The Denver Broncos offense has several concerning trends that have impacted their production through the first three weeks of the NFL season. What’s the reason for the Broncos slow start on the offensive side of the ball and how much time do they have to fix things?
Nathaniel Hackett, Russell Wilson have to remedy issues quickly
Coming off the heels of a resilient 11-10 win against the San Francisco 49ers, the Broncos offense has to figure things out and they have to do it sooner rather than later.
In Sunday’s win against the 49ers, it took four quarters of play for Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett to get things rolling.
Through three weeks, Denver’s offense has only scored a total of 43 points, which is shocking considering how well they moved the ball the first two weeks of the season against the Seattle Seahawks and Houston Texans.
Sunday’s game against San Francisco was a different story. The Broncos took on one of the NFL’s top defenses who made life difficult for Russell and company.
Denver’s offense was held to an average of 3.7 average yards gained per offensive play, finishing Sunday’s contest with 261 total yards of offense on 70 offensive plays.
Concern growing about offensive line protection?
The San Francisco 49ers defense, led by Nick Bosa, was able to get after Russell Wilson four times on Sunday Night Football.
After Bosa continuously disrupted the Broncos offensive rhythm, Nathaniel Hackett added Eric Tomlinson and Eric Saubert to assist right tackle Cam Fleming to help slow him down.
Fleming played a solid game against the Seahawks in Week 1 but has struggled for two consecutive weeks against both power and speed edge rushers.
With Denver set to face the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 4, they’ll have to gameplan for rising star Maxx Crosby and Chandler Jones.
When will Billy Turner be ready to play for the Broncos becomes a bigger question going forward?
The key offseason acquisition has yet to make his season debut after having offseason arthroscopic knee surgery, though he has trended upwards with participation in practice.
Until Turner is brought up to speed with the offense, the Broncos might be better served to start Calvin Anderson at right tackle who possesses more athleticism than Fleming offers.
Right guard Quinn Meinerz could make his return this week after suffering a hamstring injury in Week 1 against the Seahawks. He was active on Sunday vs. the 49ers but was only available in the event of an emergency.
Other concerns regarding the Denver Broncos offense
If the Broncos clean up pass protection and several other areas on offense, they should be able to piece things together, but they can’t afford to wait long.
For two consecutive weeks, the Broncos offense has faced several second and long, third and long situations due to sacks and/or penalties.
The long-field situations the Broncos have faced in the last two weeks have directly contributed to their lack of efficiency on third down. Against the 49ers, the Broncos offense was 6-19 (31%) on third down attempts.
It’s not realistic to expect the defensive side of the ball to bail out the offensive every week the way they did on Sunday.
“It’s something that we have to correct,” Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett said following Sunday’s win. “We, obviously, want to score a lot more points and it didn’t happen today. We knew it was going to be slugfest versus this team. When we needed to get it, we got it, and we’re going to continually develop and get better as an offense.”
Russell Wilson believes that the offense will get things rolling sooner rather than later.
“We’re so close. It’s just—I’ve been a part of some good offenses and I think we have a chance to be really, really great,” Wilson said in his post-game press conference. “I think with our guys, like I said to you guys last week, in [the] redzone, we could’ve been five for six over the first two games. [It] Didn’t go our way. Sometimes, in baseball, you swing and miss—maybe a hard line drive and they catch it. That’s just part of the game. I think for us though, our defense is really good on the other side. They battled. We knew it was going to be a tough matchup. I’m excited because I can feel it, I can feel that sense of—even the deep ball to [WR] Jerry [Jeudy], [he] almost [caught it]. Everything is just that close. Once we do [that] with our defense [and] how they’re playing, it’s going to be unstoppable, I think. We have a chance [at greatness].”
The Denver Broncos will now shift their focus on getting the offense rolling as they prepare to take on the Las Vegas Raiders this Sunday at Allegiant Stadium at 2:25 p.m. MT.
