Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Top photos from the Baltimore Ravens 41-10 win over the Denver Broncos in Week 9 at M&T Bank Stadium
Denver entered the game 5-3 with the NFL’s third-ranked defense, but the Baltimore offense shredded them, as Vance Joseph’s defense surrendered 396 yards and five touchdowns on the afternoon.
The Ravens are 6-3 after a 41-10 win over the emerging Broncos at M&T Bank Stadium.
Here are the top photos from the win.
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Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson finished with a perfect passer rating in Week 10 as the Ravens defeated the Broncos 41-10
The Ravens spent all week talking about removing the taste of an ugly loss to the Browns in Week 8. John Harbaugh’s team responded solidly, dominating the upstart Broncos 41-10 at M&T Bank Stadium.
Denver entered the game 5-3 with the NFL’s third-ranked defense, but the Baltimore offense shredded them, as Vance Joseph’s defense surrendered 396 yards and five touchdowns on the afternoon.
With talk about Josh Allen potentially winning MVP, Jackson completed 16 of 19 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns on Sunday, marking his fourth perfect passer rating.
Derrick Henry finished with 101 yards rushing and two touchdowns, moving past Barry Sanders for 10th on the all-time touchdowns list and going over 1,000 yards for the sixth time in his career.
Zay Flowers had another 100-yard game, finishing with 127 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
On defense, Zach Orr’s unit surrendered 319 yards, including 197 passing and, most importantly, just ten points.
Baltimore will now prepare for Cincinnati on a short week and Amazon’s Thursday Night Football.
Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles easily dispatched Saints pass rusher Chase Young on this play!
In the fourth quarter of a Thursday Night Football showdown in Week 7, Denver Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles easily tossed New Orleans Saints pass rusher Chase Young to the ground while protecting quarterback Bo Nix.
The play quickly went viral on social media and reactions poured in from fans and pundits on Twitter/X.
“Garett Bolles just manhandles Chase Young,” Brandon Perna tweeted after the play.
Added another fan: “Garett Bolles just threw Chase Young out the club! #Security 💀”
“Bolles looks like he can’t believe it was that easy to swat him onto the floor 🤦♂️😂,” one fan wrote.
“I could watch this all day,” a Broncos fan tweeted.
Check it out:
Broncos OT Garrett Bolles has allowed two or fewer pressures and ZERO sacks in 5 straight games. 😤
Here’s what he did to Chase Young — who entered the week 6th in the NFL in pressures …pic.twitter.com/IIFrQS9uiP
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) October 18, 2024
Young received plenty of criticism for the play.
“dude is so hard to watch and his effort on some plays is just pitiful,” one Saints fan commented.
Added another fan: “All that left tackle did was sneeze. Damn, Chase.”
As for Bolles, he had an excellent game. The veteran left tackle finished the night as Denver’s best offensive player based on Pro Football Focus grades (83.1). PFF gave him a 90.6 pass-blocking grade and credited him with zero pressures allowed in a 33-10 win.
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Bo Nix has eyes in the back of his head!
Bo Nix did it again.
In the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Denver Broncos‘ rookie quarterback looked like he was about to be sacked by Bud Dupree, who had beaten left tackle Garett Bolles to reach Nix.
Nix then ducked and escaped Dupree’s grasp, regained his footing and looked downfield for open receivers. With everyone covered, Nix decided to run and he picked up 21 yards on the ground before safely stepping out of bounds.
It was another Harry Houdini play from Nix, who finished the game as Denver’s leading rusher with 61 yards on the ground.
This is ridiculous by Bo Nix to turn a sure sack into a 21-yard gain
byu/zbeg inDenverBroncos
If that play looks familiar, it’s because Nix had a very similar escaped sack against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3 that the quarterback turned into a 22-yard gain. That play went viral:
This sack escape from Bo Nix was one of the best plays from the game pic.twitter.com/MOJIOKzOBC
— ThatsGoodSports (@BrandonPerna) September 22, 2024
Nix helped the Broncos battle back against the Chargers on Sunday, but their fourth-quarter efforts weren’t enough to overcome a 23-point deficit. Following a 23-16 loss, Nix and Denver will now turn attention toward a Thursday Night Football showdown with the New Orleans Saints in Week 7.
