Russ-O-Meter: Wilson leads Broncos comeback in low-scoring win

Russell Wilson owns the San Francisco 49ers like actually, he owns them. Go to Wikipedia and look (wait, please don’t keep this page open!) The Denver Broncos star quarterback is now 18-4 against his old division rival after the comeback 11-10 win on Sunday night.

In the weekly “Russ-O-Meter,” we’ll grade and cover what’s gone on in the wide world of Wilson this week. The meter represents how psyched Broncos Country is with Russell.

Meter: 5 (↓1)

Stat line: 20-for-33 passing, 184 passing yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 6 carries, 17 rushing yards, 4 sacks for 24 yards, 32.9 QBR, 75.8 Passer Rating

The comeback was Wilson’s 26th fourth-quarter come from behind of his career and second in two weeks for the Broncos. He now only trails Tom Brady, Matt Stafford and Matt Ryan among active quarterbacks making magic at the end.

And boy, did we see our first Mile High Magic moments from Russ, as he marched the Broncos 80 yards down the field in 12 plays to get the game-winning touchdown with four minutes and change left. We saw Russ cook, scrambling for 12 yards on one play and extending plays to hit both Hinton and Sutton on first-down catches.

The reason the grade is so low still and down is Wilson didn’t get cooking until very late. He led the Broncos on only one other scoring drive that led to a field goal. Denver wound up with 10 punts, nine of which were on three-and-outs.

Russell Wilson pushed the ball downfield on his twelve-play, game-winning drive in the 4th quarter, completing his first deep pass of the game.

🔸 First 11 Drives: 5.4 air yards/att (-17.2% CPOE)
🔸 12th Drive: 9.9 air yards/att (+15.4% CPOE)#SFvsDEN | #BroncosCountry pic.twitter.com/auIcVpvBRv

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 26, 2022

The Broncos offense has put up 16, 16 and 11 points now through three games and Wilson only consistently moved the ball in Week 1 against Seattle. Yes, the 49ers are the best defense the Broncos have faced this season but considering three turnovers and a safety, it makes Denver’s offense look even worse in the Week 3 contest.

It’s clear the Broncos miss Tim Patrick, who is out for the season. Denver is in the league’s upper half in drops, and they’ve also struggled to figure out how to use Melvin Gordon. Nathaniel Hackett seemed to have a better bearing on the game in Week 3, so now that he’s taken care of that, maybe he can focus back on the play calling as Denver heads to Las Vegas.

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