The Denver Broncos are tied for the best record in the National Football League at 7-2 heading into a Thursday Night Football matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 10.
Somehow, some way, the Broncos have managed to win all four games they have been trailing in the fourth quarter. Denver’s ability to stay in games and find ways to win shows how resilient this group is when their back is against the wall.
Of course, Head Coach Sean Payton would rather his team take care of business early in games and show more consistency for a full 60 minutes. Although this team is strong at running the football, Payton believes the team is still lacking an identity on offense.
“The Broncos offense appears to still be in search of the identity coach Sean Payton has said it needs to find,” ESPN’s Jeff Legwold wrote Thursday. “It has scored more than 21 points in four games -- albeit not until the fourth quarter in the win over the Giants -- but three of those games were against teams in the league's bottom five in scoring defense (Giants, 28th; Cowboys, 31st; Bengals, 32nd). The Broncos are also, with the league's leader in defensive efficiency, 1-2 against teams that currently have winning records. They'll need more when they have the ball the rest of the way.”
Part of what their identity looks like is quarterback Bo Nix struggles his way through the first three quarters and then manages to find completions and win games. Nix has thrown the ball a lot, especially deep when he’s under pressure.
“Perhaps it is because the Broncos have trailed into the fourth quarter in almost half of their games, QB Bo Nix is suddenly one of the league's high-volume throwers -- he's third in attempts and one of four quarterbacks with over 300 attempts in the first nine weeks,” Legwold wrote. “And he can likely expect defenses to turn up the heat a bit the rest of the way -- he's completing 48% of his passes against pressure looks, and his default is often to throw deep under duress given he is averaging 9.0 air yards under pressure. So, when defenses put him under pressure, he's often trying to throw over all of it with limited success.”
The Raiders are a viable opponent to have success all throughout the game, not just in the fourth quarter. I’d be astonished if Las Vegas isn’t trailing after the first quarter.