Mile High Sports

Manning may not be the most important substitution Kubiak made vs. San Diego

Casey Light
Broncos to the Super Bowl

There’s no doubt that the Denver Broncos offense finally found a spark when Peyton Manning took control of the offense in the third quarter of the Week 17 win against San Diego. But it wasn’t like Brock Osweiler was playing poorly. He had passed for 232 yards and a touchdown on 14-for-22 passing and helped lead the Broncos to nearly 300 yards of offense in the first half.

But turnovers had plagued the Denver offense through the first half and into their first possession of the second half, giving the ball to the Chargers on five different occasions and putting Denver into a 13-7 hole. Osweiler’s two interceptions could hardly be blamed entirely on him, as one went off the hands of a receiver and the other was the result of being hit as he threw. Osweiler’s own fumble was the result of a bad read at the line of scrimmage and a missed blitz pickup. Two other fumbles were completely out of his control, but still the momentum was slipping away from the Broncos who still led 7-6 when Manning was called upon to start warming up (until Philip Rivers punched San Diego into the end zone).

But somewhat lost in all the Manning mania was another substitution that might have been more important than at the quarterback position. With Manning came a new right tackle, Tyler Polumbus, who relieved the struggling Michael Schofield.

Schofield’s struggles have been well documented ever since he started seeing significant reps. Forced into action after Ty Sambrailo went down with an injury and Ryan Harris had to move to left tackle, Schofield had compiled just two games in 12 heading into Week 17 in which he earned a positive rating from Pro Football Focus. His cumulative -24.3 rating by the analytics website put him 60th among 75 tackles in the league. His nine sacks allowed entering the final week of the season were second-most in the league.

Things did not get much better for him against San Diego, as he allowed another sack on Brock Osweiler, not to mention allowing pressures and taking a penalty. The calls from the media to help or relieve Schofield were becoming so apparent that even CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson asked head coach Gary Kubiak at halftime if he would give Schofield help.

Kubiak responded, “no.” Instead of giving him help, he replaced him with Polumbus, who had played just 116 snaps all season and no more than 33 in a game. He had logged just seven in the previous three games.

But the eight-year veteran, who was released by the Falcons earlier this season before the Broncos signed him in October, made a huge difference protecting Manning and helping open up running lanes like the one that led to Ronnie Hillman‘s game-winning 23-yard touchdown run. It was a subtle move, but it proved to be just as important as the quarterback who came in and went 5-for-9 for 69 yards, but led his team to 20 points and the win.

Postgame, Kubiak had this to say about the situation:

“Yeah, we struggled up front. We had 500 yards of offense. It’s hard to say you struggled up front, but for some reason, we got to a situation there late in the second quarter and we really had a hard time with them, so we took Michael out. It goes back to like I said, we’ve played everybody this year. Tyler went in. I turned to [Offensive Line Coach] Clancy [Barone], I said, ‘You okay?’ He said, ‘Yeah, give him a chance,’ and he went in and played well. It’s just another example of us—we’ve got some young guys up front.”

Polumbus no doubt has fans in the Denver area, having played with the Broncos to start his NFL career after successful college and high school careers at the University of Colorado and Cherry Creek High School.

Here’s what the team from Mile High Sports and some of our favorite follows around the Denver media had to say about the Schofield/Polumbus situation on Sunday.

On Schofield getting worked over again and Polumbus not getting a chance early…

On Schofield getting benched alongside Brock…

By the end of the game, Polumbus was getting almost as much credit as Manning…

https://twitter.com/PeterBurnsESPN/status/683813725384622080

https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/683802029202903040

Although that wasn’t the only difference in the o-line with Manning under center…

https://twitter.com/MikeKlis/status/683797868277202944

Mid-game, experts were suggesting alternatives for Schofield down the road…

But as San Diego lost several of their own offensive linemen to injury, one Broncos analyst offered a creative solution that just might solve the Schofield problem for good…

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