Broncos Quarterback Scoreboard: Steadiness under pressure made the difference for Teddy Bridgewater

Editor’s note: A Broncos quarterback competition can only mean one thing — another Broncos quarterback scoreboard. A fan favorite in the past, these stories will be posted after each and every training camp practice updating just how Denver’s quarterback competition is unfolding. At the end of each practice, 10 points will be divided among Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater with a cumulative score of the entire camp following. Which quarterback is in the lead? Find out now.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In baseball, momentum is as good as the next day’s starting pitcher. In football, momentum can be as capricious as what happens on the next play. Tomes have been written on whether momentum is real or not.

But what is real is this: The ability to sustain a string of positive plays matters, and the ability to contain damage — to ensure that one bad moment doesn’t become a pattern — is a key attribute.

And unfortunately for Drew Lock, he couldn’t get himself out of a funk — at least not for a while, and not soon enough to get the better of things in the Broncos’ second training-camp practice.

Teddy Bridgewater: Accurate and cool under fire

Bridgewater stepped into the huddle for the first team period of the day, getting the first snap behind the No. 1 offensive line after Lock did yesterday. He began with a handoff to Melvin Gordon, who made a flawless cut into the open field on a counter play, eliciting cheers from the fans on the hillside.

One play later, Bridgewater looked downfield.

A day earlier, Bridgewater looked deep not long after stepping into the huddle for the first time, located Tyrie Cleveland, and just missed the second-year receiver as he led him deep on a post route. Cleveland got one hand on the pass, but didn’t haul it in. But on Thursday, he didn’t go as deep, but he didn’t have to; Tim Patrick created some separation in the secondary and cut for the sideline. Bridgewater threw for a spot, and Patrick lunged and settled under the football for the reception, with Kareem Jackson and Kyle Fuller among those trailing. The offense had a 20-yard gain, and Bridgewater settled in from there.

A few moments later, Bridgewater stepped back into the huddle, and after a pair of handoffs, Vic Fangio dialed up pressure from inside linebacker Alexander Johnson up the middle. With a spin, Johnson bore down on Bridgewater, who stood firm in the pocket. His eyes spotted Albert Okwuegbunam flashing open toward the right sideline. With a quick flick, Bridgewater coolly delivered a 15-yard pass that saw him lead Okwuebgunam for a gain that moved the chains.

Steadiness under duress was a hallmark of Bridgewater’s work Thursday. The whistle blew on him during the next team period because of pressure, but then he responded one play later by finding Courtland Sutton on a crossing route with Parnell Motley in coverage. He also executed a quick slant to K.J. Hamler that saw him whiz the ball past the outstretched hand of Dre’Mont Jones.

Bridgewater didn’t flinch, and the result was a day in which he completed all but one pass — and the only one he didn’t hit was dropped. If he delivers under pressure like he did Thursday, he won’t have to worry about pushing it downfield, because pressure will lead to open spaces that his targets can exploit for yardage after the catch.

Drew Lock: A late red-zone rebound

It took a while for Lock to complete his first pass against a full team. In his first team-period work with and against the No. 2 units, the pass play was blown up by a rush up the middle from Josh Watson.

Following that, he had three short completions in his first three seven-on-seven repetitions, but struggled in four seven-on-seven snaps against the first-team secondary and linebackers, failing to complete a pass in that stretch. Lock’s windows to throw were quick and small; on his second repetition of that sequence, he tried to squeeze in a pass to Noah Fant in the middle of the end zone, but led Fant too far as three defenders — including safeties Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson — bracketed the third-year tight end.

The troubles continued from there as he continued working with and against the first team. Pressure led to an incompletion on his next team-period throw. One snap later, he looked to his right for Tim Patrick off of a play-fake, but he overshot the vera wide receiver. His next pass was swatted down by Shelby Harris at the line of scrimmage.

In the following team period, Lock looked downfield for Patrick and Sutton, but missed too high on a pair of passes, giving him seven consecutive incompletions at one point.

As difficult as the morning was for Lock, it could have been worse if he had not salvaged the day by firing three touchdown passes in three red-zone attempts against the No. 1 defense at the end of practice. Another pass play in the red zone was aborted by pressure, leading to the whistle being blown. The best thing Lock did in this period was effectively get outside of the pocket and buy time for his receiving targets to break and shed defenders, leading to two scores. But he also played with fire again, looking for Fant in the end zone amid three defenders; the pass was nearly intercepted.

So, Lock did find his form — eventually. But until then, it was a rough day.

Lock put in plenty of work in the offseason. He spent a day with Peyton Manning. He was a constant at Broncos headquarters — even during months without team-organized offseason work, studying film.

The result?

“All the work that he put in [during] the offseason studying — he is a smarter quarterback,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said.

But it’s one thing to ingest the information. It is something else to put it into practice.

“There are two stages to that. One is learning it while you’re in a meeting room, while you’re studying tape,” Fangio said. “Then, you have to be able to do it while you’re on your feet with the rush coming in, making split-second decisions.”

Given Lock’s struggles under duress Thursday, he still has some work to do to get from the first stage to the second.

QB Play of the Day

After Lock concluded his red-zone work, Bridgewater re-entered for a pair of snaps against the No. 1 defense. After a handoff, he sent the offense out on a high with a perfectly-placed pass to Tim Patrick, who ran a fade route to the back right corner and got just ahead of Kyle Fuller. Bridgewater lofted the pass near the back right pylon to where only Patrick had a chance, and the veteran receiver made an over-the-shoulder catch and got both feet in-bounds for the score.

Scoreboard

Lock’s play in the final red-zone period was good, with three touchdown passes in four attempts — although the whistle blew on him to end one snap in a roll-out, and he had the throw into heavy end-zone traffic.

But in that same period, Bridgewater fired touchdowns on both of his attempts — to Patrick and rookie Seth Williams — with a bootleg run to the left falling short of reaching the pylon.

For the day, Bridgewater only had one pass hit the ground — a dropped swing pass by Royce Freeman in seven-on-seven. Lock had seven consecutive incompletions. Each of Bridgewater’s attempts against a defense primarily comprised of first-teamers was caught.

This was a day when Bridgewater was what he needed to be, and Lock was not.

Daily 10-point scale score: 7.5-2.5, Teddy Bridgewater

Collective 10-point scale score: 12-8, Bridgewater