Broncs: More boring, the better
Watching the Broncos play is a good way to induce a nap on the couch. They play boring football. But get used to it. Boring football is the best way for Denver to make itself a Super Bowl contender.
John Elway, the Hall of Fame quarterback, has turned the Broncos into a ground-andpound team. The “Star Wars” numbers of Peyton Manning? They’re gone, and not coming back anytime soon. Denver coach Vance Joseph is channeling his inner Bill Parcells.
Throw the rock? Forget that noise. Maybe Pro Bowl receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders should change their jersey numbers to something more appropriate, like 62 and 79. They are now $21 million worth of skilled blocking talent.
And don’t even bother to ask Joseph where the offensive fireworks have gone.
“I view it as we’re 3-1,” said Joseph, proud of the team’s stellar record. “I’m not concerned about the numbers.”
But the numbers don’t lie. And the statistics through four games of this young NFL season are revealing.
Denver is running for 4.4 yards per carry, up from 3.6 yards last season, an improvement from 28th to 10th among the 32 NFL teams.
Denver has thrown the football on 51.7 percent of its snaps this season, which ranks 29th in the league and has turned quarterback Trevor Siemian into the ultimate game manager. Pass attempts per game are down significantly from 2016, while running plays called on first down have increased significantly.
And perhaps most important of all, the Denver offense ranks No. 4 in the league when it comes to time of possession, at 32 minutes, 38 seconds, up from 28th in 2016, when the Broncos went three-and-out far too often.
When Elway spent time and effort beefing up his offensive line after Denver missed the playoffs in 2016, it wasn’t in the hope of turning Siemian into Aaron Rodgers. It was a practical response to building a team around linebacker Von Miller and a championshipcaliber defense.
Former coach Gary Kubiak and his staff were slammed a year ago for painfully conservative play-calling. It also was
widely touted that new offensive coordinator Mike Mccoy would allow the Broncos to open up their attack. But the game plan for this team was established by Elway way back in November 2014, when an aging Manning was ineffective throwing the football 54 times during a 22-7 loss at St. Louis, and the Broncos have been honing a smashmouth style of play for nearly three years.
Denver is now firmly established as a run-first team that wants to force the opposition into costly mistakes. It’s not always pretty. But it can be effective in the cold weather of the playoffs. The recent handwringing about failure to get Thomas and Sanders more touches is overblown, because so long as Denver keeps winning, the receivers won’t gripe.
“We’re trying to score points any way we can,” Mccoy said. Might he open up the offense if defenses begin stacking the box against Denver? Of course. But consider this: In 18 NFL starts, Siemian’s record when he throws the ball fewer than 35 times is 8-1. And when Siemian throws it 35 times or more? His record is 3-6.
The way the Broncos are set up, points will only be easy to come by in games when cornerback Aqib Talib takes an interception to the house or a turnover gives the Denver offense a short field, as was the case in the rout of Dallas.
What the Broncos really want is an offense that shortens the clock, leaving a well-rested defense to turn every game into a long, miserable day for the opposing quarterback.
Boring? Only if Denver loses.