WEEK 1 GAMEDAY THREAD- MNF vs. Titans

[lomaxgrUK]

Re: Jewell - he seemed good but this game was always going to be his most suited of the year.

It's him going away from the LOS that concerns me, not his ability to go forwards.

[anewdawn]

21 minutes ago, AnAngryAmerican said:

I have my doubts. That’s been a glaring weakness for years and Elway has never addressed it. It doesn’t seem to be a position which he values highly. We never went after any FA MLBs or drafted one highly. There were rumors we would have taken Bush if Pittsburgh didn’t make us a deal we liked, and that deal did work out as got Fant and Lock, who look like cornerstones. But even still, it’s never seemed like a position which this FO seems eager to spend prime capital on addressing. 

Totally agree.  I'm 57 and have always taken great pride with regard to our history of dominant linebackers but it seems this FO could care less.  I was watching Devin White on Tampa and man oh man would I love one like him!!  Just saying I agree AAA and just don't get it.  It's embarrassing considering our always rich history given that position MLB and the fact it has been ignored for so fn long........... 

[Joe_is_the_best]

Good

Jeudy runs amazing routes. We have a star on our hands.
Lock's arm talent is a welcome sight 
Fant looked great
Ojemudia was surprisingly effective
Bolles had an uneventful day
Attaochu is on pace for 16 sacks lol
ST was on point

Bad

Lock was wildly inaccurate on deep balls
Stupid penalty wiped out an INT
Shurmur did not impress
Calling plays for Lindsay as if he's... Derrick Henry

Ugly

Horrendous clock management 
Gostkowski was kicking like Chad Ochocinco & we couldn't take advantage
Lock missed a WIDE open Vannett for a TD, then Shurmur tried a stupid shovel pass on 4th down
MGIII with an extremely untimely fumble
Jeudy with 2 huge drops

 

The good news is that the mistakes are fixable. You could say Tennessee should have won by more if they had a kicker, but I say we left 14 points on the board, gifted Tenessee a short field on one of their drives, and nullified an INT. We should have won, but Tennessee did & that's what ultimately matters. Still, our future outlook is very positive imo.

[BroncoBruin]

Gotta add Justin Simmons to the list of bad. It was an awful performance from arguably the best player on the defense. For the most part, this defense was flying around with a lot of energy and Justin just didn’t make an impact in any phase of the game and got manipulated by Tannehill nicely a couple times. 

So we were missing our best player on both offense and defense, our best corner was done before halftime, one Pro Bowl RB was out and the other had maybe the worst fumble you’ll see all season from this team, our best defensive back had a bad game, and our rookie phenom drops two on the money throws that lead to big plays and probably lead to scoring opportunities. And if that all ain’t enough, Fangio doesn’t even give the offense a chance. 

Think about how some of the biggest question marks on the team performed: Lock, Bolles, Cushenberry, Jewell, Ojemudia. It’s especially encouraging to see two rookie 3rd rounders step in and play at a high level. If those two + Jeudy hit, you’ve already had a successful draft before you account for growth into 2021 of Hamler, Agim, Albert O and Strnad. 

Edited September 15, 2020 by BroncoBruin

[AnAngryAmerican]

Having sat with it for a while I’m more pleased than not. A loss sucks but, as @Broncofan and several of us have long maintained, this is a year to grow and our real window opens next year. 

-A positive to take is that a lot of the mistakes yesterday that hurt us are correctable.

-Young players are going to make mistakes (Jeudy’s drops, for instance).

-Our young players actually showed a lot of promise; not just Jeudy but Ojemudia and Cushenberry I liked as well. 

-Lock, as I said during the game, is still pretty green, the game is just a hair fast for him, especially without a preseason. But, wow, he is going to be special as he hones some things in. Last night helped to confirm my belief from watching him play last season and listening to how he’s worked and handled himself this offseason, that we’ve found out QB. That’s huge and shouldn’t be overlooked.

-Fant, like Lock, looks like a real weapon and long term difference maker at a critical position. 

-Bolles, whose raw physical skills are and have always been undeniable, kept his head and played well against a talented front that employs a complex scheme.

-Kareem Jackson is the best free agent signing this team has made since the Ware/Ward/Talib/Sanders offseason. That looked the case last year and confirmed yesterday. He’s a “raises all boats” type in the secondary due to his play style and versatility.

