Rewatch: Patriots at Broncos 11/4/84

A fun activity when you are a fan of a bad team is to rewatch old games on YouTube. I first got into football back in 1984 when I was a third grader. I remember the outcomes of games but not many details. While I probably “watched” some of these games at the time, I didn’t totally understand everything that was going on and didn’t have the attention span to sit through an entire game. 

I just finished a rewatch of the Broncos and Patriots from November 4, 1984 which pitted John Elway against Tony Eason, both members of the famed quarterback draft class of 1983. The Broncos were clearly a team on the rise, coming into the game with an 8-1 record. The Patriots had just made a mid season coaching change, with Raymond Berry taking over the reins. It was mentioned on the broadcast that Berry believed the Patriots were ready to win now. And he proved to be right as the Patriots were in the Super Bowl the following season. Combined, these two teams won four of the final five AFC championships of the 1980s.

The Patriots dominated much of the first half and yet didn’t have much to show for it. Three trips into the red zone resulted in only three points. A goal line fumble and a missed field goal were missed opportunities. The game was tied 6-6 at halftime, even though the Patriots had 200 total yards to the Broncos 116, with most of the Broncos total coming on a single drive.

The two teams exchanged third quarter touchdowns, but the Patriots held a 13-12 lead after three quarters after Rich Karlis missed his second extra point of the game. The Patriots extended their lead to 19-12 on a pair of fourth-quarter field goal drives which were sandwiched around a Broncos possession which featured 8 passes and resulted in an interception after only 22 yards. Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy were on the broadcast for NBC and Trumpy was becoming increasingly incredulous about the inability of the Broncos to run the ball. For the game, the Broncos managed only 28 yards on 18 rushing attempts and failed to get a first down running the ball.

Even though the threat of the run was nonexistent, Elway’s passing arm could not be stopped. The Broncos took possession with just over eight minutes remaining and put together a 78-yard touchdown drive in which Elway was 5 of 6 passing and the ground attack yielded zero yards on two attempts. Elway found Butch Johnson for the touchdown, concluding the best day of Johnson’s 10-year career. He hauled in nine passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns that afternoon. 

The score was again tied, but the Patriots had the ball with four minutes remaining and the chance to move into position for the winning score. Two completed passes and two runs by Mosi Tatupu got them to the Broncos 37-yard line at the two-minute warning. They went back to Tatupu on the next play. The ball was punched loose by Steve Busick and Dennis Smith scooped it up and raced 66 yards for a touchdown.

Dennis Smith scores decisive touchdown

The Patriots had a final chance and again crossed midfield, but this time Steve Foley intercepted Tony Eason to clinch the victory.

The game was characteristic of many Broncos victories from that era. An offense which relied heavily on Elway’s arm (40 passing attempts netted 315 yards and three TDs) and a defense which bent-but-didn’t break (they gave up 484 yards of total offense but only yielded 19 points, held the Pats to three points on two goal-line stands, and forced three turnovers). 

18 Below

The 2022 edition of the Broncos has been a profound disappointment. Most of the blame has been directed towards the offense, and with good reason - it currently ranks 32nd of 32 teams in points scored. A few weeks ago it was suggested that if the offense had managed at least 18 points in each game, the Broncos would have been 8-1. I don’t know that it’s quite that simple, but it's a remarkable though dubious possibility that the Broncos may finish the season with the top ranked scoring defense (currently #2) and dead last in scoring defense. 

So I started wondering if the 2022 edition was in fact the worst offense in the 63-year history of the Denver Broncos. I limited my study to the teams that failed to average 18 points per game.

You don’t have to go that far back to find the first one. In 2019, the Broncos hired Vic Fangio as head coach, brought in Rich Scangarello as the offensive coordinator, and traded for QB Joe Flacco. Despite fielding a top-tier defense, the Broncos ended the season with a disappointing 7-9 record, due in part to an offense that averaged just 17.6 points per game. However, they did show some potential by scoring 20 or more points in seven games, with a season-high of 38. If they had managed a bit more than a combined nine points in a pair of losses to the Chiefs, they probably would have finished above 18 points per game. Nevertheless, neither Flacco nor Scangarello survived to see another season in Denver.

Back in 1992, Dan Reeves passed on using the team's first-round draft pick on a wide receiver to fortify John Elway's weaponry, and instead used it on a potential successor - Tommy Maddox. The Broncos stumbled to an 8-8 finish and managed only 16.4 points per game. Driving down the average was a stretch from Week 3 to Week 6 when the only two touchdowns the Broncos scored came in the final two minutes of a comeback win over the Chiefs. The Broncos turned things around and averaged 25.5 points over their next four games and were leading the AFC West with a 7-3 record when Elway was sidelined due to injury. The next week, they were shut out by the Raiders with Maddox as the starter, and they lost four straight until Elway returned. However, it wasn't enough to make the playoffs or save the job of Dan Reeves.

