This city of champions is tired of the Broncos losing

In the city of champions, the Broncos are the big losers.

“Nobody’s thinking about the last seven years,” longtime safety Justin Simmons said in a quiet locker room at Empower Field at Mile High Sunday after the Raiders beat the Broncos, 17-16.

With all due respect, good sir, a whole bunch of the 76,000 fanatics streamed to the exits early.

They’re all thinking about the last seven years. They’re thinking about the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup championship, the Nuggets’ first NBA title. They’re dreaming about Coach Prime’s CU Buffs.

They’re thinking how the Las Vegas Raiders are 7-0 against the Broncos, Josh McDaniels 3-0.

God forewarned Broncomaniacs about the pain to come. He sent teardrops with 4 minutes left.

The rain could not wash away the familiar pain that comes with purchasing a Broncos ticket.

After the season-opening loss in Sean Payton’s debut as coach, Russell Wilson said of the loud, proud Broncos crowd that went home sad: “This is an electric city in terms of sports.”

Our city has never been more electric in terms of sports, the Avs and Nuggets both betting favorites to win it all again, the sports universe revolving around Deion Sanders in Boulder.

The Broncos remain a power outage: 16 points, again. They scored 16 points in Nathaniel Hackett’s foreboding debut and 16 points three more times in 2023. Scoring is not their forte.

Pain is.

The Broncos have a formula for losing, and the recipe goes like this: field goals in place of touchdowns, penalties (nine Sunday, “a tick high for us,” Payton said), a late collapse by Simmons and the 'D' (Jakobi Meyers’ winning touchdown with 6:34 on the game clock).

Rinse, repeat, there’s always next week.

“At the end of the day, we should have won that game,” Wilson said.

For what it’s worth, and hopefully it’s worth a lot, Payton coached the New Orleans Saints to double-digit wins in nine of 15 seasons. The double-digit winners were only 6-3 in openers.

The Broncos will rise or fall by Payton’s hubris. He has enough to fill Mt. Evans. His hubris was proved correct when he said a few weeks ago that Russ was not washed as a quarterback.

“He still has it,” Payton said.

And Wilson looked like a different quarterback — different from last season, and different from his Seattle days. He didn’t launch the deep ball, a Seattle staple, except for one to Courtland Sutton, who drew a pass interference penalty. He didn’t run the ball, rushing once for 1 yard.

Wilson completed 17 of his first 19 passes. He finished 27-of-34 for 177 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Team Russ was the most expensive game manager in NFL history.

And he was totally in control of the offense. Who does this guy think he is, Shedeur Sanders?

“The only thing is we didn’t come up with a win tonight,” Wilson said after.

Instead of taking the post-game podium in a fancy designer outfit, Wilson went business casual. He wore his No. 3 and its grass stains.

“I thought we played well on offense throughout the game,” Wilson said.

Payton’s hubris cost the Broncos the game. For his first play-call as Broncos coach, he ordered a code-red onside kick. The Broncos were flagged for an illegal touch. The Raiders turned the short field into a 44-yard drive and one of their two touchdowns on the afternoon. Pain.

The $18 million-per-year coach also blew with his decision to cut longtime kicker Brandon McManus. His replacement, Wil Lutz, missed two of his three kicks, including an extra point. 

The Broncos lost by one. Pain.

“I was surprised a little bit on the first kick (he missed),” said Payton, who would earn every cent in turning this roster and franchise around.

Stick with the Broncos for a while, and the surprise is when the Broncos win a close game.

For all the grief piled on Nathaniel Hackett, the $18 million-per-year new guy hardly should be immune. He’s the second-highest paid coach in American sports, trailing only Bill Belichick. The smart money’s on Payton proving his worth, but the Broncos are 0-1 in part because he got cocky.

McDaniels, ex-Broncos coach, is 2-0 against the Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. Pain.

The Broncos now show a losing record at Mile High in six of the last seven seasons. Pain.

While all the attention was on the coach (Payton) and quarterback (Wilson), the Broncos were let down by the other guys, showing again the coach and quarterback were only symptoms.

Longtime safeties Simmons and Kareem Jackson earned untimely unnecessary roughness penalties to give the Raiders first downs. It was never only the coach and quarterback’s fault — not then, not now.

“It’s hard when a bang-bang play happens like that,” Simmons explained.

Nobody’s thinking about the last seven years? Even the Rockies have been to the playoffs since the Broncos last reached the postseason.

In the city of champions, the Broncos are losing their grip on the top spot. There are more than enough winners to go around.