Don’t you dare count out this Denver Broncos team after one bad half of football. This is still the same Denver Broncos we cheered for last year. This team never stops fighting. The opponent may be absolutely kicking the Broncos up and down the field on both sides of the ball for 2 quarters. Sorry, Rams. NFL games are 4 quarters long, and these Denver Broncos live and breathe it.
Especially in the rarefied air of their home field in front of the sold-out throng of Broncos Country.
Sean Payton is still
the head coach of this team. He has Davis Webb, Vance Joseph, and his players ready to do their jobs on game day.
I’m not going to sit here and say this team doesn’t have flaws. We’re going to talk about them. I’m going to point out the same weaknesses we’ve been talking about on this team for at least a year, if not two.
But I’m going to give praise where it is due and shout from the rooftops that this team is packed with winners. These guys believe in each other and their coaches. The coaches know how to make adjustments and help their players when things aren’t going to plan.
Underestimate this Broncos team at your own peril, NFL.
Offense
This game was very Jekyll and Hyde from one half of the game to the other. The big problem with the first half is the same problem with these Denver Broncos over the past year when Sean Payton was calling plays. Davis Webb is starting darn near every drive early with a run. He’s then calling simple short passing plays mostly at or behind the line of scrimmage or within 5 yards of it.
This is predictable, and teams have been largely burying the Broncos early in games because of how predictable the play calling is. The big problem is the pass game design and how they execute the plays early in games.
For whatever reason, Bo Nix isn’t throwing downfield much at all early in games. That’s the one thing that Payton and Davis Webb need to change soon. This team is capable of putting teams away early; they just need to play football in the first half the way they do in the 2nd half, with more throws downfield in the play designs being executed by the offense.
I think it is worth noting that this problem can be play call and design, or it can be player execution. It is largely impossible for us as fans to understand, looking from the outside. We do not know what the call is, what options exist for the quarterback to execute, and what reads are being made that dictate where the ball needs to go. I’m just saying that whatever the cause, this offense is limited by this very obvious trend early in games that we’ve seen both this season and last season.
When the 2nd half came around (starting with our 2nd drive in the 3rd quarter), the team finally started leaning on the run game. I’ll point out that the running game wasn’t even terribly successful. That part doesn’t matter. The team often got to 2nd and 7ish, then 3rd and 4 or 5. These are much more manageable downs than 3rd and 7 or more. Webb needs to be braver about running the rock more often early in the games. This should not constantly be a 2nd-half adjustment to play calling.
Quarterbacks
Bo Nix absolutely has ice water running in his veins. He thrives on being backed into a corner with the odds stacked against him. It can be maddening to watch him derp through half of a football game only to turn into Superman in the 2nd half, but those of us in Broncos Country that have been watching since the 80s or before are kinda used to this brand of football. We’ve got some critiques of Nix to talk about, but the baseline is that I love this player and what he brings to this football team. There is no quarterback in the NFL today I would rather have on my team than Nix, full stop.
So let’s not forget that Nix is a young NFL quarterback. He’s showing it with some of his choices where he’s locking onto one route and throwing it regardless of what is in front of his eyes. He should have had two more interceptions in this game from throws that should have just gone into the stands. Hopefully he’s getting coached to know his limits (the end zone bomb attempt to Sutton that came up far short when he was throwing off his back foot moving to his right) and read defensive leverage and know when your guy is owned (he had another one of these poor throws tonight that was dropped). The interesting thing is that his one recorded interception in this game was from being hit, not necessarily making a bad throw.
Back to the positives: His 2-point conversion to Waddle was an absolutely filthy, undefendable dime. You can not throw a pass more perfectly on and out and up to the back of the end zone than what he did there.
His touchdown to Bryant was also smartly placed high so that his receiver could high point it and shield it from being batted down.
Line
Quinn Meinerz absolutely embarrassed Aaron Donald by getting him going sideways, lifting him off the ground, and throwing him down for a pancake block. Meinerz is an All-Pro guard still. Interestingly, after this, Donald didn’t line up much across from Meinerz. Also, suspiciously, Meinerz got texted about being drug tested following the game.
McGlinchey costs us our first drive, getting worked into Nix’s lap. To his credit, he was a key blocker who got pulled out to the flat to help Bo get us down to 1st and goal at the ½ yard line. He played that to perfection and did a great job blocking for Bo.
