Wilson collapsed and raises alarm bells

The Indianapolis Colts won one of the wildest games in recent memory, sleepwalking through three and a half quarters before waking up late in the final period and overtime to score a 12-9 victory over the Denver Broncos. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the seven combined field goals in a game in which both teams scored by that route alone is an NFL record.

Corner Stephon Gilmore, the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year, made the two biggest plays of the night, rewarding the Colts’ faith in signing him this offseason with an interception late in regular time and deflecting a pass to Russell Wilson that clinched the overtime victory.

The Colts are still a mess in many ways, but they are 2-2-1 and back in the fight in the AFC South race.

Now, if you want to know at what point the Broncos officially exhausted their preseason expectations, mark your calendar for this Thursday night and the overtime loss to the Colts in a game Denver had won until they lost it.

Because the goodwill the Broncos brought into the season after the trade for quarterback Russell Wilson has been lost in a touchdown drought that gets worse every day from a team that continues to waste heroic defensive efforts. In short, the Broncos offense is now such a ponderous anchor that it has dragged the team’s defense down with it. And a botched pass play, with Wilson in shotgun position on fourth-and-inches on the final play of the game, was a nail-biter.

The Broncos have played five games this season and have scored 16 points or fewer in four of them. It’s all turned into too many penalties, missed blocks, dropped passes (add a couple more this Thursday) and an overall awkward look almost every time he has the ball. So now the Broncos are 2-3 with two inexplicable late-game decisions by head coach Nathaniel Hackett, both in prime time.

Worrying trend: Look, the Broncos rode a dominant defense to the franchise’s last Super Bowl win–the 50th, to close out the 2015 season–so Thursday night’s defensive effort should not be overlooked (six catches, two interceptions). But the Broncos have a problem with touchdowns on the other side of the ball, and it’s not getting any better. They came into the game ranked last in the league in red zone offense and No. 1 in touchdowns in scoring situations. And Thursday’s performance didn’t help either of those stats, with just 103 yards of offense in the first half. The second half was no better. Hackett and Wilson keep saying the team is “close” to reacting, but it looks like it will be at another time, not now.

Biggest hole in the game plan: Wilson was the team’s leading rusher in the Week 4 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders and was the team’s leading rusher again until late in the fourth quarter this Thursday. Hackett has always extolled the virtues of the ground game as part of the Broncos’ offense. The first game since Javonte Williams went on the injured reserve list with a knee problem that will sideline him for the entire season was not what anyone had in mind. Even in their usually reliable two tight end formation, the Broncos struggled. They had 54 ground yards by the end of the third quarter, 23 of them from Wilson and 18 of Wilson’s ground yards came on one play during Denver’s first possession of the game.

Quarterback Performance: Wilson is out of his mind. There’s always a “short week” element to any bad Thursday night performance, but Wilson wasn’t on point at all, starting with the Broncos’ first failed drive inside the Colts’ 20-yard line on their first possession of the game. Wilson completed 21 of 39 passes for 274 yards and two interceptions, received catches, blew up his receivers and was evaluated for a possible concussion early in the fourth quarter before returning to the game. The learning curve has always been tricky in the Broncos’ offense–John Elway once said it took him about half a season to get comfortable in Mike Shanahan’s first year as head coach–but Wilson looks less comfortable now than he did in the first game of the campaign.

Injury report: The Broncos, who lost Williams and outside linebacker Randy Gregory (knee) for the season for several weeks last Sunday, also had a long list of injuries Thursday. Left tackle Garett Bolles was carted off in the medical cart in the fourth quarter with a leg injury, while linebacker Josey Jewell (knee), corner Ronald Darby (knee) and linebacker Baron Browning (wrist) did not finish the game.

Understated stat to consider: Brandon McManus’ field goal represented the first offensive points scored by the Broncos in the third quarter this season. Prior to Thursday, Denver had scored only two points on a Jimmy Garoppolo safety in which the quarterback ran off the field in the back of the diagonals.

Next game: at Los Angeles Chargers on Oct. 17.