Broncos must improve on penalty side of things

For the 1-2 Denver Broncos to course correct their early season bad start, they must clean up their issue with penalties on both sides of the ball. Drives are either killed early or stupidly extended on these types of calls and it has been the difference in both of their back-to-back defeats.

Head Coach Sean Payton was asked about what they need to improve on early downs and he focused on the penalty side of things.

“We started today, one of the topics was penalties,” Payton said. “We’re high in that category, three weeks in be it, but still nonetheless, defensively, offensively near the back of the league in penalties. Special teams we’ve been clean. I think we’re fifth. What are the things that put you behind? What keeps you from being inefficient on first and second down? That’s something that there’s probably a handful of reasons.”

Denver is actually pretty good on first down, especially in the run game. But what good is a seven yard run on first down when it was 1st and 20? They’ve got to get that issue cleaned up and then the focus needs to be their poor second and third down efficiency.

When asked how he could coach to avoid penalties, Payton went on to talk about just attention to detail. That’s really all it is. The Broncos are playing sloppy football and it shows in the penalty box each game.

“I think it’s just the attention to detail, the focus, cadence and making sure that,” he continued. “Then you post the penalties and then how many each player has, that has some significance to it as well.”

Either way, the Cincinnati Bengals are in a bad spot down their franchise quarterback and coming off a blowout loss where they looked like they were in complete disarray. This is a game Denver should get things back right with a convincing win. If not, then we may be seeing true trouble in paradise here in 2025.

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