In the third quarter of the Broncos’ game against the Texans, PJ Locke blitzed the right side of the line of scrimmage and knocked the ball out of quarterback CJ Stroud’s hand. Jonathon Cooper was first to the loose ball, but he couldn’t control it, and Houston recovered.While the Broncos had missed their opportunity to take over just outside the red zone, the Texans punted into the end zone for a touchback on the next play. The Broncos lost 51 yards.
On the first play of the ensuing drive, the Texans tipped and intercepted a pass. They scored a touchdown to take a 22-10 lead a few minutes later.Who knows how the game could have played out if the Broncos had fallen on the ball after the strip sack?“We weren’t able to make enough plays today,” head coach Sean Payton said after the game.
The Broncos didn’t make enough plays in any phase of the game. Their biggest problem was that their turnover luck dried up.In the previous four games, they’d forced 15 turnovers. They’d turned the ball over three times. Their turnover margin was the best in the NFL in that stretch.
In their 22-17 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday, the Broncos lost the turnover battle 3-0. “We’ve been a team that’s played well with the takeaways and the giveaways, but that script flipped today,” head coach Sean Payton said after the game.
The Texans fumbled twice but recovered the ball both times. They threw four balls that were tipped or overthrown and landed near a Bronco, but the Broncos couldn’t come up with any of those either.“When you’re minus-three in the turnover battle, that makes it really, really hard to win games,” Mike McGlinchey said.The Broncos didn’t sustain the takeaways
