Welcome to the 15th season of The No Bull Review. Welcome back, all of you returning! For those of you who may be new, I hope you enjoy reading my reviews.
I’m a very “call it as I see it” kind of writer. I like the eye test far more than the stat book (though I respect both). My schtick is trying to keep it real about our team. If a player sucks, I will call it out. If they are great, I will call it out.
My focus isn’t on hitting everything that happens every game, but the players who stood out to me and
impacted the game for better or worse. I’m also one of the few writers in the media who will be happy to take my lumps when I get it wrong (because all of us do at times, even though most in the media act like they don’t). Let’s get down to talking some football.
The first win of the season is in the books for the Denver Broncos. It wasn’t pretty, but they got it done.
Big credit to the Tennessee Titans for playing the game with a chip on their shoulder and giving as well as they got. They look like they have a hell of a quarterback in Cam Ward.
For the Broncos, we can’t give Vance Joseph and the defense enough credit for this win. The defense looks tough as nails top to bottom and was bringing the heat all game long.
Offense
I hoped for better from this offense, but at the end of the day, Sean Payton is going to Sean Payton. He seems to get an offensive idea in his head that he has trouble getting away from multiple times each season. Usually, this comes in the way of screens of various types.
In this game, it was constant naked play actions being called without a run game to make them believable. The Titans were having none of it all game long.
I didn’t have a problem really with how the team was throwing early and often. I just think the naked boot plays needed to go in the trash can after the fourth time in a row they didn’t work and had a defender in Bo Nix’s face. Sadly, Payton was sure the eighth time was going to do the trick.
I do feel like a lot of good run production was left on the table, regardless of how stacked Nix thought the box was. Sometimes, if you block it perfectly, those stacked boxes don’t leave anyone on the back end, and you get a long touchdown.
Quarterbacks
One of the first things I noticed about Bo Nix early in this game is that he’s throwing passes with more zip on them than what we saw last season. I think that bodes very well for this offense as the season wears on and the execution level improves offensively.
On Nix’s first interception, I really liked the throw. That’s a play you trust your #1 receiver to go get, and it just didn’t work. The ball placement was good, and Nix was playing to his receiver’s strengths.
Nix held the ball for far too long on his fumble. The Titans had everything dead in the water. Every route was smothered. He’s got to learn to throw it away and live to fight on the next down.
He also stared down Franklin for his pick to start the 2nd half with the safety sitting right where he needed to throw the ball. Hubris won the day and earned him another interception.
Line
The line had many good reps in this game. There was some success in the run game, and there were many very clean pockets. But there is work to do in the trenches on offense to be sure.
Mike McGlinchey got absolutely owned on a 3rd and long. He needs to square his man up and use his help to the inside. Instead, he just tried to push the defender’s side with very little leverage, and the defender just ran through him to kill our drive.
Ben Powers got a holding call that he shouldn’t have taken. I’m completely okay with keeping guys from killing your quarterback. But in this case, they weren’t that close to Nix, and you need to let him go to avoid the penalty.
Luke Wattenburg had some rough reps as well at times. His biggest problem was the illegal downfield he should have known better. You can just hold your ground if there is no one in front of you. It literally will help your team. Running into the field of play hurts your team. Besides that, the 4th down play where we were all losing our minds about not punting or kicking the field goal was ruined by Wattenburg not holding ground up front. He got blown off the ball, which screwed all the timing up.
Running Backs
R.J. Harvey for sure is a dangerous back and needs more touches. He got 70 yards on 6 carries. I really liked his work up the middle (which were most of his runs). He’s got a sneaky quality to him with speed and power that got him an 8-yard run when he should have been stopped for 3. Let’s also not forget he had arguably the most impactful play for the offense when he busted a 50-yard run to flip the field and put the Titans on their heels.
J.K. Dobbins got most of the work this game with 16 carries for 63 yards and a touchdown. Dobbins houses the ball for a much-needed touchdown in the 4th quarter. I loved his power and balance he showed, bouncing off the first tackler, keeping his feet, and turning on the jets to get to the end zone. While I can argue some of these carries need to go to other backs, I am solidly of the opinion that adding Dobbins and subtracting Javonte Williams was a big positive for our running game.
Tyler Badie was our 3rd down back who saw 6 receiving targets on the day. He only snagged 2 of those for 16 yards. I loved his blocking in the game, but the No Bull jury is out on him as a receiving back. This was a shaky game for him with a drop that could have easily been a touchdown.
Receivers
Courtland Sutton led the team with 61 yards on 6 receptions with a touchdown. He honestly should have gotten a few more catches where I thought he was wide open and Nix was just not seeing it. I will say I’m pretty disappointed that he didn’t come away with the ball or knock it away on Nix’s first interception. He made up for it at the end of the half with a superb touchdown catch about ½ mile in the air, making Bo Nix’s job easy.
Troy Franklin had a very clean reception on a fake toss crosser early. He got a first down on a shallow crosser on their 2nd drive. It is nice seeing Franklin trusted in those situations and having more of a route tree to work with this season than what we saw last year. You can tell he has put in the work this offseason to improve his craft.