Running Backs
RJ Harvey may not have done much in the run game (2 runs for 6 yards), but his catches out of the backfield were money. He led all receivers with 6 catches for 41 yards. His play as a joker even set up the big pass to Bryant later in the game, where a defensive back crashed down to stop Harvey, leaving Bryant wide open with no defenders in 20 yards.
JK Dobbins was a dependable runner for the Broncos this game. He had 17 rushes for a paltry 49 yards, but he kept the offense in manageable situations. He did get lucky on his fumble with the ball bouncing directly into Bryant’s hands. He looks like a dinged-up player to me (which he likely is with a sore hammy). I’d still like to see more than a 6-yard gain as his best out of 17 attempts.
Tyler Badie needs some love for all the work he’s doing for this team. Sure, he only ran once for 2 yards. But he had a superb route out of the backfield for a 10+ play on 2nd and 10. More importantly, he was in on many of our obvious passing situations as a pass blocker.
Receivers
Pat Bryant absolutely slayed and honestly should get more targets. His touchdown catch was not an easy catch to make, and he went up and got the score. He also absolutely bailed the team out of a 2nd and 20 with a crossing route wide open for a huge gain. He also had his defender beat on an out route on the final drive, got bumped to draw a pass interference flag late in the game. And for the record, yes, that was pass interference. Section 5 of the officiating handbook, article 2:
“Initiating contact with an opponent by shoving or pushing off, thus creating separation.”
The defender shoved Bryant in the back, which is what the flag was for. When you slow-mo the end of the play, it looks like no big deal. The problem is that most of the Los Angeles Rams fans and other ass hats in the media (including Collinsworth and their hack ref from the announcing crew for Sunday Night Football) aren’t looking at the whole play. They are cherry-picking the end in slow-mo instead of watching the whole play.
Cortland Sutton had a pretty up-and-down game. He only hauled in 3 of his 7 targets for 46 yards. But man, were two of those catches important. He made our first first down out of sheer grit. He ran a go on the sideline, got interfered with, and still fought through to make the catch. It was a savage play that gained us 27 much-needed yards late. Also, credit to Sutton for saving Bo from a yolo pick. He leapt up and defended that ball by knocking it out of the defender’s grasp.
Jaylen Waddle outside of the 2-point conversion had a pretty rough game as well. We were really forcing it to him by and large. He had a drop and just didn’t connect as well in this game, catching 2 of 7 targets for 10 yards.
Nate Adkins runs really sneaky good routes out of blocking formations, which makes him a deadly outlet receiver in goal-line situations. This is the 2nd game in a row where he’s caught a walk-in touchdown as an outlet receiver to the sideline.
Defense
Vance Joseph is masterful at sorting out what opponents are doing and adjusting his defense as the game wears on. The adjustments he made at halftime (and let’s be absolutely clear: he very much did, regardless of the nonsense Bo was spouting about how they just stuck to their game plan at halftime) were masterful. He dialed up timely blitzes and creative stunts to push the pocket and make Stafford uncomfortable.
They did a lot of bending but not breaking early in the game. They played a lot of press man, and the Rams largely tore it to shreds. This defense plays as good as any defense in the NFL once it gets into the red zone, though. Holding the Rams to just 16 points in 4 drives into the red zone was excellent.
Front 7
Zach Allen does not get enough credit for just how frigging good his game is. He is the most disruptive defensive lineman in the NFL. He had a timely sack late in the 3rd quarter, had a tackle for loss, and count them: 5 quarterback hits. He’s one of the NFL’s best gap-breaking linemen and impacts more plays than we even see on the stat sheet.
Nik Bonitto finally gets a sack on 3rd and long with a bull rush to the outside and cutting underneath the tackle as Stafford tried to step up in the pocket. He also chipped in a tackle for loss and 2 quarterback hits.
Eyioma Uwazurike made some noise with his 31 snaps in the game. He forced a holding penalty as he blew by an offensive lineman and was absolutely going to sack Stafford if he didn’t get held. He did get home for one sack, had a tackle for loss, and a quarterback hit.
Justin Strnad made a nice tackle as the back was going by him, wrapping his arm around him and slinging him to the ground. He also had a nice pass break-up in the 3rd quarter, staying precisely on the tight end’s hip. He somehow got matched up on Adams in zone coverage and played absolutely flat-footed, giving him a 40+ yard gain.
