It feels good to see our team hit the reset button, lock in, and get the W for the fans on their home field. They looked much more like the team we saw last season and far less like whatever it was we witnessed last Monday night.
Given last year’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, I was pretty worried about this matchup. The Jags are a well-coached team that has playmakers on both sides of the ball.
But the Denver Broncos came out looking to take a big step forward in 2026. The defense played
actual tackle football this week. The offense finally took off the kiddie gloves and got to work.
Offense
Davis Webb is taking strides just like the offense. The first half was mostly a head-scratcher offensively. By the end of the game, I felt much better about the play calling from Davis Webb.
Last week and in the first half of this game, the play calls all seemed to be 5 yards deep at most, with way too many screens being called early and often. Screens are a part of the Sean Payton offense and have always been so. I just wasn’t a fan of how much they were used against the zone defense of the Jags with only one blocker to help vs 3 defenders.
Honestly, if the Broncos would just start off throwing more of their intermediate passes, it would back up the defense, which would open up more for them in the running game and running-adjacent screen plays.
The other thing offensively that needs work is the number of penalties. We are getting false starts and illegal formation penalties consistently, and it is a sign of either poor coaching or a lack of focus from the players (or both).
Finally, the offense absolutely needs to spend some quality time with their goal-line offense. If you are going to enforce your will in the running game, then get your bigs, run out your fullback, and smash some fools 3 downs in a row to get your score. If you want to play patty-cake instead, then spread them out with either 12 or 11 and pass the ball. Toss plays on 3rd and 1 in single back against a superb run-defending team is a waste of a play.
Quarterbacks
Bo Nix finally got online after 6 quarters of play. I guess we may want to consider playing him more in the preseason so we can hit the ground running in the future. But let’s talk more about that next offseason.
His interception at the goal line was inexcusable. It was just a play where he went off design and yolo’d the ball to the corner instead of reading the defenders post-snap. He could have gotten a touchdown by passing to Waddle, and it would have been a much safer play even if it didn’t work.
On a positive note, I know there are those here at MHR that have bought into some nonsense that Bo sucks against zone defense. Go watch the tape from this game. The Jags ran zone the majority of the time, and Bo carved it up like a Thanksgiving turkey. If he wasn’t able to have success against teams playing zone, he would have washed out 2 years ago.
I love seeing Bo hitting the plays downfield. He obviously was fire on the crossers with Waddle, but he hit Franklin at the left sideline, Engram down the seam, and Waddle on a filthy double move on the right sideline. When you have a quarterback hitting all levels of the field, good things are going to happen offensively.
Line
The pass blocking held up much better this week (still had a pressure on McGlinchey this week), but there’s work to be done in the run blocking game. Too many defenders are able to shed blockers and stop runs. I’d like to see more grit in our blocking game to enable our runners a little more room to rumble. We did see some runs by both Dobbins and Coleman that went for explosive gains, but too many of their runs were stopped for less than 3 yards.
Running Backs
Jonah Coleman got quite a few good snaps in this game due to Dobbins having a pulled hamstring. I loved seeing him run with vision behind some excellent blocking up front for his touchdown. Neither he nor Dobbins ran at an amazing rate (3.9 ypc and 3.6 ypc, respectively), but they ran well enough. I did like seeing Coleman show his receiving chops with 3 catches for 19 yards.
Tyler Badie also got some extra work. He mainly helped with his one catch of 27 yards and some excellent pass blocking.
Receivers
Welcome to Denver, Jaylen Waddle! Man, does this cat have a gear that other players do not have. His speed was on display, opening up some really simple routes because the defenders just do not have the ability to stay with him. The crossing routes vs. man or match were just constantly there all game long. I damn near fell out of my seat laughing when he pulled a split-second double move and shook his defender straight out of his ankles. Speed kills in the NFL, and my boy Waddle has it in spades.
Let’s give some love to Troy Franklin, who made a one-handed catch down the left sideline off a dime pass from Nix for 27 yards. He may be the most talented #5 WR in the NFL.
Also, welcome back, Nate Adkins. We missed you last season! Adkins balled out from the tight end position for the Broncos in this game with 3 catches for 32 yards, including a touchdown on a play-action bootleg inside the 10.
Also, let’s give Evan Engram some love for that great catch on a crosser where he had to dig the pass out off a low throw from Nix.
Defense
Rumor has it that Vance Joseph opened up practice this past week with tackle drills. His team responded with a much more sound job this week tackling with proper form and angles.
The defense was smothering, honestly. That’s a very talented offense in Jacksonville. Holding them to 13 points through 4 quarters is pretty darn impressive.
Luckily for the defense, the Jags felt strongly about letting Lawrence air it out. This game may have gone differently if they had run Bhayshul Tuten more.
Front 7
Malcolm Roach had a monster game this week with 1 sack, 2 TFLs, and 2 quarterback hits. Both he and Zach Allen were disruptive forces, shooting gaps and creating pressure.
Que Robinson had a great sack off the edge with help from Zach Allen. He also got a TFL and quarterback hit in the game.
I have been a bit bummed with what we’ve seen so far from Jonah Elliss. He did put big pressure off a stunt to the inside and tipped a pass away, but outside of that, his work on the edge has been somewhat lackluster from a pass-rushing perspective.
Alex Singleton, for the second week in a row, gave up an unnecessary roughness penalty in the red zone with the helmet-to-helmet hit. To his credit, he had an excellent pass defense at the goal line, hitting the receiver and forcing the ball out on 3rd down.
Secondary
Riley Moss gets my game ball this week. He was an absolute baller in this game from start to finish. I do think his illegal contact penalty early was nonsense. He let the guy run after 5 yards, just like he is supposed to. It was a very ticky-tack call to bail the Jags out of a turnover. He played inside leverage perfectly to get an interception on a horrendous throw by Lawrence (it was as bad as Bo’s last week). He almost had another interception late that had a chance to score and ended the game with 3 passes defended and one interception.
Patrick Surtain saved a touchdown with a shoestring tackle on Washington. He also defended a pass late by being in his receiver’s hip pocket while being completely oblivious as to where the ball was, which doinked off his helmet. It worked, though…he didn’t interfere with the route and broke up the play.
Special Teams
Wil Lutz put in another excellently boring game for a kicker. He was perfect on extra points and field goals (2 of each).
Tyler Badie had a very nice return in the 2nd quarter for 38 yards. It almost made me not miss
Marvin Mims…almost.
Final Thoughts
The sky has stopped falling in Broncos Country. We got to say hello to fan favorite Tim Tebow (it is always good to see our alumni involved, even if they kinda sucked as a quarterback). Tebow gave us a magical season and one of my all-time favorite Broncos moments with DT.
I think we have a great chance to get another win at home next week against the Rams. Sure, they have firepower, but we’ve got a defense made to shut down their passing game. It should be a very fun Sunday night.
