Heading into this past weekend’s defeat at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons, for the Denver Broncos and its fandom, the focus was on remaining patient with a young team. The unlikely comeback win over the Los Angeles Chargers inspired many to afford quarterback Drew Lock some leniency and patience with some of his continued shortcomings, but after yet another game marred by predominantly ineffectual play, this time concluding in a loss? Broncos Country has procured their pitchforks yet again. As the team prepares for a rivalry game against the Las Vegas Raiders, identifying and appreciating the silver linings, even in defeat, would behoove the fans and the team itself.
Denver Broncos Silver Linings
What Went Wrong
Against Atlanta, Denver scored an anemic six points in the first three quarters, mismanaging time outs, taking unnecessary penalties, and opting for the unnecessarily conservative decision to punt instead of attempting a field goal in a dome, where no weather influences the kick. This is eerily and frustratingly similar to the team’s slow start against the Chargers. Against L.A., however, the saving grace was in victory. Losing to Atlanta despite scoring three touchdowns in the fourth quarter again, many fans refuse to recognize the Denver Broncos silver linings.
Patience is still necessary— the loss to Atlanta was, for all intents and purposes, only Lock’s tenth game, meaning it was still part of his rookie season in terms of games played. But while remaining patient, it is important for Broncos Country to also recognize what went wrong so they can determine where their expectations lie.
Beyond the slow start, the absence of the team’s number one and number two corners made covering Julio Jones and the rest of Atlanta’s receiving corps an immensely difficult task. Matt Ryan was able to complete 71.4 percent of his passes, accruing 284 yards and three scores through the air. Ryan’s performance (and that of less recognizable names such as Olamide Zaccheaus, who accrued over 100 yards and a touchdown) illustrated Denver’s stark and utterly disquieting lack of depth in the secondary.
The pass rush was somewhat ineffectual as well, which should come as no surprise when considering the absence of Von Miller and, literally, the entire starting defensive line. The rush accrued three total sacks and a paltry nine quarterback hits, an unacceptable total when facing an average-at-best offensive line like Atlanta’s. Combining the lack of effective pass rush with a secondary that played possibly its worst game of the season is a recipe for disaster; nonetheless, the team managed to bring the game within a single possession.
Silver Linings
While the final drive in hopes of tying the game never really got started and was marred by confusion and a lack of mental discipline, even making it to that point after facing yet another 21-point deficit is cause for cautious optimism.
When Pat Shurmur has taken a step back from his game plan in the last two games, the offense has come to life. When Shurmur is enforcing his game script and calling the plays he likes personally, the offense is anemic, scoring a total of 16 points in the first three-quarters of the last two games combined.
The noticeable difference late in these games has been the change in playcalling. Some argue the play calls have not changed much late in games and that it is just the players executing more efficiently, but a closer look begs to differ. To capitalize on what has worked in the fourth quarter of the last two games, Pat Shurmur needs to take a step back far earlier in the game. Instead of calling his plays, he needs to call the plays that work for the players.
When Shurmur was the head coach for the New York Giants, fans in the Big Apple were forced to endure watching him fail to utilize his players’ strengths. The apparent regression of Saquon Barkley offers itself as the most salient example of this fact. Since arriving in Denver with the hopes of Broncos Country resting upon his shoulders, Shurmur has been underwhelming at best.
Jerry Jeudy and Silver Linings
To focus on the Denver Broncos silver linings in this particular context, one must simply take a look at Jerry Jeudy and the surprising level of play from young defenders finally getting their chance to play, like Dre’Mont Jones and DeMarcus Walker.
Jeudy played his best game of the season against Atlanta, accruing career highs across the board in his 125 yards and a touchdown on seven catches. His touchdown reception saw what will be one of the most memorable plays of the 2020 campaign, feigning the call for a deep ball to get the corner to bite, creating an insurmountable level of separation when he stopped on a dime.
Playing in only his eighth game, Jeudy’s development since Week 1 is noticeable— his drops have decreased and are almost nonexistent, his route running is clean, crisp, and (for lack of a better term) soul-snatching, and he is finally starting to get the ball in space, where he is most dangerous.
Young Defenders and Silver Linings
For the young defenders, both Jones and Walker accrued a sack, a quarterback hit, a tackle for a loss, and, for the former, a pass deflection. With both playing 58 percent of the defensive snaps and 33 percent of the special teams snaps, these two made the most of their limited playing time.
When one considers Jones’ lack of production since Denver drafted him (only four games with a sack), this performance against Atlanta and the fact that Jones has accrued at least one quarterback hit in every game this season bodes well. For Walker, who has only played in 28 games since Denver drafted him in 2017, the lack of production has been even more concerning than that of Jones. Walker played a career-high percentage of the defensive snaps on Sunday, slowly and steadily increasing his contributions to the defense.
While their numbers are nothing to write home about, they are indicative of the development fans have long waited for. More than that, they are a foundation from which to build up patience and an appreciation for the Denver Broncos silver linings.
The Last Word
An old adage contends that you must prepare for mud if you pray for rain, and the adage could not be any more true for the young 2020 Denver Broncos and their fans. Certainly, there is a wealth of factors Broncos Country can justifiably criticize—incompetence at special teams coordinator, ineffectual play-calling, lack of depth, lack of adjustment, mismanaging the clock, and Lock’s mechanics (among others)—but there is so much to appreciate, so much that is far more deserving of Broncos Country’s time and energy.
With a team this young and plagued by injury, it helps nobody to beat a dead horse and perpetually harp on the shortcomings the team experiences. Instead, one should focus on the good, the positive, and the glimpses of the electric future of this team. Aggressively criticizing young players and demanding replacements, trades, firings, and other forms of knee-jerk reactions in terms of personnel is what teams that perennially circle the bottom of the barrel and their fans do. That is not the Denver Broncos and it cannot be Broncos Country.
If you pray for rain, you pray for clouds.
Broncos Country should remember, however, that every cloud has a silver lining.