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“[We] want to get back out there as soon as possible, so it’s good that we get to play in four days,” Broncos QB Bo Nix said.
After losing to the Los Angeles Chargers 23-16 at home on Sunday, the Denver Broncos now have a short turnaround before traveling to face the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football in Week 7.
The Broncos are glad to have an opportunity to move past the Chargers game quickly.
“You want to get that nastiness out of your mouth and just focus, you know, we’re going to recover as best we can,” left tackle Garett Bolles said. “Come up with our game plan that Coach [Sean] Payton and the coaching staff has for us and go down to Louisiana and take care of business.”
Denver is on to New Orleans.
“[Monday] the focus is all on New Orleans, and it will be with me,” Payton said. “It has to be … I just finished telling them, and I would have told them the same thing had we won, we have to quickly put this one to bed. We cannot forget it, but we have to learn from it. It is a short week. We have to get on to the next game.”
Players know the drill.
“After the loss, [with a] Thursday night game, you understand that immediately you have to leave it alone and move on to the next place,” defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers said. “We travel Wednesday, so understanding that sense of urgency and playing-wise for the Saints. But still, we have to correct the mistakes. Figure that out tonight and then tomorrow, get ready for New Orleans.”
Bolles said the team will be ready to go on a short turnaround.
“The ball just didn’t bounce our way [today],” the left tackle said Sunday. “You know, we lost today, but I know that this team’s going to bounce back and take care of business because that’s just who we are. We’re going to get in to watch film and do what we need to do and work out the kinks and get ready to roll on Thursday.”
Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix emphasized that the team is eager to improve and move past the loss to the Chargers.
“I think our team is excited,” Nix said. “If we could practice tonight, we would. We’d go back out there. We have a bad taste in our mouths. We just didn’t perform how we want. We feel like the fight was there. [Usually], you get back in the locker room, and some guys hang their heads. Oftentimes you get in a situation where it’s people start bad mouthing or talking, but there was none of that in our locker room.
“Everybody had their heads up like they were focused for the next week. It looked like they want to get back out there as soon as possible, so it’s good that we get to play in four days. It’s going to be tough on us, but we have a quick turnaround. I think we’re going to handle it well, and we don’t have a choice. We have to get back moving forward, and we have to grow and get better.”
Thursday’s game against the Saints will be available to stream on Prime.
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“The fact that we gave ourselves a chance there at the end to have another opportunity says a lot about our team,” Broncos QB Bo Nix said.
The Denver Broncos fell behind 20-0 in the first half against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday and they trailed 23-0 entering the fourth quarter.
Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix then led three scoring drives to make it 23-16 and the team was an onside kick away from getting a chance to tie the game. The onside attempt failed and Denver fell to 3-3, but the team never quit and battled until the end.
That counts for something, right?
“Week-in and week-out that there’s no quit in this team,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said. “Down 23-0, it could have been easy for us to lay down and say, ‘Oh, they got us today’, but no. We went out there and we put our best foot forward in that half and came a little short. Those are the sins from the first half, and that’s something that we can address, and it’s something that we can fix.
“However, that second half showed everything that we needed to know about this team and that there’s no quit. Everybody’s going to continue to battle, continue to fight, until the clock has four zeros on it. I tell the guys all the time, they’re going to get everything I got the entire game, until it says zero. Whatever it may be, and I know that every guy in this locker room believes that we can accomplish whatever we want.”
The Broncos clearly need to play with more urgency from the start of games, but it is a good sign that the team doesn’t give up.
“It shows that no matter what type of adversity we’re going through, we will rally together,” guard Quinn Meinerz said. “No matter what, we’re still going to be fighting until the clock says zero.”
Defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers echoed that sentiment: “I said it in training camp, I wasn’t born with a quit button. Nobody on this team was either and you saw it in that second half. We have got to start faster, we understand that, but you have next week for that.”
Rallying back is great, but the players also know they have to start games better. Sunday’s deficit proved to be too large to overcome.
