The agony of mismatches
Why opposing tight ends have caused trouble for Broncos’ defense
Mondays at Dove Valley have recently become devoted to dousing dumpster f ires. Five consecutive losses — all by double digits — will do that. The same issues are addressed, often the same answers are used, the same shrug, same head-shake in disbelief, the same hope that maybe the next week will be better. But with each Monday, that hope is increasingly replaced by frustration.
Joe Woods, the Broncos’ first-year defensive coordinator, feels it. Over the past two weeks, he watched the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots carve up his defense for a total of 92 points and 815 yards. And, like many weeks prior, Woods was left in the same position.
“The question comes up every week about what we’re going to do versus tight ends,” he said.
Tight ends have spelled trouble for the Broncos, as their defense has struggled to contain the big-bodied receivers often too quick for linebackers and too big for safeties. The problems haven’t been exclusive to the Broncos’ six losses, though the mismatches have been magnified in the defeats.
In Week 2, Dallas’ Jason Witten had 97 yards receiving and a touchdown. The New York Giants’ Evan Engram added 82 yards and a score in Week 6. The Los Angeles Chargers’ Hunter Henry gained 73 yards a week later, and Kansas City’s Travis Kelce recorded 133 yards and a touchdown in Week 8, the second-best game by a tight end this season. And in Week 9 against a Zach Ertz-less Eagles team, Philadelphia got a combined 80 yards and a touchdown from tight ends Brent Celek and Trey Burton.
But perhaps the most alarming showing came last Sunday when New England’s trio of tight ends, led by Rob Gronkowski, attacked Denver’s safeties and linebackers and compiled 123 yards, six first downs and a touchdown. Twelve of quarterback Tom Brady’s 16 targets in the first half were to his tight ends and running backs.
Those numbers weren’t in the plans Woods laid out in the days before. So, what’s gone wrong?
“This is the problem,” Woods began, as he
recounted the last two games and, specifically, the beatdown his defense took from the Patriots.
It was a Thursday afternoon and the Broncos just wrapped up their second full day of practice in preparation for the Cincinnati Bengals, another 3-6 team dealing with the same struggles and often answering the same inquiries.
Woods, sitting along the team’s practice fields, had just capped one round of questioning about his defense’s recent play and settled in for another.
“Within our scheme, we should be able to take care of it, but we’ve been off — from executing the coverage to playing technique,” he said. “So this last game (against New England) I put in some checks and said, ‘OK, I’m going to make sure we take care of this.’ And they came out with some new personnel, new formation, moving guys all over the place, and we got guys trying to figure out where to line up instead of playing fast. Everybody is like, ‘Well, Gronk had 74 yards. Well, if we don’t bust a coverage and we make a tackle, he had (36) yards.’ Those two plays really describe what’s happening to us the whole year.”
Follow his thinking here: Nearly 7 minutes, 30 seconds remained in the third quarter when the Patriots, leading 27-12, lined up on their own 24-yard line. On a play-action fake, Brady found Gronkowski up the middle for a gain of 26 yards. Denver’s linebackers moved up in the box, and Gronkowski sped behind them in the middle of the field. Safety Darian Stewart missed the tackle before Brandon Marshall chased Gronkowski down.
Five plays later, the Patriots found the end zone.
“On the play-action pass, each safety stepped up. We made that same play in practice three times,” Woods said. “He stepped up. He was underneath it. We had a chance to tackle the guy. He got an extra 16 yards.”
Rewind to the second quarter, on New England’s touchdown drive in the waning seconds of the first half. On a first-and-10 at Denver’s 33-yard line, Brady hit Gronkowski for a 22-yard completion that Woods believes could have been eliminated. The Broncos had a busted coverage in their checks, and safety Justin Simmons made up for it in the backfield.
New England came back with the same play on the next snap, but with the checks in place, Brady threw the ball into the stands.
“Those two plays, that’s 38 yards,” Woods said. “We’re capable in terms of the players that we have. We’re capable in terms of the scheme we have. Right now, we’re just not executing very well.”
The damage inflicted by outsized tight ends is, in part, a symptom of talent on the defense and continued struggles on of- fense. Denver saw it last year too; Kelce had 160 yards and a touchdown in their Week 16 meeting that eliminated the Broncos from playoff contention. But opponents this year have found more success in avoiding the pass rush and Denver’s Pro Bowl cornerbacks, Chris Harris and Aqib Talib, because, well, they can.
In the Broncos’ six losses, they’ve been outscored 55-12 in the first quarter, allowing opponents to play conservatively and not challenge the cornerbacks or worry about throwing deep.
“A lot of guys will see Chris and Aqib and be like, ‘We may try them once or twice a game, but that’s not going to be the matchup we look for.’ That’s the type of (thinking) we need as safeties as well when we’re guarding tight ends,” Simmons said. “They may be the best, but we’re going to have to win our oneon-one matchups and trust that our rush is going to help us out to sack the quarterback. Rush and coverage work together. It’s just really executing, and that’s on all of us — myself, Will (Parks), Stew, the backers. Just executing at a higher level.”
Last season, Harris was targeted in coverage an average of 5.3 times per game, according to Pro Football Focus, and Talib was targeted 4.1 times. Through nine games this season, opposing quarterbacks have thrown their way 3.6 times and 3.5 times per game, respectively.
The conundrum Denver has often faced is deciding which major threat to eliminate against teams with versatile backs and big tight ends.
“You can’t double one guy every play,” coach Vance Joseph explained. “From time to time, you have to have your guys cover one-on-one. If it’s first-and-10, no one’s going to be in a defense where you’re doubling a tight end. That makes no sense because you have the run game to account for.
“From time to time, our backers and our safeties have to cover the backs and tight ends one-on-one. That’s just part of it, and we have to win there. Third downs, especially downs there where the ball should go to that guy, we have a plan to defend those guys with coverage and with leverage. But if it’s first-and-10, how do you do that without someone covering someone one-on-one?”
New England and Philadelphia, with two of the best offenses in the league, exploited the Broncos’ defense by using backs and tight ends in pass patterns to target Denver’s linebackers and safeties and occasionally force edge rusher Von Miller out in coverage.
“They basically saw what we had on the field, and their game plan was based on that. So if we stayed in base personnel, they said, ‘Go spread ’em out.’ So they’re spreading us out like they’re going to play an 11personnel (three wide receiver) game with us, so I go dime (six defensive backs) to cover,” Woods said. “Same personnel, they go back and say: ‘OK, we’re going to run. Power run game.’ So they forced us to be single-handed. You have to make that choice — you either go out there and play dime and be a little soft against the run, or you play base and then you have to deal with the matchups.”
In the offseason, the Broncos parted with veteran T.J. Ward, a hard-hitting safety who spent much of his time on the field as a linebacker in subpackages. Though Broncos players admitted communication in the defensive backfield wasn’t completely smooth in the early going, the hiccups in games weren’t because of a drop-off in talent.
In Simmons, as well as Parks, the Broncos believe they gained versatility, athleticism and a leg up in coverage.
“It just comes down to winning your oneon-ones,” Simmons said. “They’re obviously the best at what they do — Kelce and Gronk, and (Antonio) Gates and Henry from L.A. Those guys are good receiving tight ends. Us as safeties, although we’re not always on them, we’ve just got to do a better job when we are on them to make it count so that’s a matchup that they don’t look to go to in games.”