The Denver Broncos lead the league in an exhaustive list of offensive categories: Points, yards, passing, first downs, third down efficiency. Oh, and fumbles. What once looked like a quirk — an odd curiosity for the league’s most prolific offense — is now turning into a trend. What once looked like a nuisance — one or two fewer scoring opportunities each week for a team that was scoring plenty — has now cost the Broncos a game. Denver’s four turnovers, which included three lost fumbles, led to 17 New England points last Sunday in a 34-31 overtime loss. “Regardless of how good you are, that’s the kind of thing that can really cripple you and we’ve got to protect the football better,” interim coach Jack Del Rio said. Heading into Sunday’s game at Kansas City, Denver (9-2) has fumbled a league-leading 26 times and lost 16. That’s six more fumbles and four more lost than the next-worst teams on the list. All that is part of Denver’s minus-3 turnover ratio, second-worst among the 11 teams who own or share the lead in their respective divisions. Leading the way: Peyton Manning, who has fumbled 10 times and lost six. That statistic is skewed, of course, because quarterbacks almost always fumble more given the number of times they handle the ball.
