Do you remember the 17th night of September? Seriously, do you? I wasn't going for a poorly executed Earth, Wind & Fire joke there. I was thinking back to the day the Denver Broncos spanked the Dallas Cowboys 42-17 at home.
Not a lot has gone right for the Broncos since then. They've suffered losses to the Bills, the Giants and the Chargers. Denver got shut out for the first time since November 1992 on Sunday in Los Angeles.
Here are some numbers to chew on.
5.9
Trevor Siemian struggled again. He attempted 35 passes for 209 yards — a 5.9 yards per attempt average. His longest completion of the day went for 23 yards.
Siemian was faced with frequent pressure from the Chargers' star pass-rushing duo of Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram, and he wilted in the face of it. According to Pro Football Focus, Siemian completed just 2 of 7 passes under pressure for 33 yards. The calls for #Brocktober are only going to get louder this week.
5
The pressure Siemian faced was one of the themes of the game. He wasn't very good, and neither was his offensive line. Siemian was sacked five times and took six hits. Also, Ingram did this to him, which I don't think showed up in the box score because the referee inexplicably called roughing the passer.
69
Now's the time to get your nice jokes off. The Broncos finished the game with 69 rushing yards on 19 carries. Here's a look at their rushing totals week by week.
Week 1: 140 yards
Week 2: 178 yards
Week 3: 111 yards
Week 4: 143 yards
Week 5: Off
Week 6: 46 yards
Week 7: 69 yards
Denver's been awful in the ground game since the bye week.
3
The Broncos turned the ball over three times — a Siemian pick, a Siemian fumble and a turnover on downs. The Chargers turned the ball over zero times. Denver is ranked 29th in the NFL in turnover margin at minus eight.
"We have to create turnovers," Von Miller said afterward.
80
Hey, speaking of Miller. The Broncos best player brought down Phillip Rivers twice Sunday to cross the 80-regular-season-sack threshold. Miller became the second-fastest player ever to record 80 regular-season sacks, doing so in 94 games. Reggie White got to 80 regular-season sacks in 70 games. Ridiculous.
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