Is Bonitto on verge of another hot streak?
The fourth-quarter blast of big plays probably felt like a long time coming for Nik Bonitto.
With the Broncos leading by two scores and Cleveland down to No. 3 quarterback P.J. Walker, Bonitto and the Denver front seven revved up the pass-rush engine.
He ripped around the left side for a sack on a second-and-11 early in the fourth.
On the next play, he nearly forced Walker to fumble but got enough of the ball to ensure a third-and-15 pass fluttered harmlessly to the ground.
Then Bonitto capped off the 2912 win by meeting defensive lineman Zach Allen and dragging Walker down in the end zone for a safety.
Bonitto had worked the entire day to chase Cleveland out of their preferred offensive style — being able to lean on a big offensive line and powerful run game — and finally in the end reaped the reward.
It’s similar, in a way, to the patience required of Bonitto in recent weeks. He got off to a fast start this season, racking up 5.5 sacks over the Broncos’ first five games. Then the well dried up, at least as far as sacks go.
So generating 1.5 on Sunday against the Browns felt good. What might have frustrated him as a rookie, though, didn’t faze him so much this time around.
“Obviously the sacks are great to have, that’s what we strive for going on the field every day, but just talking with the older guys in my group and talking to the coaches, they knew it was coming for me,” Bonitto said Monday. “If I just kept doing what I’m doing every week, kept getting around the quarterback, kept being disruptive — there’s been times where I’ve been close. And they said, ‘Just keep working. It’s going to come.’
“I never really stressed about it. I just had to keep working, for sure.”
Indeed, most metrics show Bonitto had been affecting opposing quarterbacks in recent weeks, just not ultimately sacking them.
According to Pro Football Focus, Bonitto had generated 14 pressures in the previous three games (including nine against Patrick Mahomes in a 24-9, Week 9 win over Kansas City) before generating nine more against the Browns. That service has him pegged as Denver’s leader with 41 pressures overall.
On his sack of Walker, Bonitto got up the field quickly, but almost went too far, so he spun back toward the line of scrimmage against massive Cleveland left tackle Dawand Jones and right into Walker, who tried to step up into the void he thought Bonitto had left him.
“I’ve got to make sure that I’m hunting smartly with the guys that we’re playing against and the guys (I’m playing with),” Bonitto said. “I’m just continuing to try to be smart with my rushes.”
Denver’s not been a particularly disruptive group overall so far this season, though their young edge group has shown promise since veterans Randy Gregory and Frank Clark were jettisoned earlier in the season. They are tied for 26th in the NFL in sacks (23) and Pro Football Reference has them at a 16.7% pressure rate that checks in No. 29. ESPN has Denver ranked No. 31 in team pass-rush win-rate (31%), ahead of only New Orleans.
Even still, Denver’s defense has allowed just 16 points per game over its five-game winning streak. If this is the start of another hot stretch for Bonitto, the Broncos will gladly take it. Over the upcoming threegame road swing, Denver faces a trio of teams that rank seventh (Detroit), eighth (Los Angeles Chargers) and 10th (Houston) in passing attempts per game and each check in among the top nine — Texans fifth, Chargers eighth, Lions ninth — in EPA per pass.
Opportunity is ahead, then, but so must be a continued commitment to being patient and smart.
“You can’t look too far ahead,” Bonitto said. “You’ve just got to take it one day, one game at a time. That’s really been the message. Just worry about the next practice. Then keep going off of that. Obviously we’ll get to the game when it comes, but you can’t look too far ahead.”