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Sean Payton’s Spark Fizzles in Broncos’ Season-Ending Loss to Raiders

Broncos Country is wearing a sad Russell Wilson face.
By Michael RobertsJanuary 8, 2024
Sean Payton wasn't exactly jumping for joy following the Broncos' loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on January 7.

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Like all great despots, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton understands that the fine art of lying requires plenty of bluster and a total inability to admit being wrong about anything, ever.

As such, following his squad’s pathetic 27-14 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on January 7, Payton didn’t concede that his claim that he’d benched pricey quarterback Russell Wilson in favor of hunky backup Jarrett Stidham in order to give Denver’s moribund offense a “spark” was a load of bullshit capable of fully fertilizing several Midwestern states.

But the truth was as obvious to every citizen of Broncos Country as is the mess in which the team is currently mired.

And even with Payton leading the cleanup crew, the wreckage left from this head-spinningly weird 2023-2024 season is likely to linger for years to come.

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Although the Broncos’ defeat last week to the laughably awful New England Patriots had officially ended any dreams of a playoff berth, a predictably straight-faced Payton insisted that finishing the latest campaign with a winning record could help establish momentum for the squad moving forward. (Pause for vigorous eye-rolling.) But that was not to be: The Raiders had much greater motivation in yesterday’s contest, since a victory could provide a rationale for retaining impressive interim head coach Antonio Pierce. And Payton’s charges helped give a big boost to Pierce’s chances.

Like the Broncos, the Raiders were helmed by a backup signal-caller, the largely unheralded Aidan O’Connell, and their best player, running back Josh Jacobs, was out with an injury. But O’Connell consistently made big throws in the teeth of defensive-line pressure – something Stidham, who was menaced by monstrous Maxx Crosby throughout the evening, never managed. Moreover, Denver made Jacobs’s replacement, Zamir White, look like a Hall of Fame candidate. White’s 112 yards was more than double the total gained by the Broncos’ five official rushers combined.

With a methodical attack that was positively agonizing to witness for those not wearing black and silver, the Raiders built a 24-7 lead. Then, after the Broncos countered with a touchdown of their own, O’Connell and company chewed up nearly eight minutes of the fourth quarter en route to a field goal that put the game completely out of reach even as it exposed every weakness in the supposedly resurgent Denver defense. Vance Joseph, the former head coach turned defensive coordinator, somehow managed to keep his job despite his charges giving up seventy points to the Miami Dolphins back in September, but he’ll only retain his gig if Payton believes that sacking him would be tantamount to acknowledging that he’d made a mistake.

Which gives Joseph a fighting chance.

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As for Stidham, he established that he’s not the Broncos’ quarterback of the future. His stats on Sunday – he completed twenty of 34 passes for 272 yards, with one touchdown and one interception – look decent, but a lot of them were piled up in garbage time. At his best, he looked like Wilson on a mediocre day, which simply isn’t good enough to lift the Broncos out of the mediocrity that their final 8-9 record exemplifies. Expect him to remain a second-stringer in every category other than eye candy.

Wilson, for his part, will receive millions more from the Broncos, thanks to a contract large enough to elicit a wince or two from the franchise’s ultra-rich, Walmart-sired ownership collective, but he’ll never take the field for Denver again. That means yet another hunt for a long-term solution at quarterback – a roster that, since the retirement of Peyton Manning, has included such deathless talents as Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Brock Osweiler, Case Keenum, Joe Flacco, Drew Lock, Brandon Allen, Jeff Driskel, Brett Rypien and Teddy Bridgewater.

And so the Broncos will be searching for the sort of spark Payton pretended that Stidham was capable of igniting, but that never materialized – and fans using the Service Formerly Known as Twitter definitely noticed. See what we mean below:

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword‘s news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor’s degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master’s degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

michaelrobertscolo@gmail.com
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