The Denver Broncos realized the moment things kicked off at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday that they were in for a fight against the Indianapolis Colts. The game was hotly contested throughout and finished in a controversial fashion.
After Wil Lutz missed a 42-yard field goal that clanged off the upright, the Colts moved the ball down the field, trying to get into field goal range. Both teams strategically used their time outs and the Colts were left with a field-goal attempt... but it was from 60 yards.
Spencer Shrader, who kicked five field goals on the day, missed the kick badly. But there was a flag. Dondrea Tillman was called for a personal foul for leveraging himself and jumping over the center in an attempt to block the kick. It's a tough one to take, but it is a penalty. That moved Shrader 15 yards closer and he didn't miss that one, putting it right down the middle for a 29-28 victory. Here was the penalty:
The Broncos got screwed by the refs
— Benchwarmer Sports (@bdubsports_) September 14, 2025
60yd fg no good for the Colts and the refs call a leverage penalty on Denver#DENvsIND pic.twitter.com/A5CmTuZcgn
You can find many Broncos fans on social media griping about this call, but it shouldn't have come down to this play. It came down to this play because the Broncos didn't play a very good football game.
It's going to be a bitter pill to swallow for Denver, but they played a poor game defensively. Daniel Jones threw for 316 yards and Jonathan Taylor had 215 yards of total offense. The Broncos' defense, which made life difficult for Cam Ward in his NFL debut last week, registered just one sack. The pressure that suffocated the Titans was not seen much on Sunday.
Sean Payton said missed assignments on defense were particularly concerning. Colts had 473 yards in total offense against Denver D that spent the week fielding boquets for holding Tennessee to 133 in opener.
— MikeKlis9NEWS (@mikeklis9news) September 14, 2025
The Broncos played well offensively, but they just could not slow down the Colts' offensive attack. Indianapolis had 473 yards of total offense and the Broncos — who are supposed to have one of the best defenses in the league — can't expect to win a game on the road playing like that.
READ: Top Broncos observations from Week 1 that are not overreactions
Denver will have to regroup because they have a stiff challenge coming in Week 3 when it travels to SoFi Stadium to face the Los Angeles Chargers.
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