The Denver Broncos' five-game win streak came to an end in Week 13 at the hands of the Houston Texans. Overall, the game wasn't pretty by either team with Houston winning 22-17. But the Broncos were the more mistake-prone team and had multiple opportunities to take the lead that they couldn't cash in on.
These are the players most responsible for the Broncos‘ heartbreaking Week 13 loss.
LB Alex Singleton
Not only did Alex Singleton struggle in coverage against the Texans, but he let rookie quarterback CJ Stroud bait him into a personal foul penalty.
Singleton got into a bit of a scuffle with Stroud after a play, leading to flags being thrown. The Texans drive stalled on fourth down and they were set to kick a field goal. But thanks to this careless penalty by Singleton, the Texans had a fresh set of downs, and would eventually go on to score a touchdown.
here's Alex Singleton, idiotically gifting the Texans a free first down after they false started on fourth-and-2 and almost certainly would have had to kick a field goal pic.twitter.com/gtkGVkakAP
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) December 3, 2023
The Broncos defense could have held the Texans to just three points, but allowing points points instead ended up being rather costly. Perhaps the Broncos wouldn't have had to play catch up. And perhaps they also wouldn't have been forced to attempt a game-winning touchdown drive. The game-winning drive attempt ended in a Russell Wilson interception, and sealed the Broncos 17-22 loss.
Head Coach Sean Payton acknowledged the costly penalty postgame, via Zac Stevens of DNVR.
“We let a rookie bait us into a personal foul,” said Payton. “That’s four points. Instead of finishing that game needing a touchdown, we’re kicking a field goal to win.”
Singleton was tight-lipped on his penalty following the game, but he did give some brief thoughts, via Andrew Mason of DenverSports.com.
“I mean, just don’t push him,” Singleton said. “They’re gonna call it on the quarterback. You know how this league is?”
QB Russell Wilson
Wilson was performing quite well during the Broncos' impressive win streak. Unfortunately, Wilson and the Broncos offense played rather uninspiring football for a majority of the game.
During the game, Wilson threw three interceptions, with the last one being the final nail in the coffin. The Broncos were in the red zone and in prime position to score a game-winning touchdown with under 30 seconds left in the game. Wilson threw towards tight end Lucas Krull in the endzone, but was picked off by Texans cornerback Jimmie Ward.
Outside of his three interceptions, Wilson went 15-26 passing, including 186 passing yards.
With the Broncos going 1-5 to start the season, Wilson's future in Denver after the 2023-24 season looked all but over. But with his solid play over their five-game win streak, perhaps the Broncos and Sean Payton were having second thoughts about moving on from him. But if he performs like he did against the Texans, his future in Denver may start to get foggy again.
The Broncos' run game
As mentioned earlier, the Broncos' offense was playing pretty sloppy. One of the units that couldn't find it's footing (literally) was the Broncos run game. The Broncos have one of the most talented running back rooms, but they just didn't show up against the Texans.
Starting running back Javonte Williams had 13 carries for 46 yards. That's an average of 3.5 yards per carry. Samaje Perine, the Broncos' power back, was barely used in the game and had one carry for one yard. Perhaps the credit goes to the Texans defensive line for keeping the Broncos' run game in check.
If the Broncos want to keep winning games, they can't play one-dimensional football and rely that heavily on the passing game.
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