6 things we learned from Broncos’ 25-13 win over Colts in ‘TNF’ finale

With pretty much nothing to play for beyond pride, the Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts finished off the Thursday Night Football season with a proper snoozefest. Denver got the 25-13 win, moving to 5-9 on the season. The Colts dropped to 3-11.

The Colts jumped out to an early 10-point lead with Trevor Siemian struggling once again, but Siemian got carted off with a shoulder injury and was quickly ruled out. Brock Osweiler came in to finish the game and led a nice comeback with the Colts seemingly falling asleep.

After a trailing 13-7 at halftime, the Broncos scored 18 unanswered points to go up two possessions. Jacoby Brissett couldn’t make any magic happen, yet again taking too much time in the pocket and getting crushed. None of his comeback attempts were remotely successful, as the Colts simply withered and died in the second half. Brissett ended up with just 158 yards on 17-of-30 passing, and the seat grows ever hotter for head coach Chuck Pagano.

Siemian dislocated his shoulder and is done for the season, so Osweiler will handle mop-up duty for the final two games. He actually did pretty well here, at least by Osweiler standards, lighting up the Colts with enough big plays to seal the game. Osweiler finished his night with 194 yards and two touchdowns on 12-of-17 passing.

Honestly, we’re not going to learn anything about Osweiler that we didn’t already know, because the Broncos are in complete garbage time right now, and those last two games won’t matter one bit (unless they have a chance to play spoiler against the Kansas City Chiefs). We do know that he has a much larger sample size than one game against a crummy Colts defense, and it ain’t a good one. There remains a strong possibility that the Broncos’ 2018 quarterback isn’t on the 2017 roster.

Just as a reminder, this is what happened last Sunday.

Yeah, he then had to play a football game four days later. We probably shouldn’t be surprised that he picked up an injury and missed a good chunk of the game, but that’s what transpired. Thursday Night Football, everybody.

Gore finished with 10 carries for 31 yards, largely taking a backseat as the Colts abandoned the run in the second half. It’s impressive how much Gore has left at his age, but dang, let him put his feet up for a while. It wouldn’t be shocking if promising rookie Marlon Mack gets more run down the stretch.

Anderson kinda slipped under the radar as the Broncos’ season went in the tank, but when he’s on, he remains a compelling talent. Anderson was super impressive here, grinding out chunk yards all night and doing a lot to help Denver finish off the Colts. He ended his night with 158 yards on 30 carries, easily a season high.

Of course, this is just the second time all year Anderson cleared 100 yards with consistency issues dogging him and the Broncos trying to make a committee happen. But when they don’t overthink it and just put the rock in Anderson’s hands, he can make things happen. If only he had a quarterback.

I can’t possibly think of a more appropriate metaphor for TNF.

Enjoy this moment where TV viewers can see a Siemian interception before Siemian sees it coming.

It’s finally over. And it couldn’t have ended on a better note, with the most pointless primetime game in recent memory. Good riddance.