Evan Engram had a nice catch over the middle to gain 8 yards. He had to dig out a catch on a tipped pass for a screen and ended the day with 21 yards on 3 catches.
Defense
Vance Joseph has some dogs on this defense. Sure, this was week 1 against the Titans, but they looked really dialed in at every level of the field. Our pass rush was unstoppable, the run defense was locked on, and the secondary was consistently in the right position to defend plays.
If this keeps up, I don’t know if the Broncos will be able to keep Joseph after this season, as he’s going to be a shoo-in for another go at head coach if he wants it.
Front 7
Nik Bonitto is in the running for the most talented defender on the field when the Broncos are on defense. Every facet of his game was dialed in against the Titans. He had a great run defense and penetration early for a TFL. He did it again off the edge in the 2nd quarter. He got a huge sack on 3rd and goal thanks to the help with pressure off the edge from Cooper. He ended the game with 1 sack, 2 TFLs, 3 quarterback hits, and 3 tackles.
Jonathan Cooper is also an absolute force off the edge for this Broncos defense. His stats don’t show how impactful he was from a pressure perspective, from what I saw. He did have a sack at the end of the 2nd quarter, 1 TFL, and 1 quarterback hit.
Alex Singleton had a surprisingly superb pass defense early to keep the ball bobbling until the receiver was out of bounds. Later in the game, on a prevent-style call on 3rd and 14, Singleton whiffed the tackle that would have forced a 4th down. I know the coaches keep pumping him up, but I still think he’s the weakest linebacker on the field for the Broncos.
Speaking of which, Justin Strnad put together on hell of a good game. He held down the edge against the rush, earned a sack in the 2nd half with some gritty hustle when Joseph sent the house, and even blitzed up the middle to force an incomplete. He finished the game with 5 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL, and 2 quarterback hits.
Jonah Eliss only saw 23 snaps on the day, but he made the most of them. He did a great job containing the swing pass to the outside for a nice stop. He also had a huge sack off the edge with an inside move, bringing down Ward right after they got a return fumble recovery.
Zach Allen also had a quiet, yet awesome game for the Broncos that won’t fully be appreciated by looking at stats. He was an absolute force from the inside of the line causing the pocket to collapse for the Titans constantly. He earned a sack by following up a great rush by Dondrea Tillman off the edge with a big sack to keep the Titans out of field goal range. He also had a TFL and 3 quarterback hits.
Secondary
Talanoa Hufanga was such a presence in this secondary for the Broncos. In the first half, it seemed like he was in on every play happening and seemed to be a serious problem for the Titans. He led the team in tackles with 10 and forced a fumble.
Brandon Jones had one play I saw where he needed to wrap up instead of just hitting with his shoulder. We can’t be too hard on that one play, though, as at the start of the 2nd half, he was the only guy who could stop a 3rd down conversion, and he perfectly squared up to the runner and got the stop.
Riley Moss saw some throws his way and once again showed that he’s up for the challenge any time, any place. He had a superb defense at the sideline to keep his man out of bounds and force an incompletion. 2 plays later, he got beat deep outside, and Moss perfectly defended the ball, keeping position to the receiver’s chest and batted the ball away. He ended the game with 7 tackles and 2 passes defended.
You probably noticed that we didn’t get to see much of Pat Surtain, II, in this game. That was because he was spending all day absolutely smothering every assignment he had. The stat sheet shows him with 1 paltry pass defended. I didn’t remember anything more than that, even being attempted to be thrown at him.
Special Teams
Let’s take our hats off to the rookie Jeremy Crawshaw, who put in a fantastic first game of his career in the NFL. He had 3 punts averaging 48 yards, with every one of them being downed inside the 20-yard line.
Marvin Mimms maybe should have had more of the return reps in the preseason games. He had two bad calls, taking it out of the end zone. He could have taken a knee and gotten the Broncos 35 yards instead in both cases. He did have an excellent return at the end of the 1st half to get us in field goal range. But he also muffed a return, letting the ball go right through his hands.
What the hell was the idea of kicking short of the end zone to D.K. Metcalf at the end of the first half? That had to be the dumbest decision I’ve seen from our special teams in 3 years. The Titans have a rookie quarterback and a shaky offense. Just give them the 35-yard line and move on with your day.
Final Thoughts
I’m not in the realm of doom and gloom here. We won a football game, and that is a hard feat to accomplish in the NFL. That being said, I am adjusting my expectations a bit. The Kool-Aid was a little stiff this offseason about the Broncos’ offense. There is some serious work to do for this young team.
I’m very bullish on this defense, though. The Broncos turned the ball over 4 times in this game, and the defense gave absolutely no shits whatsoever about it. They just lined up and punched their opponent in the jaw, play after play, all game long. I deeply love good defense, and this team knows how to show up dialed in and ready to deal with anything that happens at any moment of the game.
As always, hit me up in the comments with your thoughts on the game. Feel free to disagree with my takes, as we can always learn more about our team from each other. I liken these reviews to talking with fans at a sports bar.