The year before Elway arrived on the scene in Denver, the Broncos scored only 148 points on their way to a 2-7 record during the strike-shortened 1982 season. Steve DeBerg played most of the season at quarterback and although they did have four games of 20 or more points, they averaged just 14.6 points over the course of the season. Two of the team's 14 touchdowns came on Rick Upchurch punt returns.

By losing to Baltimore this past Sunday, the Broncos clinched their sixth consecutive losing season, their longest such streak since they posted 10 consecutive losing seasons from 1963 to 1972. The last three sub-18 offenses are from that dismal era.

In 1971, the Broncos scored just 203 points, an average of 14.5 per game. They scored just 18 touchdowns in 14 games, and scored 17 or fewer points in 10 of them. They only had one game in which they scored three touchdowns, a 27-0 win over the Browns, but one of those three was scored by the defense. Steve Ramsey and Don Horn shared the starting quarterback duties and both finished with sub-50 passer ratings. Coach Lou Saban was fired mid-season, never recovering from the famous "half a loaf" tie with the Dolphins in the season opener and the team ultimately finished 4-9-1.

The 1966 Broncos started the season with one of the worst offensive performances in pro football history. In a 45-7 loss to the Houston Oilers, they gained only 26 net yards and had no first downs. The only touchdown came on a kickoff return. Head coach Mac Speedie may have decided he wasn't up to the challenge and resigned a week later after a loss to the Patriots. Things didn't get much better under interim coach Ray Malavasi. The Broncos averaged 14.0 points a game for the season and finished 4-10. They failed to score more than 17 points in 11 of their games. John McCormick and rookie Max Choboian were the primary quarterbacks. McCormick started one game for the Broncos in 1968, but otherwise neither of them appeared in an AFL or NFL game again.

Pro football in Denver was languishing in 1964, and the sale of the team to a group in the eastern U.S. seemed imminent.  The 1964 team averaged 17.1 per game, but only topped 20 points twice (scoring a combined 72 in two games against the Chiefs). The defense was equally bad. The Broncos finished dead last in scoring offense and scoring defense and set a team record for negative point differential (198) that still stands today. The team finished 2-11-1 for the second consecutive. However, the Phipps brothers purchased the majority share of the team following the season and kept the team in Denver.

How do these bad offenses compare with the 2022 Broncos?

Through week 12, Wilson & Co are averaging 13.8 points per game, which is the lowest of all time, just a notch lower than the 14.0 per game posted by the 1966 squad.

This year's Broncos are on a pace for 20 total touchdowns, which would be lower than any year besides the strike-shortened 1982 season ( which was only 9 games) and the 1971 season (18 total touchdowns).

They have failed to reach 18 points in 10 games, one less than the 1966 crew. However, these Broncos have been at 16 or less in all of those games. In 1966, the Broncos reached the 17 point mark on three occasions. 

The Broncos haven't topped 23 points in a game this season. The lowest high-point game among these other squads was 27 (shared by the 1992, 1982, and 1971 teams) The two teams from the sixties, bad as they were, each had at least one game of 30-plus points.

And although the offense gets the brunt of the blame for the lack of points, neither the defense nor the special teams have contributed a touchdown this year. The six other teams discussed all had at least one touchdown not scored by the offense.

The season isn't over yet, so the current group still has a chance to redeem themselves, but at this point it appears this is in fact the worst offense in team history. What makes this fact more amazing is that this is a team worth $4 billion in the modern NFL. This isn't the ragtag outfit from the early days of the NFL that wasn't sure if they would survive. And they have as their quarterback Russell Wilson, a nine-time Pro Bowler who has started on two Super Bowl teams. It's not Steve DeBerg used as a bridge between Morton and Elway or an obscure rookie named Max Choboian.

Let’s Ride Into the Ditch

I kind of took a hiatus from following the Broncos the last two years. Part of it was all the politics, but the other part was knowing I wasn’t missing anything. Vic Fangio’s Broncos were no better than Vance Joseph’s Broncos and Teddy Bridgewater was just a continuation of the quarterback carousel that began after the Broncos won Super Bowl 50 way back in February of 2016.

As expected, Fangio and Bridgewater were sent on their merry way after the season. And the Broncos franchise went up for sale, signaling that the ownership limbo that had seemingly paralyzed the team for the past several years was about to end. 