The negatives are clear. I never have been a Fangio fan and I saw nothing to change my mind and last night only confirmed he’s a DC masquerading as a HC. Problem is barring a total collapse, his job is safe this year and next.

And Schurmur, like I said at the time of the hire, is just a “meh” OC to me. He shows some brilliance at times and makes you scratch your head at others. The caveat is that he’s still learning what he can do with his available talent so I’m holding out hope he can draw on his experience to put players in better positions to be successful. 

[Broncofan]

4 hours ago, AnAngryAmerican said:

I have my doubts. That’s been a glaring weakness for years and Elway has never addressed it. It doesn’t seem to be a position which he values highly. We never went after any FA MLBs or drafted one highly. There were rumors we would have taken Bush if Pittsburgh didn’t make us a deal we liked, and that deal did work out as got Fant and Lock, who look like cornerstones. But even still, it’s never seemed like a position which this FO seems eager to spend prime capital on addressing. 

Pre-Fangio agreed.   But IIRC Elway tried to trade up for Patrick Queen as per Klis.   As long as Fangio is our HC gotta believe it’s going to be a top 2 priority.  
 

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2020/04/broncos-tried-to-trade-back-into-first-round-for-lb-patrick-queen
 

[AnAngryAmerican]

6 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

Pre-Fangio agreed.   But IIRC Elway tried to trade up for Patrick Queen as per Klis.   As long as Fangio is our HC gotta believe it’s going to be a top 2 priority.  
 

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2020/04/broncos-tried-to-trade-back-into-first-round-for-lb-patrick-queen
 

You are correct, as usual. We did make an attempt to move up for Queen.

[AKRNA]

3 hours ago, AnAngryAmerican said:

 

-Bolles, whose raw physical skills are and have always been undeniable, kept his head and played well against a talented front that employs a complex scheme.

 

A little more than that I think.  Most of the game he made it look easy. Just another walk in the park. Really looking forward to this years Bolles/Bosa duels. Those are worth watching.

Real pleased with Cush, great pick.  What can you say about Wilkinson? If he leave him uncovered your QB will get hit. Overall solid IOL play, special LT play and then Wilk. 

[AkronsWitness]

8 hours ago, AnAngryAmerican said:

Having sat with it for a while I’m more pleased than not. A loss sucks but, as @Broncofan and several of us have long maintained, this is a year to grow and our real window opens next year. 

-A positive to take is that a lot of the mistakes yesterday that hurt us are correctable.

-Young players are going to make mistakes (Jeudy’s drops, for instance).

-Our young players actually showed a lot of promise; not just Jeudy but Ojemudia and Cushenberry I liked as well. 

-Lock, as I said during the game, is still pretty green, the game is just a hair fast for him, especially without a preseason. But, wow, he is going to be special as he hones some things in. Last night helped to confirm my belief from watching him play last season and listening to how he’s worked and handled himself this offseason, that we’ve found out QB. That’s huge and shouldn’t be overlooked.

-Fant, like Lock, looks like a real weapon and long term difference maker at a critical position. 

-Bolles, whose raw physical skills are and have always been undeniable, kept his head and played well against a talented front that employs a complex scheme.

-Kareem Jackson is the best free agent signing this team has made since the Ware/Ward/Talib/Sanders offseason. That looked the case last year and confirmed yesterday. He’s a “raises all boats” type in the secondary due to his play style and versatility.

The negatives are clear. I never have been a Fangio fan and I saw nothing to change my mind and last night only confirmed he’s a DC masquerading as a HC. Problem is barring a total collapse, his job is safe this year and next.

And Schurmur, like I said at the time of the hire, is just a “meh” OC to me. He shows some brilliance at times and makes you scratch your head at others. The caveat is that he’s still learning what he can do with his available talent so I’m holding out hope he can draw on his experience to put players in better positions to be successful. 

2 things. Shurmer play calling reminded me a lot of......Scangarello last year with the mis directions.

Secondly, somebody needs to be like a decidated clock management coach. This is the 2nd season now that Fangio just blanks out on situational awareness and clock management. Not just with the timeouts but also not telling Lock to run the clock on our last drive. We were snapping the ball with 15 sec left on the clock. Need to have somebody who can buzz into the headset of Fangio and remind him of the situation. I believe Sean Mcvay has somebody like this on his staff

[Joe_is_the_best]

14 hours ago, AkronsWitness said:

2 things. Shurmer play calling reminded me a lot of......Scangarello last year with the mis directions.

