Broncos-Titans: The good, the bad and the ugly from Sunday

The Broncos were able to win their second game in a row by shutting out the Titans 16-0 at Empower Field at Mile High. Broncos head coach Vic Fangio sounded very proud of his defense’s performance in getting their first win at home in the 2019 season.

“Shutouts are hard to come in this league. They don’t come very often and the only way to get one is to play good, sound defense, make a play occasionally when you’re in one-on-one situations because those are invariably going to come up. We made a few of those. We didn’t make them all, but the guys were just resilient and had a good mindset,” Fangio said.

The Broncos have a short week as they are back at home on Thursday night to play against the Chiefs. They have built momentum over the last two weeks, and their confidence has certainly grown, but let’s wait and see if they can beat the best opponent on their schedule coming up in just a few days. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from Week 6 win.

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The Good

The defense played an outstanding game against the Titans. The had three interceptions against Tennessee and sacked Marcus Mariota and Ryan Tannehill a total of seven times. Simply put, the defense was almost as dominant as you could be in an NFL football game.

In addition to getting after the quarterback, the Broncos shut down the Titans ground game. Derrick Henry is one of the best big backs in the game today, yet against the Broncos he only mustered 28 yards on 15 carries.

Broncos linebacker Alexander (A.J.) Johnson has taken advantage of his opportunity to play during the last two games. He was outstanding against the Chargers a week ago, and versus the Titans, Johnson had another big game. He had nine total tackles (six solo), 1.5 sacks and two quarterback hits. After the win, Fangio was clear about his assessment of Johnson’s performance.

“I’m not surprised. I think I’ve said all along that he’s got talent. He can be a good inside linebacker in this league. He got this opportunity and he’s running with it. He’s a big, physical inside linebacker that plays hard and likes football. Hopefully, he will get better and better,” Fangio said.

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The Bad

We didn’t see much from rookie Noah Fant on Sunday against a Titans defense that wasn’t very strong against tight ends going into this game. I must’ve said it one hundred times (or more) during the week leading up to this game. The Titans allowed a touchdown to a tight end in four of the five games they’ve played and in the one game that didn’t happen, they surrendered 130 receiving yards to Falcons tight end Austin Hooper.

There was more there for Fant than he got in Week 6. Instead of having the best game (so far) of his rookie season, Fant instead caught only two passes for 16 yards. He was targeted three times in this contest and that lone target that did not hit the mark (and was picked off by the Titans) would have greatly added to Fant’s total.

On a play that could have gone for around a 50-plus yard touchdown, quarterback Joe Flacco lofted the ball to Fant and he had to slow down to find the ball. Flacco had pressure up the middle since left tackle Garett Bolles missed blocking his man. Because of this pressure, Flacco didn’t set his feet properly and the pass hung in the air. Fant slowed down, turned to find the pass, but lost it in the sun and it was intercepted.

After the game, I asked Flacco what happened on that play.

“It just one of those things that is unfortunate. (Fant) did a really good job on the route. He’s a young guy and he’s going to learn from all those things. If it’s going to mean that I make a mistake here and there, then that’s just what’s going to happen. I’m going to have to live with that, we’re going to have to live with that as a team and know that it’s for the better in the future,” Flacco said.

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The Ugly

Well, that was an ugly game – it was an especially ugly first half of football. Just like we’ve seen earlier this season, the Broncos struggled at the end of the first half and missed out on points before the intermission.

In addition to play calls from offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello that make you scratch your head, the team also was plagued by both offensive and defensive penalties. While the defense took care of business in the shutout, the Broncos offense could have easily doubled the 16-point total they had on Sunday if they had only played more efficient.

Flacco knows how much those penalties hurt the offense’s performance.

“We definitely had some penalties. A lot of times when you know you’re going against a good defense, you talk yourself into the fact that it’s going to be a grind-it-out game and that it’s going to take 60 minutes. I think the one thing I would say is that you get a little less aggressive than maybe you should be just because you give them a lot of credit on the other side. I think when we really turn the corner and become a really good offense, we’re not going to care really who we’re facing. We’re just going to go out and there and we’re going to do our thing the way we know how to do it. I would say that’s kind of a little bit of what I felt today,” Flacco said.

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