Nathaniel Hackett was hired to be the head coach. There was some hope that Aaron Rodgers might follow him out of Green Bay to become the new quarterback. Although that ultimately did not happen, disappointment was dispelled when GM George Paton worked a deal with the Seattle Seahawks to trade for Russell Wilson, a nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback who had been on the winning side of Super Bowl XLVIII, in which the Seahawks crushed the Broncos 43-8.

The price was steep - two first round draft picks, two seconds, and three players. But it seemed worth it since finding elite-level passers is so difficult.

In August, the sale of the team to the “Walton-Penner group” was finalized for a price of $4.65 billion, so in more than one way this season seemed like the beginning of a new era of pro football in Denver.

I attended the first preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys a few days later at Empower Field. Reports were indicating that starters would not see any action in this game because Hackett wanted to keep their bodies healthy for the stretch run when they would certainly be contending for playoff position. Even so, it seemed like a missed opportunity to me. The fans have suffered through five consecutive losing seasons, but now they have hope that fortunes are about to change. For the sake of public relations, it seemed like they could have at the very least sent Wilson and the starters out for a couple of series.  Instead, we were treated to the Josh Johnson show, a quarterback who didn’t even wind up making the team. It was a little odd, but certainly forgivable if it paid dividends in the long run.

The Broncos haven’t had much of a national profile since Peyton Manning left, so when they were scheduled to open the season on Monday Night Football in Seattle, I was there for it. We quickly found out that the Broncos could have used a little more preseason action. They showed an inability to score in the red zone and lost two fumbles on the goal line. They also committed 12 penalties. Still, it really felt like the Broncos would figure out a way to win. They had the ball at midfield with less than two minutes to go, plenty of time to get in position for a game-winning field goal. Three passes netted only five yards. I ran to the restroom when they called timeout, expecting to come back out and see a do-or-die, climactic, 4th & 5 play. Instead, I was surprised to see Brandon McManus lining up for a 64-yard field goal. It was a little odd not only because there had only been two successful field goals from that distance in all of NFL history, but also because they had just signed Wilson to a $245 million contract just 11 days earlier and he now had a chance to stick it in Seattle’s ear. You finally have the quarterback who could make a big play in crunch time, and instead you’re making him stand and watch while you take a chance on a nearly impossible kick? 

Of course, he missed it, and the Broncos lost. Hackett’s questionable decision was debated almost nonstop in the media for days afterwards. Yet, even though the Broncos struggled offensively in their next two games, they squeaked out tight wins over the Texans and the 49ers to get their record to 2-1, which at the time was good enough to put them in a tie with the Kansas City Chiefs for first place in the AFC West.

From there, it’s been downhill. They went to Las Vegas and lost to the Raiders who were 0-3 at the time. The Broncos pulled within 25-23 in the fourth quarter but the defense was unable to get a stop and give Wilson another shot to win it. Four days later came one of the ugliest games ever played, on national television for all the nation to see. The Broncos had a 9-6 lead and the ball deep in Colts territory with just over two minutes remaining - and somehow figured out a way to lose the game in overtime.

Eleven days later, the Broncos again failed to hold a fourth-quarter lead on national TV (this time on Monday Night Football) and after a muffed punt late in overtime, lost 19-16 to the Chargers after Dustin Hopkins kicked his fourth field goal of the game even though he had an injured hamstring. 

Wilson sat out the next game, which the Broncos lost 16-9 despite outperforming the Jets offensively. They went to London and broke a four-game losing streak by beating the Jaguars, but following their bye week they blew an early lead against the Titans to drop to 3-6 on the season. 

However, they weren’t in last place in the division, which was an honor reserved for the Raiders, who were a lowly 2-7 and coming to Denver. For the Broncos, it was a very winnable game. And they led 16-13 with two minutes remaining. However, once again they figured out a way to give the game away. An incomplete pass on third down stopped the clock and left enough time for the Raiders to get in position for a field goal to tie the game. The Raiders won the coin toss, and moments later scored a touchdown to end the game. The way they lost was bad - but the fact that it came at home, to the rival Raiders, who had beaten no one outside of the Texans and Broncos, and completed a season sweep at the hands of their former dumpster fire of a head coach, Josh McDaniels - compounded the embarrassment.

The Colts loss confirmed our fears that this was a season headed nowhere. The Raiders loss made it official. The Broncos have seven games remaining. Two are against the Chiefs and one against the Ravens. All three of those are certainly losses. They have two road games remaining against the Panthers and the Rams and a couple of home dates against the Cardinals and Chargers. Those latter four are all winnable, but then every game on Denver’s schedule to date has been “winnable” and here we are in last place at 3-7. So it’s beginning to look a lot like 5-12, which would make it the worst Broncos season since 2010, incidentally the year they fired McDaniels. 

