The Denver Broncos were in the Motor City on Saturday night to face one of the NFC’s top teams, the Detroit Lions. Detroit was coming off a loss to the Chicago Bears the week before while Denver enjoyed a win over division foes the L.A. Chargers.
Saturday’s game was one of three games flexed from Sunday to Saturday and the Denver-Detroit game flexed to Saturday evening Primetime. The Lions went into Saturday night’s game undefeated in the last six-primetime appearances. After just the first half of play, Denver fans understood why.
The Detroit Lions, although scoreless in the first quarter, rattled off three touchdowns before heading into the half looking unstoppable against Denver’s recent prolific defense. The Broncos didn’t seem to have any answers and the Lions just appeared to be the hungrier of the two.
Denver’s defense much like their performance against the Miami Dolphins looked confused and were missing tackles for most of the game. Detroit’s running game looked great against the Broncos run-D giving up 185 yards on the ground to Denver’s measly 85-yards between five different runners.
While Denver fans have been elated at the way Denver’s defense has been lights-out against previous opponents, it was apparent that Detroit had their number. When all was said and done the final score was testament to the kind of day the Broncos had in the Motor City, Detroit 42 and Denver 17.
This week the Broncos are home for the next two games against the New England Patriots this Sunday on Christmas Eve, and against the L.A. Chargers on the last day of the year. Denver will need to win out the remainder of their games in order to stay in the hunt for a wild card spot. Currently the Broncos are on the outside looking in but have a chance to squeeze in.
In other sports the Denver Nuggets hosted the Dallas Mavericks who were coming off a win over the Portland Trailblazers on Saturday in Portland. Despite a stellar first half performance from Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic who made 6 threes, the Nuggets led by 9 at the half.
In the second half the Nuggets didn’t look back outscor- ing the Mavericks 30-21 in the third and 32-24 in the fourth, beating Dallas 130-104.
The Colorado Avalanche bounced back from a dismal performance against the Winnipeg Jets over the weekend with a win over the San Jose Sharks. The Avalanche dominated the Sharks with three unanswered goals in the first period. The Sharks finally got on the board with a single goal in the second period, but Colorado was already taking a victory lap by the third with two additional goals, beating San Jose 6-2.
The Colorado Avalanche are in Chicago this week (game results not available by the time of the writing) to face the Blackhawks before returning home to hose the Ottawa Senators this Thursday. Colorado is tied for first place in the Central Division with the Dallas Stars.
