After a Thursday-night win that barely felt like a victory, members of a sputtering Broncos offense sliced off a piece of blame and ate their role in a 10-point stinker. Head coach Sean Payton pointed the finger at his third-down playcalling. Quarterback Bo Nix said postgame he had to “be better.” Running back J.K. Dobbins said that they just “aren’t very good at times.”
As a reporter asked what had gone wrong at first blush postgame, though, the Broncos’ head coach offered the simplest overarching explanation for a pattern of dysfunction.
“We had eight penalties,” Payton said on Thursday night.