It was rarely easy or high flying, but the Denver Broncos kept their playoff hopes on track, despite their starting quarterback being out, as they notched a 20-10 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday afternoon.
At its inception, this was not a pretty game of football, with both offenses struggling to get on a roll against phenomenal defenses. The first quarter flew by in the blink of an eye as the two attacks combined for five first downs on six drives.
Denver’s all-world cornerbacks had a huge impact as Chris Harris Jr., Bradley Roby, and Aqib Talib all came up big playing tight coverage on third downs, while Paxton Lynch struggled with lots of pressure and heavy blitzes from the Jaguars.
Jacksonville would strike first thanks to a tipped pass on third down that led to a 17-yard gain to get them into field goal position. With how the first quarter went that, momentarily, seemed like it just might be the deciding score.
Lynch and the offense responded on the very next drive, propelled by a Kapri Bibbs 24-yard run off the right side to get into enemy territory for the first time. Another Bibbs run brought Denver into the red zone and Devontae Booker, with help Russell Okung, bulled his way in for the touchdown.
Blake Bortles and the Jaguars offense seemed poised to respond as they dink-and-dunked their way to the Broncos 37-yard line. That’s when Harris made a spectacular interception with 4:44 left in the second quarter, first contesting the pass to the bigger Allen Robinson, tipping the ball out and finding a way to hold on as he bobbled it a few more times. Amazingly, after all that, Harris found a way to get to midfield with a 37-yard return.
As the second half begun, it was again a defensively-dominated affair and the Broncos would again come up big. With Jacksonville racking up yards it was Bradley Roby this time who’d break the game open for good with 7:45 left in the third. As Bortles stepped back with pressure coming on 3rd-and-4, he simply didn’t see No. 29 who undercut and outran the Jaguars receiver to steal the crossing pattern and blaze his way to a 51-yard pick-six. Giving the Broncos the 17-3 lead.
As has been the theme throughout Gary Kubiak’s first two seasons, though, this wasn’t going to be an easy win, far from it. As he kept gaining yards on Denver’s ‘D’ Bortles finally found a way to avoid the cornerbacks running in a 4th-and-5 for the Jags first touchdown. As any good fantasy player knows, Bortles is best in the fourth quarter, and that’s what the Broncos found out.
With little impact from the running game—Bibbs and Booker were both banged up—and Lynch struggling to hit some big opportunities deep, the defense had the team once again on its shoulders, coming up with stop after stop. It was only fitting that the defense would close it out.
With a vicious bull rush, Von Miller pushed the Jaguars right tackle Jermey Parnell—who outweighs Miller by more than 70 pounds—into Bortles, closing the pocket in on him and forcing a fumble as the QB tried to pass and move his arms with no space.
It was far from easy and the second half was rough offensively, but a win is a win and Denver needed this ‘W’ more than ever.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
In a game in which the Jaguars offense made a point of getting the ball out quickly, the pass rush was fairly limited with the Broncos only achieving one sack in this game and six QB hits.
But the cornerbacks were spectacular, constantly proving up to the challenge as they were contested over and over again. It’s really a dealers choice between Roby and Harris as both had an INT, two passes deflected and had a string of important plays on third downs.
Since he got the touchdown, we’ll give it to Roby, but the entire CB group deserves mention here.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Chris Harris’ interception was a huge momentum changer as Bortles and the Jaguars found a rhythm and were at least poised to score three more points. But everything about the play itself is simply special.
Bortles’ pass is on the money and it’s to Allen Robinson, a monster in contested catches, who’s significantly bigger than Harris. Just contesting the pass and breaking it up is mastery in coverage, to do so and then keep concentration to pick up the ball is just football brilliance. The return is the cherry on top of it all.
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— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 4, 2016
QUOTE OF THE GAME
“It wasn’t beautiful but, from my view, defensively it was a beautiful thing.”
-Gary Kubiak
BY THE NUMBERS
3-0 – The Jaguars are the worst team in the NFL per turnover margin and we saw why today. Not only with Bortles throwing two INT’s but also in Jacksonville dropping an easy interception on a wild deep throw by Lynch to Emmanuel Sanders in the end zone. The turnover battle was key in this defensively dominated contest.
19-10 – Forget scoring, there weren’t many first downs in this game. The Broncos actually conceded far more first downs than their offense created, but the defensive turnovers and score proved crucial. Denver’s attack only converted 1 of 13 third downs; that has to be better.
154 – As the Defense looks to get back to their championship form the run ‘D’ has been a concern. Against a struggling Jaguars ground attack, Denver allowed 154 yards on 4.1 yards per carry. Jacksonville was averaging 96.3 yards prior to this game 24th best in the NFL.
LASTING IMPACT
Stuck in a tight playoff race with their starting quarterback on the mend any win is big, especially on the road. That’s the true lasting impact of this game. Once the running backs became limited by injuries, the offense was severely limited along with them. The health of both Booker and Bibbs— who showed incredible promise in this contest—will be huge going into this final key stretch of the season.
Another lasting impact is that with the loss of the Miami Dolphins this week, the Broncos are virtually back in the playoff picture. Maintaining that position while facing off against direct opponents for the AFC playoffs going forward will be key, but Denver is back to having their destinies in their own hands—at least for a wild card berth.
WHAT’S NEXT
The Broncos now start a truly brutal final stretch of the season, beginning with another away game against the Tennessee Titans who’ve been much better in 2016 and will be coming off of a bye week.
