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Well, that game certainly happened. The Thursday Night game between the Denver Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts was slated to be an exciting match. After all, both teams featured new star quarterbacks at the helm (Russell Wilson for Denver, Matt Ryan for Indy). However, what ensued was 75 minutes of the ugliest football the league has seen recently.
Instead of the fireworks many fans expected from the preseason, the Broncos and Colts provided everyone with a masterclass in offensive ineptitude. Punts and three-and-outs littered the play-by-play feed. Indianapolis won without scoring a touchdown. It was ugly football at it's finest, the likes of which wasn't seen since… well, replacement players played. (via OptaSTATS)
Tonight's Colts-Broncos game is the first NFL game in which each team took multiple sacks, threw multiple interceptions, had multiple fumbles and failed to score a TD since a Giants-Bills game on October 18, 1987.
That was the last week with replacement players during the strike
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) October 7, 2022
If you aren't aware, 1987 was the season where many NFL players went on strike. The teams, wanting to keep the season rolling, gathered replacement players to replace those going on strike. As you could imagine, said replacement players couldn't keep up at the highest level. We got a glimpse of what that may have looked like during the Broncos-Colts clown fiesta.
Both the Broncos and the Colts had high expectations for themselves prior to the start of their season. With new stars under center, many expected them to at least contend for a division title. Four weeks in, and both teams look like the worst teams in their division.
The Colts are hoping that this ugly Week 4 win against the Broncos sparks a fire for their team to be better. As for the Broncos… they better hope that their Nathaniel Hackett-Russell Wilson experiment works out. They spent a pretty penny to get them, after all.
