Once again, the Denver Broncos come out of a game with more questions than answers: Is this defense still elite? Can we trust the offense at all? What is going wrong in the second half?
And at face value, it’s a tough problem to crack. How does a team go from nearly perfect in the first half to a complete mess in the second? Did someone sneak some laxatives into the Broncos’ half-time Gatorade?
I don’t think there’s a single answer, or an easy one, but let’s take a look at the advanced analytics and see if they give us any insight into where the Broncos stand.
Chris Harris Jr. could not have been worse
I hate to pile on Chris Harris Jr., but his performance on Sunday was about as bad as they come, according to Pro Football Focus at least.
Wade Phillips tasked Harris with covering Antonio Brown all day, and it did not go well. On 15 targets, Brown caught 14 passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns, earning him a grade of -7.0. Not only was that Harris’ worst performance of his career, but it was the first time he graded out lower than -1.0 since Week 12 of the 2013 season.
Only twice did Brown get matched up against anybody other than Harris, and he was just as effective then, too: two receptions for 25 yards.
This may have just been a bad game for Harris, but in reality, Antonio Brown was probably going to go off against anybody, no matter if it was Darrelle Revis, Chris Harris or Deion Sanders.
If there’s any conciliation, though, while Harris was the worst-graded cornerback in Week 15, Josh Norman (another top-five cornerback) was right behind him, with a grade of -5.9.
Lesson: It happens.
