DENVER — Initial thoughts from the Denver Broncos’ 34-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 16 at Empower Field:

— Trevor Lawrence is legit, but Broncos D looked gassed: Have the Broncos placed Vance Joseph at defensive coordinator with Benny Hill? Because Jaguars skill guys were running so open, so free, in the third quarter that you could hear Hill’s signature song, “Yakety Sax,” playing in the back of your head. Jacksonville wideout Parker Washington eluded a phalanx of slipping, sliding Broncos defenders for a 63-yard gain, while Travis Etienne Jr. broke tackles on a 10-yard touchdown. For the second straight Sunday, Joseph and the Broncos struggled with a Bo Nix clone at QB — a young slinger who could also scramble his way out of trouble. Still, Broncos, through bad fits and even worse tackling, did some of this damage to themselves. It had vibes of the Cleveland and Cincinnati games late last year. And that’s not the kind of vibe you want to take into early January.

— Harvey keeps plugging: Lost in the pain of the Broncos’ win streaks dying was another decent night from rookie tailback RJ Harvey. No. 12’s yards from scrimmage — 121 rushing and receiving with 5:00 left on the clock — were a new single-game NFL high for the Florida native, topping the 100 he’d piled up in a win at Las Vegas back on Dec. 7. The second-round draft pick out of Central Florida has logged at least 62 yards from scrimmage over four straight games coming out of the bye. Harvey’s also scored in each of his last four starts. And his 38-yard, spinning, diving touchdown run early in the third quarter pulled the Broncos to within 17-16 before the extra point.

— P.J. Locke picked on: Denver fans’ fears about safety Brandon Jones’ long-term absence weren’t exactly soothed by what they saw from P.J. Locke, his understudy, against the Jags. Locke was in coverage — or rather, shoved out of coverage — on the Jaguars’ second touchdown of the day, a 3-yard toss from Trevor Lawrence to tight end Brenton Strange that gave the visitors a 13-10 lead with 4:23 to go until halftime. Locke had a hand in the Jags’ first score, too, as his unnecessary roughness penalty on a third-and-10 extended a Jacksonville drive. The safety clearly didn’t hear a whistle that had blown the play dead — hitting Lawrence from behind an instant after the QB had stopped moving and given up on the play. Jacksonville scored five plays later.

— Sir Lewis in the house: The Broncos had motorsports royalty in the house, as minority owner and Formula 1 icon Lewis Hamilton did a victory lap at field level during pregame. The British driver, winner of seven F1 drivers’ championships, was seen shaking hands with the Denver brain trust of Rob Walton, Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner. Hamilton also said “hello” to Broncos legend Peyton Manning before kickoff, a gathering of two titans of their respective sports with a combined nine titles between them. While Lewis had attended Broncos games in Los Angeles, Sunday was believed to be his first game, in person, at Empower Field.

____

©2025 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at denverpost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.