Alex Singleton whiffs a key 3rd down by taking a horrific angle that had a zero percent chance of stopping the receiver. He got picked on in coverage multiple times by Stafford, and rightly so since he’s so slow and vulnerable in one-on-one pass matchups.
Malcolm Roach gets a pass defense by batting down a pass at the LOS. He also chipped in a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit.
I do want to point out that our outside linebacker group isn’t doing enough across from Bonitto. Both Que Robinson and Jonah Elliss have been largely ineffective. It is a shame, as there is a significant opportunity with Jonathan Cooper currently out. They have a real chance to carve out a more significant role in this defense, and neither one seems up to the task.
Secondary
Talanoa Hufanga was the best player on the field on Sunday night, hands down. He did drop a ball thrown directly to his chest and missed another interception that he got his hands on. Both of these indicate that more time on the Juggs machine would serve him well. That being said, he still got 2 interceptions in the game (one of them a pick-6 that was the play of the game). Huff had a superb safety blitz for a big sack in the 4th quarter. Aside from the picks, he had 3 pass defenses in the game as well. The guy was absolutely playing out of his mind, and I love it.
Let’s not be stingy with praise for safeties, though. Brandon Jones absolutely balled out in this game as well. He led the team with 12 tackles on the day, had a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, and a pass defense. I’m not a big fan of our safeties leading the team in tackles, as that isn’t a good sign, but he was flying to the ball and getting the ball carrier down all game long.
Riley Moss was smothering in his coverage on a crossing route early to get the PD. He gave up an easy pass interference call by holding onto the receiver instead of running with him. He also got absolutely smoked for a touchdown on a double move in the 4th quarter trying to be a hero and force a turnover. It was a rough night for Moss, but thankfully we know he’s pretty great and moving on to the next play.
Speaking of that, Patrick Surtain got some chances to do that over and over in this game. Devonte Adams straight up stole his lunch money in the first half of this game, cooking Surtain for 71 yards on 4 catches. Surtain flipped that script in the 2nd half, allowing Adams only one catch for 6 yards. What an absolute pro shaking off his poor half of play and coming back to being the one doing the cooking in the 2nd half.
Ja’Quan McMillian gave up a big 3rd and 11 by not following the underneath route, thinking he could pass it off to Moss, who was already cleared by another receiver in his zone.
Special Teams
Kolbe Katsis monster punt return early in the 3rd quarter for 28 yards that flipped the field. He did have a return where he tried running backwards to create space to get to the outside, but that predictably failed. He really helped this team in the return game, averaging 26.8 yards on 4 kickoff returns. With Mims out, I’m glad we have a competent backup to help create those hidden yards that winning teams find.
Wil Lutz missed a makeable field goal trying to kick it straight on instead of angling it just a hair toward the middle of the uprights. Thankfully, it didn’t cost us the win.
Mitchell Frabroni drew a rare snap infraction by picking up the ball and putting it back down without hiking it. Noticing the long snapper typically isn’t a good thing.
Jeremy Crawshaw had another superb punting game with a coffin-corner punt in the 4th quarter that pinned the Rams deep. He had 2 punts inside the 20 and averaged 49.6 yards per punt.
Final Thoughts
Let’s start with the fact that the Broncos beat a very good Rams team on Sunday night. I think they were very fortunate that Puka Nacua and Myles Garrett were out for this game. Nacua alone would have likely changed the outcome of this game.
But you can only play the team in front of you each week.
There’s a lot of crying about the Rams getting robbed by the very clearly and fairly called pass interference. That’s because the NFL wants drama for that very large LA market.
What it comes down to is that the Broncos absolutely earned this win. They outplayed the Rams, made another spectacular comeback win in the 4th quarter, and looked like the team that wanted it more in every way.
This is the tough part of the schedule, and the Broncos, while sloppy, are putting dubs on the board. Being 2-1 after week 3 is a blessing. Now let’s see if we can steal one from the 49ers in San Francisco.
Bo Nix is magic. He’s got Mile High Magic that is undeniable and is the league’s best game-winning 4th-quarter quarterback in the NFL. If you have yet to snag a shirt to celebrate our young franchise quarterback, take a peek at this Bo Nix signature shirt. Feel free to shop around the Homage site using this link. If you are looking for Broncos gear, this is a great way to pick up some quality drip and support the No Bull Review at the same time!
