Good morning, Broncos Country!
Bo Nix, the Denver Broncos offense, and slow starts.
It’s the talking point for this unit and team, dating back to last season. So at least the Broncos are consistent. While Nix and Denver know they’re in any game, no matter the situation, not having to battle back each and every week would make success more sustainable.
There’s no better time for the Broncos (2-1) to buck this trend than this Sunday on the road against the San Francisco 49ers (3-0).
“I think as coaches, we always look to how can we help
all the players,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said to the media earlier this week. “Then there are certain things, you look at the last game, and you go through the video, and you’re pointing out, not just for the quarterback, but for each position. I said this after the game: I love the fact that we’ve got this mindset where we can feel like we can finish … We can’t ignore the fact that it has to be better earlier.”
For Nix, he doesn’t put any more pressure on himself to be the solution for the slow starts.
“Not really, because honestly, it could lead to like a couple of plays I did the other day, pressing, and then you just make it worse,” he said to the media. “My job is just get the ball to where it’s supposed to get to, and not force anything, take what the defense is giving me, and just as an offensive group, we have to rely more on the run game, and completions, and create more explosive plays, and I think all of that will just help over time. No one person can change the fast start. That’s a collective thing, and we all know it. We’re all doing things individually to make it a collective effort.”
As to whether Nix and the offense are looking at technical or schematic things to try to start games faster:
“I think all of the above as an organization. You look at all of the above. Obviously, as players, we look at technique, and we look at execution. Coaching staff, they’re looking at game plan and all that. So we’re all looking at ways that each of us can get better and have a faster start. I don’t think we’re further off than what everybody’s exaggerating it, but I do think it’s going to be a play here, a play there, a third-down conversion, one drive in a first quarter, and then all of the sudden we catch rhythm a little bit faster.
“I just think it all goes back to what are we doing on first down to get us to second and third down? Are we getting first downs early in drives, or are we having to go first down, second down, third down? That’s just exhausting as an offense in general. So the best teams that start fast, they typically just stay out of third down.”
What would help Nix and the Broncos get off to better offensive starts is an earlier, more effective, and more efficient running game. That run-pass balance is big to establishing a rhythm on offense and keeping the defense on its heels. It would also force opposing defenses to get out the two-high safety looks they’ve been giving Denver.
“I’ve been in times where you throw the ball too much, and you feel like that’s all you can do,” Nix said to the media. “Then I feel like running the ball a lot, and you want to throw it and stretch them downfield. At the end of the day, it’s what is the defense giving us? How can we attack them? How can we be threats? How can we get our guys in space? At the end of the day, if you run the ball down the field and you go score, nobody’s going to say anything.
“If you throw the ball down the field and go score, nobody’s going to say anything. It’s finding that happy medium of doing it well-balanced and just being able to go down the field and sustain drives. I think a lot of it right now is just first and second down run-pass, first and second down early success, having good runs and really trying the best we can to stay out of third downs because that’s how defenses get off the field obviously.”
The Broncos know they’re in any game they play come the second half and the fourth quarter. No matter what. That’s the mark of a resilient team.
Figuring out how to get faster starts, especially on offense, will help put Denver in a better position to have sustained success.
“Obviously, we want to be able to start faster and be able to put together four quality quarters of football. We are working on trying to be better in that aspect. With today being an emphasis of base down and making sure we understand staying ahead of the chains and staying on schedule. It starts at practice and starts with understanding what they are going to give us in those base-down situations and understand what we are being handed in those beginning parts of the game, so we can play in the first half how we play in the second half. I feel like we are a really strong finishing team, but if we can pair together a fast start plus finishing strong, that is where I think the magic is going to come from.”
