The Broncos walked out of Santa Clara with a 2-2 record, and that matters. It keeps the season from tipping into alarm mode just yet.
But the bigger picture after Sunday’s 24-14 loss to the San Francisco 49ers is hard to ignore. Denver’s September problems were still hanging around when October arrived, and they showed up in the same familiar places: the run game that never gets traction, the offense that too often stalls, and a defense that can hold one threat down only to spring leaks somewhere else.
The ground game is the clearest example. Against a 49ers defense that leaned on two-high safety looks to take away the deep ball, the Broncos still couldn’t create much movement on the ground.
J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey and Tyler Badie combined to average 3.6 yards per carry, which matched the season-long average for the running back room.
In other words, Sunday wasn’t some one-off cold snap. It was more of the same.
Dobbins was clearly frustrated, and it’s easy to see why given the way the first four games have gone. But the issue goes beyond the backs themselves. The blocking has to hold up too, and Denver wasn’t getting enough done there against a 49ers run defense that came into the day last in the NFL in success rate allowed.
“It (run blocking) is a huge part of our job and we’re not doing it well enough,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said.
“As a team, we gotta run the ball better and we need to be able to rely on that when games are tight and close. We gotta be better.”
The numbers around the Broncos are rough across the board. Per RBSDM.com, they’re stuck in the bottom half of the league in almost every major category.
In the standard stats, Denver ranks 27th in total offense, 20th in passing offense, 29th in rushing offense and 26th in points scored. On the other side, it sits 28th in total defense, 21st against the pass, 30th against the run and 17th in points allowed.
The one bright spot is EPA per rush, where the Broncos barely crack the top half.
That’s about as close as the team has come to finding a stable identity. Instead, it’s been a little bit of everything without enough of any one thing.
The defense, for example, did bottle up Christian McCaffrey and Kaelon Black, holding them to 3.1 yards per carry on 21 attempts. But Deebo Samuel carved them up on the ground, averaging 14.7 yards on his three carries, and San Francisco finished with 140 rushing yards, right in line with Denver’s season-long problems stopping the run.
The offensive side has its own uneven profile. Denver put up 30 points in the second half of its Week 3 win over the Los Angeles Rams, but outside that burst it has managed only 44 points across the other seven halves of the season.
That works out to a 12.6-point average over 60 minutes. At the moment, the Sunday Night Football eruption looks like the outlier, not the standard.
Even with all of that, the Broncos still had a shot late. With four minutes left, Jaylen Waddle’s touchdown catch and Tyler Badie’s two-point conversion run cut the 49ers’ lead to 17-14.
Denver had life. Again.
This time, though, the comeback window slammed shut. Wil Lutz missed a 58-yard field goal that would have pulled the Broncos within seven, and the 10-point loss was set in stone.
Denver’s streak of 13 straight wins in one-score games with Bo Nix as the starting quarterback remains intact, but Nix’s own start to the season has been uneven. His 80.5 passer rating through four games is 7.4 points lower than it was at the same point in 2026.
The Broncos also didn’t get into the San Francisco red zone until less than five minutes remained in the fourth quarter, and that lone red-zone snap finally produced their touchdown.
“Yeah, it’s very frustrating,” McGlinchey said. “Gotta figure out what’s causing it.Gotta figure out how we can be better right from the jump - and we will.”
There’s still time for Denver to clean things up, and the record doesn’t leave the season hanging by a thread. Bo Nix made that clear afterward.
“I definitely don’t think we hit the panic button,” Nix said, “but at the same time we just have to continue to grind and find ways to get better.”
That’s the assignment now. The Broncos head into a game against the winless Los Angeles Chargers, then into a four-game stretch that includes a home date with the defending champion Seattle Seahawks and the annual visit from the Kansas City Chiefs. If Denver keeps showing the same flaws, those games could get away from it quickly.
For now, the Broncos are still searching for answers that were supposed to be solved by October. Instead, they’re still chasing them.
In Other News...
Broncos Finally Get A Chance To Fix Whats Holding This Offense Back
The Broncos have spent the early part of the season fighting for answers on offense, and now they get a chance to make some progress against a Chargers team dealing with plenty of its own problems. Los Angeles is still looking for its first win, and the issues around Jim Harbaugh, Justin Herbert and new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniels system have made that side of the matchup far from clean. For Denver, it is the kind of opponent that can either provide a reset or expose how much work still remains.
After a stretch against stronger competition, the Broncos should see this as an opportunity to finally settle some of the things that have held the offense back. But a winless team can be a dangerous one if it is treated like a soft landing spot, especially in the AFC West where little margin exists for careless football. Denver does not just need the result, it needs proof that the offense can take advantage when the matchup is there. [Read more 🡒]
Marvin Mims' Costly Mistake Has Broncos Fans Asking About Accountability
Marvin Mims spent the aftermath of a rough outing doing what players are supposed to do after a mistake, even if the admission was uncomfortable. The Broncos wide receiver said he did not go back and review the film on the play where he fumbled, and he went so far as to call it possibly his worst NFL game. For a Denver offense still trying to find cleaner execution, the moment landed as another reminder of how thin the margin can be when a key touch turns into a turnover.
The larger conversation around accountability did not stop with Mims, either. Former Broncos linebacker Dre Greenlaw took aim at Sean Payton after the game, and Payton did not push back in his postgame availability, instead responding positively to Greenlaws comments. Meanwhile, across the division, Raiders coach Klint Kubiak was already talking about changing the approach around Ashton Jeanty and Mike Washington, a sign that coaches on both sidelines are feeling the pressure to fix problems before they harden. [Read more 🡒]
Broncos May Need One Eagles Move Before The Trade Market Shifts
Philadelphias roster has already started to look different in the wake of the Cam Jurgens trade, and that kind of movement can reshape the market before the rest of the league catches up. The Eagles are dealing with a changing front as well, with Lane Johnson retired and the club sitting at 2-2, which makes any evaluation of their veteran talent more interesting for teams watching for an opening.
From Denvers side, the name worth tracking is Zack Baun, the inside linebacker who has recently earned both Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro recognition. His contract is considered movable, and if the Eagles decide to keep adjusting their roster, the Broncos could make sense as a team ready to act before trade talks around the league shift into a more crowded market. [Read more 🡒]