The Denver Broncos offense currently ranks 28th in the league, averaging just 323.3 yards per game. If you’re wondering how concerning that is, keep in mind that Denver was 16th in offense last year (league average), with 355.5 yards per game.
This team has only topped 355 yards of offense once all season, against the Colts in Week 2. That’s cause for concern …
Yes, the defense can make up for deficiencies on the offensive side of the ball, but it took everything they had to drag this team to the Super Bowl last year, and now they’re being asked to carry even more of the load.
We can pretend that offense doesn’t matter. We can point to 2015 and say, “We didn’t need offense then, and we don’t need it now.” But the Broncos know better. The Broncos know they have to improve.
On Monday, Gary Kubiak spoke up on some of Denver’s struggles. Let’s break down what he said, and see what he really means:
“I feel really good about what Trevor’s doing, but Trevor’s like any other player. He has to get better. We’re looking at it as a group. I have to do a better job for Trevor and ‘Knapper’ [quarterbacks/passing game coordinator Greg Knapp] and ‘Rico’ [offensive coordinator Rick Dennison] do, too. Up front we have to do a better job and we can help Trevor by running the ball, but he’s making a lot of plays. He got us back in the game with a tremendous play to [WR] Jordan [Norwood]. He’s going some good things, but like all of us, we’re looking to be more consistent.”
Let me give you a few numbers:
69%
67%
66%
60%
56%
53%
49%
Those are Siemian’s completion percentages, in chronological order, for the season (discounting Week 4 when he was knocked out halfway through the game with a shoulder injury).
That is what we call regression.
Has Siemian thrown a nice pass here and there? Sure. But so has Case Keenum and Blaine Gabbert, and nobody’s calling them a good quarterback.
The longer we keep pretending like Siemian’s not the problem, the longer we’re going to continue seeing a quarterback that completes close to 50 percent of his passes, has a handful of interceptions and a duffel bag more of dropped ones.
But I’ll give Kubiak this: Siemian needs more help. He needs a run game — desperately. Unfortunately, the Broncos seem to be doing everything they can not to provide one.
On throwing to start the game:
“It all depends on who we’re playing. I think [we] are [trying to do that] early in a game and trying to get some players going, trying to do some things like that. It’s gotten out of whack; that’s two weeks in a row, but like I said, those things get evened out when you stay on the football field. That’s our problem right now.”
If you don’t vote, don’t complain about the election. And if you don’t run the ball, don’t complain about your rushing attack.
Listen, Gary, if what Siemian needs more than anything is a ground game to support him, why do you have a run-pass ratio of 12-37? And why have you thrown the ball on 85 percent of your first-quarter play calls the last two weeks?
We wonder why the offense is so anemic to start the game, and it’s simple: They’re not even attempting to run the ball. And consequently, the pass game, which is predicated off the threat of the run, is debilitated from the start.
And to say that it’s all about “who we’re playing” just doesn’t add up. The Oakland Raiders are allowing 4.7 yards per rush, fourth worst in the NFL. If there’s one thing you want to do to their defense, it’s run the ball early and often, and yet the Broncos ran the ball seven of their first nine plays; those plays produced three three-and-outs.
Honestly, it’s one of the most befuddling coaching decisions I’ve seen in a long time.
On third-down routes coming short of the sticks:
“Usually when you run routes, there are people at different depths. There’s various levels of pass routes that you run. We’re trying to get first downs. I can promise you that.”
I wish I could just let my Twitter feed speak for this one, because everyone in Broncos Country seems to blow a gasket or two when Denver throws a 3-yard pass on third and 7, but I’ll do my best to make sense of it.
Yes, of course the Broncos are running routes at multiple levels. Nobody believes every wideout is stopping 2 yards short of the sticks just to drive the fans mad. We know you’re trying to get first downs.
The issue, though, is that no matter how many receivers have actually run their routes past the the first-down line, the ball seems to always end up in the hands of the one guy who’s short of the marker. Why?
Well, because it’s the safe pass. It’s the pass the defense is allowing, and if you can get your receiver to just break one tackle, it’s a first down.
More importantly, it’s the pass the Broncos coaching staff trusts Siemian to make. And therein lies the problem: Siemian. Again, we can point to a multitude of factors — the line, the run game, the receivers, the play calling– but at the end of the day, it falls on the quarterback to convert on third down, and the Broncos don’t have a good quarterback behind center.