thought we did a good job moving the ball down there and did not want to go away and go into the half without points,” Hackett detailed post-game. “So, I had already decided that I wanted to be sure we kicked the field goal and get those points, and as we see, we had the lead most of the game.”

It’s been that exact kind of passive approach which suggests Hackett lacks the vision and boldness required to be a bonafide NFL head coach. In the final analysis, and despite the Walton/Penner ownership group’s decision to keep its head coach in situ, you can trust that change will be in the air soon enough.

Granted, some changes may frustratingly have to wait until the season ends, but fans will surely see Hackett moving on and the Broncos returning to the drawing board again.

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