In a contest that quickly became a matter of which team could shoot itself in the foot less, the Broncos put away the Titans 20-12 Sunday for a season-opening win at Empower Field. Here\u2019s The Denver Post\u2019s report card from the day:<\/p>\n
OFFENSE \u2014 C-<\/p>\n
It started ugly.\u00a0Really\u00a0ugly. It started with pre-snap issues, and Bo Nix having to realign two receivers to the opposite side of the formation, and a delay-of-game penalty, and three turnovers in just over a half of football, and general ugliness. But head coach Sean Payton righted his Broncos ship in the fourth quarter as the ground game came alive, rookie running back RJ Harvey popping a 50-yard gain and J.K. Dobbins finishing off a drive with a 19-yard touchdown scamper. Nix was bad, finishing 25 of 39 for 176 yards and a touchdown against three turnovers. The Broncos have enough issues to clean up in film work to make Payton pull his hair out. But it was enough to win against a decent Titans pass defense.<\/p>\n
DEFENSE \u2014 A<\/p>\n
Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Justin Strnad and Jonah Elliss essentially just won a football game by themselves. Credit Denver\u2019s defensive-line depth, too, which was better than advertised in keeping rookie Cam Ward off balance all day and overwhelming the Titans\u2019 offensive line. Pat Surtain II was effectively invisible in a strong debut to his runner-up Defensive Player of the Year campaign, holding Titans star wideout Calvin Ridley to four catches for 27 yards, and Denver CB2 Riley Moss made a couple terrific plays in one-on-one coverage. Time and time again in the second half, Denver\u2019s defense stepped up when put in disadvantageous field positions, with several of the Broncos\u2019 six sacks coming in clutch moments.<\/p>\n
SPECIAL TEAMS \u2014 D+<\/p>\n
Who thought rookie punter Jeremy Crawshaw would be the least of Denver\u2019s special-teams worries? After a shaky camp, the sixth-round pick had a terrific debut, knocking three punts inside Tennessee\u2019s 10-yard line and finishing with an average of 48.0 yards per punt on the day.<\/p>\n
That was the good news. The bad news was \u2026 a whole lot else. All-Pro returner Marvin Mims Jr. had a couple of nice early scampers, but nearly sank Denver when he dropped a punt in the fourth quarter inside his own 20-yard line. Don\u2019t forget the end of the first half, too, when kicker Wil Lutz didn\u2019t boot the ball out of the end zone with mere seconds remaining and the Broncos\u2019 kickoff coverage team gave up a 71-yard return to Elic Ayomanor. That gave the Titans a field goal \u2014 valuable currency in an ugly game.<\/p>\n
COACHING \u2014 C-<\/p>\n
Well, it couldn\u2019t have possibly been worse than Tennessee head coach Brian Callahan, who gifted the Broncos a touchdown at the end of the first half when he elected to drop Cam Ward back three times inside their own 10-yard line with less than a minute left.<\/p>\n
Denver defensive coordinator Vance Joseph passed with flying colors, as the Broncos effectively rotated a stacked defensive front to force Ward into quick decisions all day. But Sean Payton completed a first half in which Denver\u2019s running backs ran the ball one fewer time than RB3 Tyler Badie had targets by himself, and later he nearly gave the Titans another window when he strangely had Nix go long on a fourth-and-8 with 1:04 left and the ball at Tennessee\u2019s 36. Plus, that end-of-first-half kickoff error \u2014 ball staying in play \u2014 has to be on special-teams coordinator Darren Rizzi.<\/p>\n