Inside the Game: Broncos woes on converting on 3rd-and-short continue
Dec 14, 2016, 7:35 PM | Updated: Dec 15, 2016, 8:36 pm
It’s not exactly a secret that the Denver Broncos have struggled on converting on third downs in this season, currently ranking 25th in the NFL with a 36.2 conversion percentage.
However, the issue came to a head Sunday in Nashville in the club’s tilt with the Tennessee Titans.
After having gone 1-of-13 on third downs in a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars the previous week, Denver didn’t convert a third down until the third quarter. In three-plus halves of football, the Broncos mustered just one third down conversion in 19 attempts (5.3 percent).
In one specific instance, Denver failed to convert with the running game on both second and third down late in the first quarter against the Titans despite needing just two yards, which “Schlereth and Evans” co-host Mark Schlereth called “garbage.”
On the year, Denver’s converted just 13 of 24 third-and-short situations for a 54.2 percentage.
In this week’s Inside the Game, the ESPN NFL analyst and former Broncos guard explains how mental lapses and assignment breakdowns doomed Denver on the third-and-short — a microcosm of the Broncos offensive line issues this season.
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.