WEEK 3: UNDEFEATED 2-0 Denver Broncos vs 0-2 New York Jets - 2.05pm MDT /// 4.05pm EDT

[BroncoBruin]

I wonder if the Hamler injury changes their thinking on re-signing Patrick. They can’t depend on Hamler to be the WR3 of the future anymore which turns WR into a need again. Might be too expensive to justify now though. 

[AKRNA]

49 minutes ago, BroncoBruin said:

I wonder if the Hamler injury changes their thinking on re-signing Patrick. They can’t depend on Hamler to be the WR3 of the future anymore which turns WR into a need again. Might be too expensive to justify now though. 

Just a hunch but I think re-signing Patrick may be a priority. He's maybe the best "jump ball" WR in the NFL, has great hands, sneaky speed and always healthy.

I really like Tim Patrick and so does Fangio. 

[AKRNA]

On 9/26/2021 at 12:22 PM, broncosfan_101 said:

When thinking about the game this week, I started thinking about the Jets, and their whole situation in general. I’m guessing most of us saw the stat that only 4 top-5 picked QB’s in history have played 0 TD 4 INT games in their rookie season. The last 3 have been Mark Sanchez, Sam Darnold, and Zach Wilson. Drafting a franchise QB is crazy hard, but when you’re bringing even an elite-level talent into unstable organization, it’s practically impossible. Of the truly elite QB’s in the last 20 years, how many of them have seen success when being drafted by an org in shambles? Not surrounding *at least* by good on-field talent? Off the top of my head, Deshaun Watson is the only true example, but I’m sure I’ve missed someone.

My point is, you know that adage that you build your org around a QB? I think it’s time to take a long look at whether that’s truly the best plan. They sure seem to develop best when surrounded by an established base.

I think you're right on the money. I've felt that way for a long time, basically since FA started. Baltimore head a very good team when they brought in Jackson.  KC was a perennial playoff team when they brought in Mahomes and had him sit a year behind Smith.

Big Ben and Brady both came into teams with great defenses and OL's.

It's just a huge mental leap from college to the NFL that it takes at least a year for a QB to begin to understand how to play the game at that level.

[lomaxgrUK]

Having just watched the 1st quarter on All 22, I must say Noah Fant was actually really good in the run game. I certainly didn't catch that in the game. He's never going to overpower DE's, but he showed an excellent understanding of where the run play is designed to go, and how to use his body (sealing, shielding) to keep his man out of the play.

The whole OL as a unit was excellent. The lone sack was a miscommunication between Bolles and Cushenberry, when we got a bit cute with play action out of shotgun.

Anyone who saw my film review last year will remember our favourite run play was the shotgun one back power, where the backside guard pulls to the frontside. Well, we tried to play action out of that and it caused protection issues. I get the logic, but I think it wasn't necessary with how dominant our OL was.

Interested to see where it goes wrong in the run game, tbh. We kicked *** in that 1st quarter. 

56 yards on 9 carries and that includes two runs from the 1 yard line (one went for 0 yards when Gordon got monstered, then the other went for a 1 yard TD). So excluding the goal line runs, we went for 55 yards on 7 carries.

We finished the game (from Gordon and Williams) on 90 yards from 30 carries so something definitely changed.

[BroncosFan2010]

22 minutes ago, lomaxgrUK said:

Having just watched the 1st quarter on All 22, I must say Noah Fant was actually really good in the run game. I certainly didn't catch that in the game. He's never going to overpower DE's, but he showed an excellent understanding of where the run play is designed to go, and how to use his body (sealing, shielding) to keep his man out of the play.

The whole OL as a unit was excellent. The lone sack was a miscommunication between Bolles and Cushenberry, when we got a bit cute with play action out of shotgun.

Anyone who saw my film review last year will remember our favourite run play was the shotgun one back power, where the backside guard pulls to the frontside. Well, we tried to play action out of that and it caused protection issues. I get the logic, but I think it wasn't necessary with how dominant our OL was.

Interested to see where it goes wrong in the run game, tbh. We kicked *** in that 1st quarter. 

56 yards on 9 carries and that includes two runs from the 1 yard line (one went for 0 yards when Gordon got monstered, then the other went for a 1 yard TD). So excluding the goal line runs, we went for 55 yards on 7 carries.

We finished the game (from Gordon and Williams) on 90 yards from 30 carries so something definitely changed.

I think in terms of the run game declining as the game went on, they simply knew we were in kill-clock mode once we got up. We pivoted primarily to running the ball / clock once we got ahead. When you are up somewhat-big on a team your not scared of, your clearly going to run a ton and the defense can sell out a bit in that regard. 

Other aspects too, but the above is the primary one IMO. 

[Broncofan]

1 hour ago, lomaxgrUK said:

Having just watched the 1st quarter on All 22, I must say Noah Fant was actually really good in the run game. I certainly didn't catch that in the game. He's never going to overpower DE's, but he showed an excellent understanding of where the run play is designed to go, and how to use his body (sealing, shielding) to keep his man out of the play.

The whole OL as a unit was excellent. The lone sack was a miscommunication between Bolles and Cushenberry, when we got a bit cute with play action out of shotgun.

Anyone who saw my film review last year will remember our favourite run play was the shotgun one back power, where the backside guard pulls to the frontside. Well, we tried to play action out of that and it caused protection issues. I get the logic, but I think it wasn't necessary with how dominant our OL was.

