The Denver Broncos opened their season with a narrow loss to their division rival Las Vegas Raiders. The loss marks the seventh straight loss the Broncos have had against the Raiders. While the Broncos did show improvement from last season in some areas, it still was not enough to secure the victory. Here are three Broncos to blame for the disappointing loss.

3 Broncos to blame for disappointing loss to Raiders

Cornerback Damarri Mathis

The second-year cornerback had a borderline abysmal performance against the Raiders. While teammate Pat Surtain II was responsible for locking down Raiders' wide receiver Davante Adams, Mathis was tasked with guarding wide receiver Jakobi Meyers. Mathis' struggles began early, and he found himself being picked on for the entirety of the game. Meyers carved up Mathis and caught nine passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns. The second of Meyers' touchdowns was the nail in the coffin though, as it ended up being what won the game for the Raiders.

Mathis was also given a horrid 27.8 rating by Pro Football Focus.

Ahead of the 2023 season, Mathis received a lot of praise from his teammates for the increase in confidence from his rookie season. He was also predicted by many to be one of the Broncos to make significant strides in his second season. Unfortunately for Mathis, his second season started rather poorly. While it is still incredibly early in the season and Mathis could easily turn the trajectory of his season around, it still left many Broncos fans suddenly more concerned about their team's depth at cornerback.

Kicker Wil Lutz

Late in the preseason, the Broncos traded a seventh-round pick for New Orleans Saints kicker Wil Lutz. After disappointing preseason performances from Brett Maher and Elliott Fry, the Broncos made the decision to move on and trade for Lutz, who has experience being coached by Sean Payton.

Lutz's first kick as a Bronco was an extra point attempt following a touchdown, which he ended up missing. Later in the game, Lutz came on to attempt a 55-yard field goal which he would push wide right and miss again. Lutz would end up redeeming himself and make another PAT and a 24-yard field goal, but the earlier misses proved to be very costly. The Broncos would end up losing by one point. Had the PAT and field goal been successful, there is a decent chance the Broncos could have won the game. But unfortunately, that is not the case.

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To make matters even worse, longtime Broncos kicker Brandon McManus, who was released in the offseason for salary cap reasons, was automatic with the Jacksonville Jaguars. McManus made all his PAT and field goal attempts with his new team, plus the Jaguars got the victory.

The Broncos may severely end up regretting their decision to part ways with McManus, especially if Lutz continues to come up short in games.

Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph

Joseph is on his second coaching tenure with the Broncos, this time returning as their defensive coordinator.

For multiple seasons, the Broncos' defense has been highly touted as being one of the best in the league. Joseph has incredibly talented players to work with like Pat Surtain II, Justin Simmons, Zach Allen, and many more.

While the defense did hold the Raiders offense to 17 points, the unit just looked a bit flat, almost like they had somehow regressed a few steps. One of the most glaring issues from the loss was the Broncos' pass rush, or lack thereof. The Broncos pass rushing unit finished with zero sacks, and gave Raiders' quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo nearly infinite time to work in the pocket. With so much talent and depth in the pass-rushing room, games like this simply cannot happen. This unit will need to step up if they want to win games in 2023.

There were also questionable playmaking decisions by Joseph as well. As mentioned earlier, Surtain was tasked with covering Adams. Surtain had a great game, earning an 82.5 coverage grade by PFF, forcing three incompletions, and only allowing two catches. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Well for multiple plays throughout the game, Joseph called plays that pulled Surtain off of covering Adams. Lo and behold, every time Surtain wasn't covering Adams, Adams would get receptions. Why pull Surtain off when he was locking up Adams all game? You have to keep your most talented defender on their most talented receiver.