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.