I's disappointed, the fans are disappointed, the city of Denver is disappointed. Denver once again fell short in a pivotal game that could potentially make or break their season. This loss is a big one and although they are not officially out of the playoff race yet, they will be 12th in the AFC after the Raiders big win vs the Browns a few moments ago. It is crucial Denver runs the table from here on out and will need some help from other teams to make the final 14. Let's get to the game. What else is new: Offense was bad, Defense was solid, and the coaching was poor. Before I go in with my analysis I want to let everyone know Teddy Bridgewater is out of the hospital and doing well on all accounts but will not play this week against the Vegas Raiders. Now lets get to the game:
Offense Was Horrible!
The Broncos offense was very stagnant for as long as Bridgewater was in the game. The issue with Teddy is he plays his best ball with a complimentary run game but the run game wasn't working because the Bengals not only have a stout defensive line but they stacked the box because they don't fear the threat of the deep ball from Bridgewater. The score at halftime was 6-3 that's all you need to know. Now Denver is 0-7 when trailing at the half. Later in the 3rd, Bridgewater suffered his horrific injury trying to dive for a first down and unfortunately whipped his head on the ground with a lot of force. So in came Drew Lock. After his first 2 outings this season as a relief pitcher, I'm sure people were less than thrilled to see him on the field. But it was a little different story. As soon as Drew came in, the run game started playing better because the Bengals feared the deep ball and the box got lighter. They put together a very efficient drive that caps off on a 25 yard TD throw to Tim Patrick. Things started looking up for the Broncos as they go up 10-9 at that point with all the momentum. Unfortunately the defense gives up a 2 play TD drive making it 15-10 Bengals. Denver once again in their next possession moved the ball well and got to the 10 yard line then chaos ensued. Drew Lock keeps the ball on an RPO and decides to run past the lineman but gets the football taken away from and the bengals lineman is off and running. Lock, Bolles, Patrick all rally to the lineman and actually punch the ball out and recover it. However, the lineman was down by contact as he initially did fall down after taking the ball away. This is what you get with Lock. Some brilliant plays but there comes that one boneheaded moment that ends up biting the team in the butt. I am curious to see how Lock and the offense looks after he gets a week full of reps and I will speak more on that on the next post.
2. Defense was Solid.
Denver's defense did many things right. They gave up only 136 yards passing and 113 yards rushing where a lot of it came from Burrow scrambling on off schedule plays and only allowed 15 points. Normally this kind of performance is described as great but I call it solid because they never came up clutch. An example was after the Broncos took a 10-9 lead, they had all the momentum in the world and then defense on the very next possession gave up a 2 play TD drive making it 15-10. Inexcusable! Had they been able to get off the field on that possession it could have been a whole new ball game for the Broncos with the ball up 1. Another example was on a 3rd and 10 with 3:25 remaining the Broncos had a chance to get off the field but couldn't. This a common theme with Fangio's defense since being the Broncos HC. They are good fundamentally and do really well with their assignments but they don't get sacks and turnovers when it matters most and in big games like this those are crucial.
3. Coaching, Coaching, Coaching!
Once again the coaching was less than ideal. Let's start with the 2 minute drive before the end of the half. They had 3 timeouts left and 2 minutes left when they drive started. A touchdown was not even a thought for Fangio and company. Instead they were happy with settling for a Bmac 50+ yarder to end the half which he ultimately missed. Bengals offense after that had some time left so they were able to get to the Broncos 40 yard line after one play and their kicker McPherson made the kick making it 6-3 Bengals. A 6 point swing that proved to be costly. Another example was Vic Fangio taking a timeout after a Bengals player got injured with 2:37 to go in the 4th. There was no reason to burn that timeout but he did which once again displays the incompetency he has as an HC even in year 3. Unless the Broncos somehow pull off the improbable and go to the postseason, Fangio, Shrumer, and Mcmahon are unlikely to come back in 2022.
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