Sorry strength of schedule or not, this year’s Denver Broncos defense is one of the best in the recent history of the franchise.
And yet, because of ineptitude on the offensive side, Denver has now lost four straight games and sit at 2-5 overall.
Welcome to last place in the AFC West, Nathaniel Hackett.
“I am sick of being up here and saying the same thing over and over again,” Hackett said after the loss to the Jets on Sunday. “We have been in these situations. And it’s frustrating.”
You think it’s frustrating for you, coach? How about that world-class defense?
Through seven games, the Broncos have allowed a mere 115 points. That’s only 16.4 points per game, which is third-best in the NFL after this weekend. It’s also only three points more than the 2015 No Fly Zone Broncos — with Von Miller, Chris Harris in his prime, DeMarcus Ware etc. — at this point in the season.
The 2015 Broncos, though, were 7-0 at this point.
It’s not like those Broncos were great on offense. Peyton Manning was old, but they still scored 24 points per in those first seven games.
This year, Hackett’s Broncos have scored a mere 100 points, which is a terrible 14.3 points per game. It’s the worst offense in the NFL in that crucial metric.
“We have to find ways to be able to score more points,” Hackett said to 9News after the loss.
No duh, coach.
And that’s your job, sir. To game plan. To coach to the strengths of your players. And to call the right plays at the right time.
Not only are the Broncos the lowest-scoring team in the NFL, they’re dead-last in red zone scoring (25 percent) and 30th in 3rd down conversions (30.4 percent).
Although the Jets came into the Mile High City at 4-2, they were about as sad on offense as the Broncos. That was, outside of Breece Hall, the running back who took off for 62 yards and a score in the first quarter. Unfortunately for New York, he injured a knee in the first half and was done for the game at that point.
At the end of the first half, Denver trailed 10-9 to those suspect Jets, and then Hackett’s offense couldn’t manage to put another single point on the board the rest of the game.
The second half was simply sad for the Broncos. They punted four times, turned the ball over on downs twice and Brett Rypien threw an interception as he played for the injured Russell Wilson.
Yes, the quarterback is the face of the franchise and in many cases — certainly in Wilson’s case — the highest-paid player, too. They face the most criticism and their play is pivotal for teams.
But many have been pointing the finger at Wilson as the reason the Broncos offense has been so awful. Wilson’s played poorly with Denver in six games, sure, but to put the blame on him is failing to see all the other issues with the Broncos.
The offensive line has struggled in both pass and run blocking. Denver was leading the league with 15 drops by their receivers before the loss to New York.
And most importantly, there’s been a lack of leadership and play-calling prowess from the top, from Hackett.
The lack of leadership has shown up in the way he benched tight end Albert Okwuegbunam, who was inactive today. Or the way he benched Melvin Gordon in the loss to the Chargers last week with little to no explanation.
He’s also been atrocious in terms of game management. The timeouts, or not calling them at the end of games. He hasn’t gone for it enough on fourth downs, nor at the right times. And the list goes on.
It includes terrible play calling, with Wilson or backup Rypien in the lineup. Outside of that first quarter against the Chargers which helped Wilson shake the rust off and simultaneously build confidence.
The truth about the Broncos is they are unfortunately no better than they were under Vic Fangio overall. That’s somewhat shocking considering how bad the team was under Fangio for three years.
It’s surprising because Hackett is a young, full-of-life, offensive coach. He’s the antithesis of the old, crotchety, defensive coach that Fangio was.
And yet, here the Broncos are yet again. Losing games by one, three (twice) and seven points. In other words, losing one-score games they should win.
Bad teams find ways to lose. Good teams find ways to win half of their close games. And great teams do all the small things correctly, finding ways to win a majority of close games, while blowing out teams, too.
At this point, Hackett needs to make a major change. Should he give up play-calling duties? Some have been calling for that for a few weeks, but it seems incredibly unlikely.
Hackett is living out his dream. He’s the head coach, and he’s calling the offensive plays. If you play Madden, you know the thrill of calling your own plays.
He’s not giving that up.
And if he’s not going to stop calling the plays, Hackett needs to strip his offense down to the basics. What the Broncos are doing isn’t working. Many times this season we’ve seen Hackett try to get too cute, run gimmicky plays that haven’t worked. To wit, he’s tried to throw it into the end zone many times while being at the 2 or 1 yard line.
If Hackett wants to save his job — which may not be possible at this point — the Broncos have to start scoring more points. They must control the ball for longer and run some clock at times. They need to do the simple things well on offense and sustain some drives.
He has no excuses, especially when Wilson is back in action, which may happen next Sunday in London against the 2-5 Jacksonville Jaguars.