Secondly, somebody needs to be like a decidated clock management coach. This is the 2nd season now that Fangio just blanks out on situational awareness and clock management. Not just with the timeouts but also not telling Lock to run the clock on our last drive. We were snapping the ball with 15 sec left on the clock. Need to have somebody who can buzz into the headset of Fangio and remind him of the situation. I believe Sean Mcvay has somebody like this on his staff

Scangs had some wacky stuff, but he really improved. Maybe it's a Week 1 Overreaction, but I wish we hadn't fired him.

[paul-mac]

2 hours ago, Joe_is_the_best said:

Scangs had some wacky stuff, but he really improved. Maybe it's a Week 1 Overreaction, but I wish we hadn't fired him.

I certainly wasn’t crying out for him to be fired, I don’t think he did that bad of a job and was kinda shocked when they pulled the trigger. Having said that, I don’t think Shurmur is really a downgrade. So it’s kinda fine in my book. 

[BroncoBruin]

Personally I like the offense. It was a tough front to run against but they were still able to scheme up some nice run plays where Gordon could get downhill with some space. The head scratcher was not doing anything creative with Lindsay while he was in there. Get him on the edge.

Passing game and route combos look a lot more dynamic than what we saw from Scangs. The boot stuff is a good fit for Lock and will be great for our fast TEs. This is going to evolve into an offense whose identity is spreading the defense with elite athletes and separators and letting Drew sit back in shotgun and pick apart matchups. Scangarello was just too conservative and limited as a passing game coordinator to fit the strengths of the personnel. And at times he just seemed lost when they got off the opening script. 

Edited September 16, 2020 by BroncoBruin

[Broncofan]

Honestly given how the draft has gone Shurmur’s scheme is a better fit.   Scangarelli did nothing wrong but this scheme will leverage Jeudy / Sutton / Fant ‘s assets even more with 11 personnel.   3-wide formations as the made with Fant will present mismatches to exploit and make it easier for the run game, especially if Cushenberry - Glasgow - Risner mesh as our interior core.   

Edited September 16, 2020 by Broncofan

[Joe_is_the_best]

4 hours ago, BroncoBruin said:

Personally I like the offense. It was a tough front to run against but they were still able to scheme up some nice run plays where Gordon could get downhill with some space. The head scratcher was not doing anything creative with Lindsay while he was in there. Get him on the edge.

Passing game and route combos look a lot more dynamic than what we saw from Scangs. The boot stuff is a good fit for Lock and will be great for our fast TEs. This is going to evolve into an offense whose identity is spreading the defense with elite athletes and separators and letting Drew sit back in shotgun and pick apart matchups. Scangarello was just too conservative and limited as a passing game coordinator to fit the strengths of the personnel. And at times he just seemed lost when they got off the opening script. 

 

3 hours ago, Broncofan said:

Honestly given how the draft has gone Shurmur’s scheme is a better fit.   Scangarelli did nothing wrong but this scheme will leverage Jeudy / Sutton / Fant ‘s assets even more with 11 personnel.   3-wide formations as the made with Fant will present mismatches to exploit and make it easier for the run game, especially if Cushenberry - Glasgow - Risner mesh as our interior core.   

Good insight guys. For sure Shurmur's scheme is superior, it was just some of the calls were really bad. Really liked what he did with Fant in the first half, & Scangs also ran Lindsey right up the middle too often. I guess it will take a few weeks to get the kinks out. I just hope we don't start 0-3 before then.

[Broncofan]

25 minutes ago, Joe_is_the_best said:

 

Good insight guys. For sure Shurmur's scheme is superior, it was just some of the calls were really bad. Really liked what he did with Fant in the first half, & Scangs also ran Lindsey right up the middle too often. I guess it will take a few weeks to get the kinks out. I just hope we don't start 0-3 before then.

The 3rd / 4th down calls at the GL and more importantly the personnel choices were awful.   The whole point to signing MG3 is to get that 3rd/4th and short (along with his pass pro and catching abilities).   So it’s dubious to not use him at the 1 yard line either time.   
 

But the real kicker IMO was not having MG3 on the field for those 2 downs.  No disrespect to Lindsay but that gave away that we weren’t thinking inside run and it made 4th easier to defend IMO.   Hindsight is 20/20 but making the D guess at run vs. pass is always a good thing.   To not have MG3 on the field IMO helped the TEN D discount inside run as our play call. 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Broncofan