SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Broncos’ 2-2 record isn’t cause for panic. One can start right there when dissecting Sunday’s 24-14 defeat to the San Francisco 49ers.
But at the four-game mark — a juncture that for so long represented the end of the first quarter of the NFL season — there are plenty of reasons to be concerned as the Broncos prepare to face a winless Los Angeles Chargers team before a four-game stretch that includes a home game against the defending champion Seattle Seahawks and the annual visit from the Kansas City Chiefs.
On offense, the Broncos’ ground game continues to spin its wheels in mud. Facing a 49ers defense that largely played with two-high safety looks to defuse the deep threat posed by wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, Broncos running backs still found little room to roam, as J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey and Tyler Badie combined to average 3.6 yards per carry — matching the season-long average from the running-back room as a whole.
So, Sunday’s performance on the ground wasn’t an aberration.
Dobbins was visibly frustrated. And given his form through four games, who could blame him? But this doesn’t just fall on the running backs alone; a successful ground attack requires a collective effort, and despite facing a 49ers run defense that entered the day last in the NFL in success rate allowed by its run defense.
“It (run blocking) is a huge part of our job and we’re not doing it well enough,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said.
“As a team, we gotta run the ball better and we need to be able to rely on that when games are tight and close. We gotta be better.”
BRONCOS OFFENSE MID-TIER OR WORSE ACROSS THE BOARD
Consider where the Broncos stack up after Sunday’s games, per RBSDM.com:
EPA per play: 20th
Success rate: 26th
EPA per dropback: 23rd
Dropback success rate: 23rd
EPA per rushing attempt: 16th
Rushing success rate: 23rd
And in conventional metrics:
Total offense: 27th
Passing offense: 20th
Rushing offense: 29th
Points scored: 26th
Total defense: 28th
Passing defense: 21st
Rushing defense: 30th
Points allowed: 17th
Only in EPA per rush do the Broncos rank in the league’s top half — and just barely.
The rankings tell the tale of a Broncos side that has yet to find its footing — or its way in general. Something always seems to be missing from the equation. For example,e against the run on Sunday, they bottled up 49ers running backs Christian McCaffrey and Kaelon Black, holding them to a 3.1-yards-per-carry average on 21 attempts. But wide receiver Deebo Samuel sizzled past the Broncos, averaging 14.7 yards on his three carries, and the 49ers ended the day with 140 yards, keeping the Broncos near the league’s bottom against the run with a tally close to its per-game average of rushing yards allowed so far this season (142.8).
Defensively, the 49ers’ output at the Broncos’ expense was a microcosm of the season to date.
Denver scored 30 points in the second half of its Week 3 win over the Los Angeles Rams; it has 44 points in the other seven halves of the season, which translates to a per-60-minute average of 12.6 points.
Right now, that Sunday Night Football explosion is the aberration.
And yet despite all that, the Broncos still had a chance to win with four minutes remaining in regulation after Jaylen Waddle’s touchdown catch and Tyler Badie’s two-point conversion run trimmed the 49ers’ lead to 17-14. It represented yet another chance to snatch victory from defeat’s searing flames.
This time, the 49ers closed the door. And when Wil Lutz missed a 58-yard field-goal attempt to pull the Broncos within seven points, the team’s 10-point defeat was sealed.
So, the Broncos still have their 13-game winning streak in one-score games with Bo Nix as their starting quarterback. But Nix himself has struggled to launch; his 80.5 passer rating through four games is 7.4 points lower than it was at the same point in 2026.
And then, of course, there was yet another start. Denver didn’t penetrate the San Francisco red zone until fewer than five minutes remained in the fourth quarter; it was on that single red-zone snap that the Broncos finally reached the end zone.
“Yeah, it’s very frustrating,” McGlinchey said. “Gotta figure out what’s causing it.Gotta figure out how we can be better right from the jump — and we will.”
There’s still plenty of time and season to fix the glitches, and the Broncos don’t sit in a hole from which they can’t escape.
“I definitely don’t think we hit the panic button,” Nix said, “but at the same time we just have to continue to grind and find ways to get better.”
Therein lies the challenge. Because even accounting for the strength of their foes, similar Broncos form in the weeks to come will put their goals for the season out of reach.
In “the race to get better,” the Broncos fell a bit further behind on Sunday, in part because most of their problems heading into the game remain unsolved as they emerged from it.
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