Broncos sought faster starts; the results have been mixed so far

Throughout the offseason and training camp, the urgency of starting faster was apparent; players and coaches repeated the necessity of breaking from the blocks better than in the past.

In the win-loss ledger, they’ve succeeded. The Broncos sit above .500 after three games for the first time in the Payton era.

So, in the macro of the final results, they’ve improved their form; that the two wins came at the expense of a pair of legitimate title contenders in the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams adds heft. But few figured the Broncos would sit at 2-1 halfway through the demanding six-game stretch to open the season by being slow to heat up each game, as if the team is a kettle on a stovetop with the burner turned to “low.”

No team has a worse first-half point differential than the Broncos’ minus-30. No team has scored fewer points before halftime; Denver has just 10. The Broncos are also tied for 23rd in first-half points allowed, with 40.

The average team scores 33 first-half points so far this season. The Broncos will need an offensive avalanche next Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers to get back to mid-tier in that department.

“We’re trying to figure out the fast start,” tight end Adam Trautman said. “[It is] obviously something we’ve struggled with, and it’s not even just been an issue this year; it’s been a thing that’s been common in the past as well so, we’re just trying to figure that out.

“But yeah, we got a lot of stuff to work on.”

BRONCOS DO HAVE SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT

The 10 first-half points so far this season is a number that hangs over the Broncos.

But one interesting statistic so far is that the team has shown some improvement on first-and-10 plays in the first half. Last year, the Broncos ranked 21st in the NFL with a 4.8-yard average; this year they’ve improved to 5.6 yards, which places them 10th in the NFL through three games.

But despite being better on first downs, the Broncos still rank in the NFL’s bottom quarter when it comes to possessions without a first down — either three-and-out, or with a giveaway without moving the chains. Eleven of their 29 non-kneeldown series have failed to generate a first down, a 37.9-percent figure. Only six teams are worse: Green Bay, Tennessee, Minnesota, Washington, Philadelphia and Houston.

“Obviously, we just gotta figure out a way to stay ahead of the chains early on in the game and really get to what we game-planned and how we want to protect the defense and we just have to sustain drives,” Trautman said.

As was the case last year, the specific problem isn’t easy to diagnose, given myriad factors involved.

“I think it gets back to your initial assessment of the gameplan and how you want to begin a game. Cleaning up the details,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said.

“Obviously, you can’t throw them all in a first-half slow start bin. What you have to be able to look at is, ‘All right, what are the things that have kept us from some early-down efficiency?’

“We’re not splitting the atom here relative to trying to move the football more efficiently earlier in the games.”

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