The Broncos thrillingly beat the Jets 10-9 as Greg Zuerlein missed a 50-yard FG with under 50 seconds to go, and with the Jets having no timeouts, the game was over, and Denver would end the game on victory formation! Though the game was ugly, there was a lot I loved, and there is a lot more the team can improve on.
What I loved:
Bo Nix's resilience in his 4th NFL start should not be glossed over. On the road, against a very stingy defense, he had -7 yards passing at the end of the first half. It was a massive struggle for him early on as many of his passes were just incredibly inaccurate, which was due to the rainy conditions. In the second half, he looked a lot sharper. He wasn't spectacular, as he threw for 67 yards in the second half, but he made some big throws, and none was bigger than the one on their second drive of the second half where Denver faced a 3rd and 11, and Nix threw a 29-yard laser to Sutton down the middle of the field on what looked like a dig route, a route where the receiver runs up and then bolts toward the middle of the field. Nix then capped off the drive with a floater on 3rd and 7 in the red zone to Court in the back of the end zone, logging his first NFL passing TD as a starter. He wasn't great, but he made huge throws on a critical drive, and that set the tone for the rest of the game.
The run game looked solid once again. It was tough to see Tyler Badie go out on a stretcher, and I pray for a speedy recovery. That loss forced Williams and McLaughlin to step up their game. Similar to Nix, the run game had absolutely nothing going in the first half but then picked up steam in the second half. The team ended with 126 yards rushing on 4.1 yards per carry. Javonte Williams looked very spry as he had 77 yards on 16 carries, and that was a good sight to see as a Broncos fan. If this team is going to make any noise this year, Javonte Williams is going to have to be a big part of the reason.
And finally, that defense is sensational. We need to build Vance Joseph a statue ASAP in front of the stadium. This defense today logged five sacks on Rodgers and held them to 64 yards rushing on 2.8 yards per carry and kept Breece Hall in check all game long. Rodgers was flustered all game long as he finished the game with 184 yards on 42 pass attempts. The big play was just not available, and Pat Surtain, once again, continues to dominate the opposing team's best wide receiver. Garret Wilson played a little better than Surtain's earlier matchups but wasn't all too good, as he had just 41 yards on five catches. Another corner who deserves credit is Riley Moss. He has been targeted a lot the first four weeks, and it has led to some penalties, but overall, he has done a sensational job holding up in coverage. This defense is not made up of many big names, but VJ has them balling, and it's a treat to watch.
What Needs Work:
The win was amazing, but by no means was it pretty. The win wasn't pretty at all it was one of the ugliest ones I've ever seen. One thing I would like to see more from the offense, in particular, is to be more aggressive earlier in games. It felt like the entire first half; Nix was just dumping it to the line of scrimmage and kept losing yards. That was the main reason why Nix was sub-zero passing in the first half. So I would just like to see them be more aggressive and take more shots downfield early in games and make the defense at least think about the intermediate to deep pass, and maybe that can help open up the run game.
The offense is still young, and they are going to struggle, so I don't want to speak too much about the struggles because it's just going to happen. In this league, all you need to do is find a way to win games, and that is exactly what they did today.
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