“We never wavered,” pass rusher Nik Bonitto said. “We always knew we can come back in the game, no matter how many points. We’ve seen it last year, against Chicago and in multiple games, but we just have to come out with better urgency.”
Denver’s left tackle, Garett Bolles, said he was proud of the team’s effort to fight back after falling behind.
“[We’re] relentless,” Bolles said. “This team is young and full of dogs. It really is. You know, me being the older guy, you know, being around these young guys, that fuels me. I’m very grateful for this team. We don’t have one single quitter on this team. We’re just a bunch of dogs that are just hungry and humble, and we just want to win and play ball.
“You know, we got to work out some kinks. Obviously, we got some things that we got to fix but to come back, being down by 20 or 23 points and scoring 14 points, that’s hard to do in this league. It really is hard, but we have nothing but fighters, and I couldn’t be more proud of this team after a loss like this.”
Fittingly, Nix had perhaps the best message after the game.
“It’s tough, but I think that’s our team,” the QB said. “I think that’s what kind of team we have. We have a very determined and hard-working team. We’re able to get down and continue to fight. Not every game is going to be easy. We’re not going to blow every team out. Sometimes you get knocked down early [and] you’ve got to find a way to gut it out at the end. The fact that we gave ourselves a chance there at the end to have another opportunity says a lot about our team. I’m excited about this team. I know today wasn’t what we wanted, but I feel like we’re headed in the right direction with how we finished the game.
“You can’t normally take moral victories after a loss, it’s tough. Nobody likes to lose. Nobody wants to be on that side, but you can look at it and you can only go two ways. You can continue to go backwards, let it defeat you, let it crush you, and you get in your head, or you’re going to continue to move forward. I believe our team is going to continue to move forward [and] stay motivated. Today didn’t settle well with us. We’re going to continue to battle, find ways to get better, and continue to put good stuff on the field.”
Spoken like a team captain.
The Broncos will face the Chargers again in Week 16.
“We have to be better,” coach Sean Payton said. “We will see them again at some point and we will go from there.”
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“Man, proud of how we fought,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said following the team’s gritty win over the Jets.
It wasn’t pretty, but there are no asterisks next to ugly wins in the NFL.
The Denver Broncos defeated the New York Jets 10-9 on a rainy, sloppy day in New Jersey on Sunday. After the victory, Broncos coach Sean Payton called it a gritty performance.
“Man, proud of how we fought,” Payton said. “You don’t know sometimes; I think we talked about it last week how games unfold. I don’t think either team expected the weather to impact the game like it did that much in the first half. Nonetheless, good team that we played, and we fought hard. It was good to get a win.”
Denver has now won consecutive road games and the team is .500 going into next week’s home game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
“This team is young, we’ve got a lot of young guys but we’re gritty and I like it,” left tackle Garett Bolles said of the team’s two-game road trip. “I’m just very grateful man, this team is just so special man. From the locker room, our relationships that we have. We’re just trusting each other, trusting in the game plan, trusting in our coaches and I think just the importance of a team.
“It was just a team. Everyone just put their prides aside and we just focused on each other these last 10 days. We got one in Tampa, but I think this one was a special one how that meter was rolling back and forth. We needed to do what we needed to do and sometimes you win like this and that’s all that matters.”
The Broncos will now look to keep up the momentum against their division rival in Week 5.
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Jake Plummer wants to see Broncos players step up on offense to support rookie quarterback Bo Nix.
In a recent interview with Phil Milani on the “Broncos and Bourbon” podcast, former Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer ranted about wanting to see players step up and support rookie quarterback Bo Nix.
“I’m waiting to see who the leaders on this time are,” Plummer told Milani. “The best players — that we’ve been told are the best players — so far have underperformed. I won’t say names, I won’t talk about that — they know who they are — who are you? If you’re making a bunch of money in this league, if you’re being paid — one of the highest-paid players on the Broncos, then step up! And start stepping up and demanding that everyone around you steps up, and then when you get a chance to make a play, you make that play. Therefore, your voice of saying, ‘Step up’ is not going unheard.
