Bo Nix’s stagnant offense and a porous defense fueled a humiliating blowout in Kansas City, plummeting the former AFC favorites down the league standings after one disastrous week.
The Denver Broncos got off to an ugly start in the regular season with a 31-10 blowout loss against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football.
The new-look offense with Davis Webb calling plays and Jaylen Waddle at wide receiver was not as exciting as many hoped.
Bo Nix also struggled to find any momentum, and the Chiefs ran all over Denver in this game.
Entering the season, the Broncos were at No. 2 in the NFL.com power rankings, and they had the highest ranking of any team in the AFC.
Yet, things changed considerably in just a matter of days. After Week 1 came to an end, Nick Shook of NFL.com updated the rankings, and the Broncos dropped four spots to land at No. 6.
"Denver's vaunted defense came prepared for Patrick Mahomes but didn't have a plan for Kenneth Walker III. Worst of all, the typically sound unit missed tackles all night, allowing the Chiefs to turn small gains into big plays. Bo Nix's struggles only added to the nightmare, sending the Broncos back to the practice field to work on the basics after a rough showing Monday night," Shook wrote.
The Broncos saw several AFC teams jump them, including the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals and Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Broncos still have the top spot in the AFC West, but things were not good by any means for Sean Payton's team in Week 1.
Payton expressed frustration with the play-calling, and there were already talks about how this would go, especially since Payton has been the primary play-caller for most of his time as an NFL head coach.
How bad was it? Well, the Broncos had 176 yards of total offense, compared to 392 yards for the Chiefs.
Bo Nix threw for just 131 yards, and the Denver running game was nonexistent.
Now, the Chiefs had plenty of hype with Patrick Mahomes returning from his ACL injury and Eric Bieniemy back as the OC, not to mention Kenneth Walker III making his debut fresh off a new contract after being named the Super Bowl MVP.
At the end of the day, the Broncos have a lot of things to fix and iron out, and the buzz is growing too much for this team to roll over and quit.
The Broncos face Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars in Denver in Week 2 in a big AFC showdown.
