The good, the bad and the ugly from Sunday’s loss to the Falcons
Nov 9, 2020, 6:58 AM
The Broncos are a flawed football team who is trying to win in a weird year. That’s not an excuse, but just the truth about this team who is 3-5 halfway through the 2020 season after losing to the Falcons by a score of 34-27 on Sunday.
Once again, the Broncos struggled in the first half, but then the offense came alive late in the game. Unlike last week against the Chargers, when they came back and won, this time the Broncos made a feverish comeback and fell short to the Falcons.
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio made a bit of a startling statement about the team after the loss.
“Obviously, the loss is main priority number one. We’re here to win the game. But I do think that we’re getting better, although it’s hard to see that when you have a game like we did today. We just need to become a more consistent, efficient team—particularly on offense. We need to be able to cover better on defense and rush the passer better. That was evident today where we came up short and I need to do a better job of calling the defense,” Fangio said.
Are the Broncos really getting better? That’s going to be put to the test next week as they travel to face division rival the Las Vegas Raiders. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly from the Week 9 loss.
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The Good
We finally got to see a breakout game from 2020 first-round pick Jerry Jeudy. For much of the season, Jeudy had been relegated to being the No. 2 receiver with Tim Patrick getting a majority of the targets and receptions. When Patrick missed last week’s game against the Chargers, Jeudy was targeted 10 times and had 73 yards on four catches.
It was a flash of what he could do, and in Week 9 Jeudy took that next step.
He was targeted a whopping 14 times against the Falcons, hauling in seven catches for 125 yards and one touchdown. Jeudy has been working diligently to get open on a weekly basis, but he had not been targeted as much as he has over the last two games. Jeudy needs to continue being the biggest part of the Broncos passing game. He has field-flipping ability and has superstar upside if he is featured and continues to grow as a pro receiver.
Fangio praised the young wide receiver after the game.
“I think he’s made really good strides here in the last couple weeks – two or three games. I like what Jerry has been playing. I like where he’s headed. He’s been practicing better and it translates to the game. I think he’s doing a good job, his arrow is definitely up and he’s what we thought we got when we drafted him,” Fangio said.
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The Bad
The Broncos offense cannot get off to a hot start. During the last two games, the Broncos have scored 16 points combined in quarters 1-3. During that same time in the fourth quarter, the Broncos have scored 42 points combined.
So, what is causing these offensive woes? The answer is more complicated than some would like, but I feel it comes down to the design of the offense – which is average at best – and the execution of the game plan by quarterback Drew Lock. Simply put, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and Lock are not on the same page. Shurmur wants Lock to run the offense a certain way, and Lock wants to work with tempo and take some deep shots down the field.
Lock was somewhat dejected about the first half struggles after the game.
“Some points need to be scored, that’s for sure. Pick up a few first downs and you can’t be in third-and-longs — I said that last week. First half we stunk, last week, and third-and-longs in this week. We just have to be better in that regard. There’s no magical potion for that to happen, it’s going to come with work. We’re all ready to stop the ‘It’s part of the process’ hoopla. Whatever you want to say, ‘the process’ or ‘young guys’ — whatever,” Lock said.
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The Ugly
It wasn’t a great day for the Broncos secondary. They were going to be without starting cornerback A.J. Bouye due to a concussion and we knew that leading up to the game. However, it was revealed on Sunday that the Broncos would also be without starting cornerback Bryce Callahan due to an ankle injury suffered in the Chargers game.
In their place, the Broncos were utilizing guys like rookies Michael Ojemudia and Essang Bassey on Sunday. Neither had a great day, and Ojemudia – who had played well most of the time this season – had a terrible game against the Falcons. There were communication breakdowns which led to big plays, and the team had cornerbacks out of position which led to big plays for the Falcons passing game.
After the game, safety Justin Simmons talked about how he had to communicate more with such a young pair of corners around him.
“Just a little bit more, it wasn’t anything crazy. You’ve got younger guys in there – you’ve got to be able to communicate and be on the same page in the back end. You have to see routes the same way. You have to see formations the same way. We’ve got guys out there that haven’t played as much football as Bryce and A.J. We’ve just got to be able to communicate a little bit better and that stuff shows. Especially when you’re doing the types of things that we want to do defensively. It’s not any one guys fault; this is a collective effort. You don’t live off of one guy’s success and you don’t die off of one guy’s failures. A defense is an 11-man unit. We could have just been better all around as a unit. Like I said—I keep harping on it, but it’s the truth, we’re just not nearly good enough to be able to win against any team with that,” Simmons said.
