Chew on these tasty morsels from the Broncos’ 17-3 win over San Diego Sunday…
- The Broncos defense allowed as many points (three) as the number of turnovers they generated on the day
- Denver had more sacks (four) than points allowed
- The defense had as many touchdowns as the offense
Now these not so yummy tidbits…
- The Broncos offense did not score a point in the final 35:26 of play against a San Diego team that was allowing 27.9 points per game
- Not including the kneel down, Denver had five drives with one first down or less, including three three-and-outs
- The offense had as many touchdowns as the defense
As you digest those items, we offer this week’s Broncos “Studs and Duds”…
Honorable Mention Stud – Malik Jackson
Danny Trevathan had the game’s first turnover, an interception returned for a touchdown in the waning moments of the first quarter, but it was Malik Jackson’s pressure on Philip Rivers that forced the bad decision.
CBS color commentator Rich Gannon at one point said Jackson was “living in the Chargers backfield.”
Postgame, Broncos head coach had this to say about Jackson’s (and Von Miller‘s) pressure on Rivers:
“I thought we had good pressure all day long. We were very consistent. We really didn’t blitz a whole lot. We played coverage and I let those guys do their job and thought we did a good job at pushing the pocket and obviously we [made] a big play…”
With just two tackles, Jackson’s numbers didn’t jump off the page, but his three quarterback hits (Denver had 11 on the day) and two passes defended were huge parts of a dominant effort by the Denver defense.
Dud No. 3 – Ronnie Hillman without C.J. Anderson
Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson may not be making fantasy football owners very happy this year, but lately they’ve been making their head coach and their quarterback pretty darn happy.
Against Chicago and New England, Denver ran for 170 and 179 yards, respectively. Hillman and Anderson traded 100-yard efforts in those contests. The combination that fans are calling “lightning and thunder” has kept defenses off balance and opened up the play-action for Brock Osweiler.
But on Sunday Anderson was held out of the second half with an ankle injury and Hillman’s effectiveness was limited as a result. Anderson ran for 42 of Denver’s 134 yards in the first half and Hillman couldn’t maintain that productivity as the primary option in the second half.
Hillman was held to 34 yards on 13 carries in the second half and had five attempts of one yard or less. In obvious run situations, the Broncos offensive line couldn’t create space and Hillman didn’t appear to have his usual bursts of speed. On 19 carries on the day, he had just three that went for more than four yards.
Postgame, Hillman couldn’t identify what went wrong in the second half. “I have to go back and look at the tape and see” he said. “Then we’ll have to make corrections so it doesn’t happen again.”
Stud No. 3 – David Bruton
On the week that David Bruton was honored as the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year, the longest-tenured Bronco got a start in the place of injured T.J. Ward.
In the start, the special teams captain led the team with nine tackles and three assists and was disruptive on pass defense.
It was only the seventh career start for the seventh-year player and with those nine tackles Bruton has eclipsed his previous season high of 22, set last year. He’s now amassed 24 solo tackles and 12 assists in 2015.
After the game, four-time Pro Bowl teammate Von Miller had high praise for Bruton:
“There’s a lot of talk about Chris [Harris Jr.] and Talib [Aqib] and T.J. [Ward] but David Bruton Jr. is playing out of his mind right now.”
That’s a big statement from a guy who played one of the best games of his own career.
Unfortunately, Bruton was injured in the fourth quarter – a leg injury whose details were not disclosed postgame. With Ward out, Broncos fans are certainly crossing their fingers that Bruton’s injury isn’t too serious.
Dud No. 2 – Britton Colquitt
For the second time in three weeks, Britton Colquitt makes our list of duds.
What has happened to the king of the coffin corner that helped give Tim Tebow such great field position back in 2011?
In Sunday’s game at San Diego, Colquitt punted five times with a net of 31.8 yards. Only two of those kicks were downed inside the Chargers’ 20-yard line.
His final two punts were both dreadful. The first, from the San Diego 40, went into the end zone for a touchback and a net of 20 yards. The second, from the Chargers’ 37, went out of bounds after just 12 yards.
With an offense that has struggled all year, Denver could really benefit from Colquitt regaining form and flipping the field on a more consistent basis.
Stud No. 2 – Shaquil Barrett
In his fifth start in relief of the injured DeMarcus Ware, Shaquil Barrett made his presence felt again.
His tackle numbers weren’t gaudy – he ended the day with three – but he added a sack, two tackles for a loss, two quarterback hits and a pass defended to round out an exceptional day of harassing Philip Rivers.
After the game, Von Miller, who had a monster day of his own, identified Barrett among a group of other Broncos second-team/rotational guys that are contributing to the league’s best defense.
“Bradley Roby is coming out to his own toot,” Miller said, “Shaquil Barrett, Shane Ray, and Corey Nelson are all guys that have come in and made the defense what it is.”
Dud No. 1 – Brock Osweiler
Yes, Brock Osweiler was making only his third NFL start on Sunday, but the Broncos are in the thick of a hunt for the No. 1 seed in the AFC (thanks to Philadelphia handing New England a loss on Sunday) and need him to be better. 166 passing yards and one touchdown might be good enough to beat the 3-9 Chargers, but it won’t be enough against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, whom the Broncos face in Weeks 15 and 16. And it certainly won’t be enough to win in the playoffs.
In the second half, without C.J. Anderson and once San Diego had adjusted to the play-action pass, Osweiler was held to just 69 yards passing. He passed for just three first downs in the half.
Worse, Denver failed to score any points off consecutive turnovers by San Diego to open the second half. With two chances to put their foot on the throat of the Chargers, the Broncos came up empty.
Osweiler can’t expect the defense to hold opponents to three points and score a touchdown every game. He needs to go for the kill or it could come back to catch him against better opponents. Denver won’t survive past their first playoff game if the offense is only generating 10 points per game come January.
Stud No. 1 – Von Miller
We’ve heard from him several times throughout this week’s edition of “Studs and Duds,” offering high praise for his teammates, but Von Miller was simply sensational in his own right against the Chargers.
Miller finished the day with two sacks, four quarterback hits, four tackles (two for a loss), one pass defended and one forced fumble and recovery. Even better, he and the rest of the defense clearly got into Philip Rivers’ head as the game wore on.
Miller spoke about his teammates postgame, but his coach came out with high praise for him, not just in the game but for his performance all week:
“I thought he was exceptional. He practiced really good this week and I told him the other day. I said, ‘Von, in my opinion when your practice is hot it tends to come over to Sunday.’ It’s hard as a player 16 weeks in a row to be perfect at practice but I think he amped it up a little bit, was really good at practice this week and took it to the field.”
Miller has yet to secure an AFC Defensive Player of the Week or Player of the Month award this season. Sunday’s performance could very well deliver the former and put him in the early running for the latter.