NFL Week 10 came to a close last night with the Denver Broncos’ stunning upset over the Buffalo Bills. The Broncos held the Bills to just 22 points in this game and improved to 4-5 on the season. However, let’s not be so quick to praise the Denver Broncos just yet. Despite the turnaround this season, their defense is still overrated, and here is why.
Fortunate Opponents
A lot of people are going to get caught up in the points per game that the Denver Broncos defense has allowed of late. Admittedly, it is much better than it was through the first five weeks of the season. In the last four games, Denver has allowed just under 17 points per game.
However, we need to take a closer look at who the Denver Broncos have played in that stretch. Two of those meetings were against the Kansas City Chiefs. Admittedly, they gave up 28 points combined in those two games. However, one of those games was on Thursday Night Football, which tends to be lower-scoring. Then, the second meeting fell on a day when QB Patrick Mahomes had the flu and it clearly had a negative impact.
In the middle of those games, they held the Green Bay Packers to 17 points. However, the Packers average just under 20 points per game. When you look at most of their games outside of that Week 1 blowout against the Chicago Bears, you should see that this is not that impressive.
Then, we have the Buffalo Bills. Yes, the Broncos held them to 22 points. However, a big part of this was the Bills having four turnovers. Most of those were egregious mistakes on the Bills’ part. The point here is that the Broncos have not exactly been impressively doing this.
Defensive Issues
Despite the improved play from the Broncos’ defense, two important things are getting overshadowed here. The recent points per game have overshadowed said issues. The two things you should note here are the total yards allowed per game and the total rushing yards allowed per game.
At the end of Week 10, the Broncos rank last in the NFL in total yards allowed per game (401.8) and rushing yards allowed per game (158.3). Last night, there were no signs that this defense is getting better in these categories. They allowed 369 total yards and 192 rushing yards in a win over the Buffalo Bills.
Plus, let’s not overlook their scoring defense. Yes, they have gotten better these last four games and gave up 70 points in one game to the Miami Dolphins. With that said, they still rank last in the NFL in this category, allowing 27.6 points per game.
While the Denver Broncos are not quite as bad as the start of the season, perhaps some luck was on their side. We will have to see where they go from here. They host the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football this week.
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