Interested to see where it goes wrong in the run game, tbh. We kicked *** in that 1st quarter. 

56 yards on 9 carries and that includes two runs from the 1 yard line (one went for 0 yards when Gordon got monstered, then the other went for a 1 yard TD). So excluding the goal line runs, we went for 55 yards on 7 carries.

We finished the game (from Gordon and Williams) on 90 yards from 30 carries so something definitely changed.

 

1 hour ago, BroncosFan2010 said:

I think in terms of the run game declining as the game went on, they simply knew we were in kill-clock mode once we got up. We pivoted primarily to running the ball / clock once we got ahead. When you are up somewhat-big on a team your not scared of, your clearly going to run a ton and the defense can sell out a bit in that regard. 

Other aspects too, but the above is the primary one IMO. 

Also - when did Glasgow / Risner leave?   As much as they’ve struggled individually at times, unit play suffers when they haven’t played / practiced as much as a unit.  Facing an interior disruptor like Quinnen Williams relies on solid unit cohesion. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Broncofan

[AKRNA]

47 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

 

Also - when did Glasgow / Risner leave?   As much as they’ve struggled individually at times, unit play suffers when they haven’t played / practiced as much as a unit.  Facing an interior disruptor like Quinnen Williams relies on solid unit cohesion. 

Sometime in the 3rd. They both played the 4th.

[Broncofan]

2 minutes ago, AKRNA said:

Sometime in the 3rd. They both played the 4th.

If they both played the 4th, but are iffy to play this week, suggests they may have also been far from 100 percent.   Will be interested to see what @lomaxgrUK sees.

[AKRNA]

2 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

If they both played the 4th, but are iffy to play this week, suggests they may have also been far from 100 percent.   Will be interested to see what @lomaxgrUK sees.

I didn't word that well. I meant Meinerz and Muti played the entire 4th. 

[Broncofan]

9 minutes ago, AKRNA said:

I didn't word that well. I meant Meinerz and Muti played the entire 4th. 

Gotcha - stopped watching late in 3Q, was hard to keep interest, that was a slaughter.   Literally forgot everything detail-wise after posting the recap once the SNF game started lol.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Broncofan

[lomaxgrUK]

On 9/29/2021 at 3:34 PM, lomaxgrUK said:

Interested to see where it goes wrong in the run game, tbh. We kicked *** in that 1st quarter. 

56 yards on 9 carries and that includes two runs from the 1 yard line (one went for 0 yards when Gordon got monstered, then the other went for a 1 yard TD). So excluding the goal line runs, we went for 55 yards on 7 carries.

We finished the game (from Gordon and Williams) on 90 yards from 30 carries so something definitely changed.

2nd quarter (from Gordon and Williams) was 5 rushes for 9 yards, but one of them was from the 1 yard line (a TD), so basically it was 4 rushes for 8 yards.

Bit of a mixture as to what the issues were. One run was blown up by Quinnen Williams when Cush got beat by his quickness, one was a great read by Mosley where Risner had a really tough 2nd level block that he couldn't execute, one was a 4 yard gain where Fant blew his block on a OLB (great push inside) and the final run was for no gain when Sutton missed his assignment from a tight alignment and the DB blew it up.

As someone suggested, it felt like the Jets came out with far more intent to stop the run, but I do think we played into their hands by running tight WR alignments, putting more men in the box. We should really have ran out of 13 personnel, spread them out and made their DL and ILBs stop the run.

Some other 2nd quarter notes:

* Some great snaps for Malik Reed in the run game, and (if people remember) he made that excellent play on the HB screen where he sniffed it out really early
* Thought PS2 actually got a tad lucky on a few snaps where his man separated on incut routes. One saw a completion whereas the QB didn't target him on the others
* Dre'mont Jones played really violently; I haven't seen that from him on a consistent basis for an entire Quarter like he put together
* Ironic given the numbers he put up last week, but I thought Courtland Sutton looked better moving than he did the week previous. Feel like he got open at will but just didn't get the targets (1 target for 1 reception)

Edited September 30, 2021 by lomaxgrUK

[AnAngryAmerican]

On 9/28/2021 at 5:56 PM, AKRNA said:

I think you're right on the money. I've felt that way for a long time, basically since FA started. Baltimore head a very good team when they brought in Jackson.  KC was a perennial playoff team when they brought in Mahomes and had him sit a year behind Smith.

Big Ben and Brady both came into teams with great defenses and OL's.

It's just a huge mental leap from college to the NFL that it takes at least a year for a QB to begin to understand how to play the game at that level.

Indy was considered a mess when they drafted Peyton, so was Cincy with both Palmer and Burrow. Cleveland with all of theirs but they finally seem to have hit with Mayfield (a big part of that, however, I think is that Stefanski is the real deal and Haslem seems to have backed off). Stafford with Detroit also comes to mind. 

I would also give the Jets and Wilson some time. I like Salaeh, I like LaFleur and I liked Wilson as a prospect. For a team with no talent outside of Q Williams and a history of struggles, having a rookie QB from a non-P5 program along with a rookie HC and OC, you’re not going to see an immediate turn around. If NY can be patient, I think things have a good chance of working out.

Edited September 30, 2021 by AnAngryAmerican