Last month I wrote a post exploring the potential of the 2022 Broncos offense to be the worst in franchise history. And after 12 games, they were right on target. However, the trend reversed somewhat in the final five games.
Now we're at year end I thought it worthwhile to see how they wound up on a few of the metrics.
Points per game. They were at 13.8 after 12 games, but after averaging 24 points over their final five games, they raised the season average to 16.8 per game. That lifts them above the 14.0 average of the 1966 team as well as three others, so this wound up as only the fifth-worst average in team history.
Total touchdowns. They only had 14 through 12 games, but somehow scored 15 in their final five games to get them to 29 on the season. Still not great, but well beyond the franchise's low mark set in 1971.
They failed to reach 18 points in only one of their final five games (the Christmas day debacle), which was enough to match them with the 1966 team for the most sub-18 point games in a single season. However, the 1966 team played three fewer games.
Three squads shared the record for lowest high point game with 27, shared by the 1971, 1982, and 1992 teams. The 2022 Broncos beat that mark twice in the final five games, including in the season finale, when they topped 30 for the first time all season.
It is notable that the defensive and special teams units scored zero touchdowns in 2022. I haven't verified if this is a first.
They still finished last in the NFL in total points. So although not the worst in team history, it was the worst in the league for this season.
Although this was a discouraging year and I was pretty down on my team for most of all of it, the win over the Chargers on Sunday felt really good. I'm glad they could end the season on a high note.
The Broncos achieved a couple of milestones with the victory. It was the 500th win in the team's 63-year history, and also the 300th home win. And they avoided a couple of bad footnotes - if they had lost it would have been the first 13-loss season in team history and the first time being swept by the AFC West.
No comments:
Post a Comment