So who’s to blame for this disaster of a season?

Is it Melvin Gordon, who the Broncos waived on Monday after another costly fumble? 

Or is it Wilson, who has performed far below expectations and seems to be more concerned with selfish desires than winning football games?

Perhaps it is Hackett, who seems woefully unqualified to be an NFL head coach?

Maybe it’s Paton, who conducted the coaching search and went with Hackett, perhaps for no other reason than to lure Aaron Rodgers to the Mile High City? 

It could be the defense, which has been somewhat culpable in the late-game failures.

We could also bring up the trainers and strength and conditioning people…how else do you explain the endless parade of players to the season-ending injured reserve?

In reality, we’re here because we lost one of the great owners in NFL history. It all starts at the top and the culture started deteriorating along with Pat Bowlen’s health. You can bring in a quarterback or a new coach or accumulate draft picks or spend on free agents, but if you’re weak at the top it probably won’t matter. 

The Broncos, the Eighties, and Monday Night

Monday Night Football was a much bigger deal in the 1980s than it is now. Basically it was the only game broadcast to the entire country every week in prime time, the "showcase" if you will. Sunday Night Football was a cable TV novelty and there was no Thursday Night Football, no Sunday Ticket, no satellite, no internet, no streaming. 

If your team was halfway decent, you would probably see them on Monday night at least once per season. If they were a serious contender, you'd probably get them a couple of times. However, if they were bad, you probably wouldn't see them at all.

Fortunately for me, the Broncos were good in the 1980s, and so as a young fan I was able to see them every year on the big stage. And these were rarely "typical" games, which is the reason for this post. Every year had a Monday night game with a story worth retelling.

I was on the cusp of becoming a big football fan in October 1984 when the Broncos played the Green Bay Packers on Monday night in the midst of a driving Colorado snowstorm. I remember the spectacle of the blizzard on our television.  Steve Foley and Louis Wright returned fumbles for touchdowns on the first two plays from scrimmage to give the Broncos a 14-0 lead before even a minute of game clock had expired. Those two scores plus a field goal by barefoot kicker Rich Karlis were all the points the Broncos needed to secure a 17-14 win. Although I didn't sit and watch that game, my interest was piqued to some degree and I've seen the replays of those two fumbles dozens of times.

I really got into football over the next year and so I was excited when the Broncos' next Monday night matchup rolled around. On Veteran's Day 1985, the Broncos hosted the defending champion San Francisco 49ers, which pitted young John Elway against Super Bowl MVP Joe Montana. I remember being frustrated that the broadcast team did not seem properly familiar with my Broncos. Joe Namath kept mispronouncing Rich Karlis as "Karlos." The Broncos jumped to a 14-3 lead but the 49ers drove deep into Bronco territory at the end of the first half. When the 49ers were unable to get in the end zone, their field goal unit came onto the field. Remnants of a recent snowstorm were in the stadium, and opportunistic fans in the north end zone had been taking advantage of the situation and firing snowballs onto the field. A perfectly placed snowball landed a few feet in front of holder Matt Cavanaugh a heartbeat after the snap, causing him to bobble the ball. Kicker Ray Wersching hesitated, and Cavanaugh was forced to scoop the ball up and attempt an errant pass towards the goal line to end the first half. At the time I was only allowed to stay up until halftime of the Monday night game, and so I did not get to see the conclusion. However, the Broncos held off the Niners for a narrow 17-16 victory, meaning that a snowball may well have decided the outcome of the game.

The Broncos visited Three Rivers in Week 2 of the 1986 season to face the Steelers on Monday night. I still had my 8:30 bedtime, but our family now had a VCR and I was able to tape the game and watch the second half later. A couple of notable things I remember. After the Steelers scored 5 minutes into the fourth quarter to cut the Broncos' lead to 14-10, the Broncos began their next drive on their own 20. Elway tossed a lateral to Gerald Willhite, who then squared up and launched a pass to a wide-open Steve Watson, who scored on an apparent 80-yard touchdown play. However, the officials called it back, ruling it an illegal forward pass. The television replay showed that Elway's toss to Willhite had not been a forward pass and that Willhite had been 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage when he threw his pass. This was the first year of instant replay in the NFL, and the kinks weren't yet worked out. The Broncos ran another play before communication was established with the replay booth, and so it could not be overturned. Nevertheless, the Broncos went on to win the game after Elway tossed a touchdown pass to Sammy Winder late in the fourth quarter. Before the advent of cell phones and social media, "Hi mom!" moments used to be a thing during football games, and after the clinching touchdown, the cameras went to Elway on the sideline and he shouted, "Hi Mom hi Janet, hi Jessi! Wooo!" and then flashed his index finger and a grin. I thought it was hilarious and replayed it again and again. Al Michaels was like, "What about dad?" because Jack Elway was coach of Stanford at the time, and they had beaten Texas the previous Saturday.

