The Denver Broncos lost to the Las Vegas Raiders 17-16 on Sunday and there are plenty of negative takeaways from the defeat.
There are a few positives, too.
Buy Broncos TicketsFor one, the new Sean Payton-led offense accomplished something the Broncos have not managed to do since 2008: score a touchdown on their opening drive of the season.
That’s right, not even Denver’s record-setting offense in 2013 scored a touchdown on its first drive that season. The last time the Broncos scored a TD on their season-opening drive, Mike Shanahan was the coach.
Since then, Denver has had six full-time head coaches — Josh McDaniels, John Fox, Gary Kubiak, Vance Joseph, Vic Fangio and Nathaniel Hackett — and they all failed to do what Payton’s offense did on Sunday.
Perhaps that’s more a reflection of poor coaching in the past than it is a shining reflection on Payton (or perhaps it’s dumb luck), but there’s no denying that Payton is an accomplished offensive mind. Broncos fans will hope that Sunday’s unique stat is a sign of better things to come from Payton’s offense down the road.
