By: Brandon Rivera
Sunday night’s primetime game wasn’t the flashy offensive heavy match people were hoping for. Instead NFL fans got a gritty battle of defenses with little offensive prowess.
Sunday’s game premiered two 1-1 teams both of which had wins from the previous week over the Seattle Seahawks and the Houston Texans. The San Francisco 49ers beat up the Seahawks last week 27-7 in a near blowout win. The Broncos faced the Seahawks in Seattle the previous week losing 16-17.
While both games against the Seahawks had much different outcomes many believed that the Broncos would likely fall to a defensive heavy Niners team that just dominated a team that beat the Broncos the previous week.
Last week the Broncos faced a fairly resilient Houston Texans team that gave the Broncos problems in nearly every facet of the game. Denver prevailed and came out on top with a touchdown and field goal in the fourth quarter to take the lead and eventually the win.
On Sunday the Broncos entered the game as underdogs despite the game being in Denver and previously having been favorites. Both teams stalled on their first drives although San Francisco managed a first down in their first series while the Broncos faced a number of 3-and-outs throughout the game.
Denver eventually got on the scoreboard with a field goal in the second quarter and entered the half, down 3-7.
Both defenses held their ground leading to a game of punters and field position. The Broncos Corliss Waitman pinned the Niners back deep against their own goal which led to a safety when Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo ran out of real estate when dropping back into the endzone and eventually stepping out-of-bounds (Denver 5, San Francisco 7).
In the fourth quarter the Niners added three more with a 51-yard field goal by kicker Robbie Gould with 14:14 left on the clock. The next two drives by both teams stalled and the Broncos began their 12 play drive which included a 27 yard pass to Kendall Hinton. The Broncos eventually scored with 4:10 to play in the game.
Garoppolo threw an interception on their ensuing pos- session giving the ball to Denver with 2:06 to play and the Niners with all three timeouts. Denver went three-and-out leaving 1:42 on the clock for the Niners. Garoppolo was sacked near the goal line leaving them to rush back to the line of scrimmage and a dump off play to Jeff Wilson who was stripped of the ball by Denver’s P.J. Locke. Denver won 11-10.
This week is Raiders week and the Broncos will be facing a desperate 0-3 Las Vegas Raiders in Las Vegas this Sunday. The Raiders were beat last week at home by the Tennessee Titans 24-22; the Cardinals the week before in overtime 29-23; and the L.A. Chargers in week one 24-19.