“And there’s multiple guys on this team that can do it. I’m waiting to see who that is, so there’s a reason other than Bo Nix to turn the TV on and watch the Broncos. Or to go to a game and go, ‘Man, these guys got some vibrations going, these guys have some players. I’m waiting to see so-and-so and so-and-so because they’re making plays.’ Like, who are you? When are you going to step up? When are we going to have some other players step up it’s not all ‘Bo Nix, Bo Nix, Bo Nix, we’re 0-2, Bo Nix.’ No! Bo’s doing the best he can. The rest of these guys, they need to step up.”
Plummer did not mention any specific players by name, but left tackle Garett Bolles ($15.75 million) and wide receiver Courtland Sutton ($13.5 million) are the team’s highest-paid players on offense. Plummer seemed to be talking about skill players, so the wide receivers, tight ends and running backs were likely the target of his rant.
Plummer went 39-15 as a starter with the Broncos from 2003-2006, which represented the best win percentage (.722) in franchise history until Peyton Manning topped it from 2012-2015 (.790).
Broncos coach Sean Payton has also said Nix needs more support from his teammates over the last two weeks. Nix has underwhelmed, but it’s hard for a rookie QB to make plays with a struggling run game and receivers dropping passes. Plummer’s right: Nix needs his teammates to step up and help him.
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Steelers QB Russell Wilson (calf) is questionable for Sunday’s game. Broncos WR Devaughn Vele (ribs) has been ruled out.
Denver Broncos wide receiver Devaughn Vele (ribs) has been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Elsewhere eon the injury front, left tackle Garett Bolles (calf), receiver Josh Reynolds (Achilles) and center Luke Wattenberg (ankle) have been cleared to play.
As for the Pittsburgh Steelers, quarterback Russell Wilson (calf) is listed as questionable for Week 2.
“If his availability is questionable, then starting is less so,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Wilson. If Wilson does not play on Sunday, Justin Fields will start against the Broncos.
Denver’s final injury report can be seen below. DNP = did not participate.
| Player | Injury | Wed | Thur | Fri | Game Status |
| WR Devaughn Vele | Ribs | DNP | DNP | DNP | Out |
| OT Garett Bolles | Calf | DNP | Limited | Full | |
| WR Josh Reynolds | Achilles | DNP | Limited | Full | |
| C Luke Wattenberg | Ankle | DNP | Limited | Full | |
| OLB Jonah Elliss | Knee | Limited | Full | Full |
The Broncos also placed running back Audric Estime (ankle) on injured reserve earlier this week, ruling him out for at least four games.
Denver’s game against the Steelers will be regionally televised on CBS. The Broncos are considered betting underdogs despite playing at home.
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Alex Highsmith could have a huge game against the Broncos.
One matchup that has the ability to completely shift the Steelers’ Week 2 game in their favor would be Alex Highsmith versus the Broncos’ left tackle, Garett Bolles. Highsmith is one of the most underrated edge rushers in the game, no thanks to the inclusion of T.J. Watt opposite of him, but consistently puts up great pass-rush numbers. Bolles also has an elite player on the opposite side of him in McGlinchey, but how does he hold his own on the offensive line?
Unlike his fellow right tackle, left tackle Garett Bolles struggled mightily in his Week 1 seasonal debut. He wasn’t effective at opening up lanes in the run game, and he certainly didn’t do Bo Nix any favors by keeping the pressure off him. On 37 passing snaps, Bolles allowed a whopping five pressures.
Highsmith, who is excellent in run defense and passrush, will look to key in on his opposition’s weaknesses. The Seahawks will not be necessarily known for having an elite passrush this season, but were still able to take advantage of Bolles. Highsmith going up against Garett Bolles this Sunday will look more like a bull in a china shop than an equal matchup.
There are few positional matchups that the Pittsburgh Steelers can lean heavily on to disrupt the football game this week, however, the Broncos’ right tackle is one of those advantageous positions. The Pittsburgh Steelers will look to add another win to their 1-0 start and fans will want to key in on matchups like this one, at 4:25 pm EST, September 15th.
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