PHILADELPHIA -- The Denver Broncos got all the confirmation they could possibly need about their long, and still growing, list of problems Sunday as they were repeatedly serenaded with "Fly, Eagles, Fly" after a cascade of Philadelphia touchdowns completed a thorough flattening of the Broncos' season.
In a 51-23 loss to the Philadelpha Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field, the Broncos confirmed that a change at quarterback didn't repair any of what is wrong with their offense. They confirmed they don't bounce back from mistakes. They confirmed their defense can't snipe at the offense's struggles, because they've got plenty of problems of their own to worry about -- it was the first time the franchise had surrendered 50 points in a game since the disaster that was the 2010 season.
And the Broncos confirmed, perhaps once and for all in this season -- with, oh, just the New England Patriots coming for a visit next Sunday -- that they might be a wobbly 3-5 middleweight against the league's heavyweights.
"We didn't play well -- period," Broncos linebacker Von Miller said. "Fifty-one points is tough."
"It starts with me," coach Vance Joseph said. "I'm the head coach here, so it starts with me, I've got to fix this. We had a great week of practice in all three phases and had a great plan, so obviously I missed something this week."
The Broncos sent Trevor Siemian to the bench this past week in large part because of his 10 interceptions -- six of them in the past three games -- and in doing so Joseph said "it's not all Trevor," but that something had to be done. The Broncos then spent a rather ugly afternoon proving that beyond any shadow of a doubt.
The offense is a morass of low confidence and low output. The Broncos continue to open up the formation as if Peyton Manning is behind center, and they continue to put whoever is at quarterback in harm's way. And on Sunday, the league's best run defense showed what things would look like for the Broncos if they couldn't do that either.
The Eagles held the Broncos to 35 yards on the ground, nearly 100 below their season average.
The Broncos dropped passes, missed blocks and tossed in a pile of penalties for good measure. It seems the Broncos changed quarterbacks but nothing else that wasn't working in what is now a four-game losing streak and five losses in the past six games.
The Week 2 win against the Dallas Cowboys seems like a football millennium ago.
"(The Eagles) are the No. 1 team in the league for a reason," said Broncos guard Ron Leary. "We were up for a challenge, but then we didn't get it done."
And the defense? File away all of the hollow, gee-the-defense-is-really-mad-at-the-offense drive-time chatter. Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz may have retired the No-Fly Zone, or at least sent it into sabbatical, with as efficient a four-touchdown day as a second-year star-in-the-making can have.
His four touchdown passes also mean the Broncos have now surrendered 16 in eight games this season, or three more than they surrendered all of last season. And Von Miller didn't have a sack until there were just over eight minutes left in the game when the Eagles had put Nick Foles in at quarterback because Wentz simply had done enough.
The Eagles also pounded away at what once was the league's best run defense with 197 yards. Jay Ajayi has been an Eagles running back for all of five days, and with 1:20 left in the first half, he romped 46 yards through the Broncos' defense for a touchdown.
"It's not going to be pretty watching that [game video])," defensive end Shelby Harris said. "But, you know, you have to watch it and we have to get better. It's a lot of the little stuff ... the Eagles exposed that."
In short, this was some 2011 stuff, when the Broncos were digging out of the 4-12 finish the season before. Six years ago, the Detroit Lions hammered the Broncos 45-10 in Denver and sent the Broncos sprinting toward the installation of an option offense for Tim Tebow the following week. For Broncos history buffs, Jim Schwartz was the Lions' head coach that day and currently he's the defensive coordinator for the Eagles, so he's officially an issue for the Broncos when he's on the schedule.
But take a hearty piece of Sunday's wreckage and put a little in everybody's lap inside the Broncos' suburban complex. Siemian took the bulk of the heat for the last seven weeks, but now he has plenty of company. And Joseph has a whole lot of season left with a sulking team that has lost its way.