The 4-3-1 Broncos hosted the 7-1 Chicago Bears for a Monday night clash in November 1987. I remembered the game but not a lot of specific details. Fortunately, I was able to rewatch the whole thing thanks to the magic of YouTube. I had forgotten what a great game it was. The Bears got out in front early and were about to go up 21-7 when Refrigerator Perry fumbled on the goal line. The momentum shifted and the Broncos turned around and scored two touchdowns to take a 21-14 halftime lead. The Bears owned the third quarter but botched two extra-point tries, which allowed the Broncos to rally in the fourth and claim a narrow 31-29 victory. Elway was fantastic in this game - 341 yards and 3 touchdown passes, one to each of the Three Amigos. Steve Sewell scored the winning touchdown on a leaping four-yard run, and the Broncos defense held off the Bears in the final minutes. The broadcast team clearly thought the Broncos were really holding onto narrow playoff hopes at this point of the season and the AFC West was out of reach because the San Diego Chargers were 8-1. This big win over an NFC power on Monday Night was the turning point of the season for the Broncos. They won five of their last six, including two wins over the Chargers, who went 0-6 down the stretch. The Broncos went on to not only win the division but to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, and John Elway won his first and only league MVP. Speaking of Super Bowl XXIII, during the broadcast there was a rather ominous mention of Doug Williams subbing in for Jay Schroeder the previous day and leading the Redskins to victory...

By Halloween 1988, I was in junior high and bedtime restrictions were relaxed. I elected to spend the evening at my grandpa's house passing out candy. I was too old for trick-or-treating and I wanted to watch the Broncos play the Colts on Monday Night Football. However, it was not a game that I wanted to watch past halftime. In a rowdy Hoosier Dome filled with costumed fans celebrating the first-ever Monday Night game in Indy, the Colts scored the first 31 points of the game, 24 of them coming on four touchdowns by Eric Dickerson. A couple of long touchdown passes followed, and the Colts led 45-10 at halftime. It was a barrage of points reminiscent of the Super Bowl nine months earlier in which the Redskins put up 35 points on the Broncos in the second quarter. Truly a nightmare for a young fan like myself, yet the "Halloween Massacre" was only one of multiple blowouts the Broncos suffered on the road in 1988 - they also lost big at Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Seattle. The Broncos missed the playoffs, and longtime defensive coordinator Joe Collier was fired at the end of the season.

The Broncos went to Washington in November 1989 to play the Redskins on Monday Night. However, John Elway came down with the stomach flu the morning of the game, and so backup Gary Kubiak got the start at quarterback. The Broncos turned the ball over on their first possession and the Redskins turned it into a touchdown. The night at RFK stadium was cold and windy, but the Broncos scored two touchdowns to take a halftime lead. The Redskins cut the lead to three following another turnover, and then the Broncos clung to a four-point lead as they played the field position game. Kubiak pooch punted a couple of times and neither team moved the ball much until the Broncos managed to run out the last 6:45 of the game clock. Even though it was low scoring, I remember it being great drama to watch the Broncos manage to pull out a win on the road against an NFC opponent with their backup QB in prime time.

The Kansas City Chiefs came to Mile High in week 2 of the 1990 season for a Monday night battle. They featured Christian Okoye, aka the Nigerian Nightmare, a 260 pound running back with 4.4 speed who had rushed for 1,480 yards the previous season and seemed somewhat unstoppable. Early in the game, Okoye took a handoff and went up the middle only to be met head-on by Steve Atwater. Okoye landed on his backside and suddenly the entire country knew about Steve Atwater, who was only in his second year. The legendary hit probably overshadowed what was a pretty entertaining game. The Broncos were trailing by two points and had a 4th-and-10 from their own 17 yard line with a minute remaining when Elway hooked up with Vance Johnson on a 49-yard completion, which put the Broncos in position to kick the game winning field goal as time expired. 

However, the Broncos finished the 1990 season 5-11, which led to them not being invited to Monday Night Football in 1991, which kind of broke the streak of my Broncos Monday night memories.