Six wins in seven games. Wow.
The Broncos took down the Chargers 24-7 on Sunday, placing themselves firmly in contention for a playoff spot. At 7-6, Denver is now in a six-way tie for the final two Wild Card playoff spots in the AFC.
This week’s grades are the highest across the board so far this season, which makes sense considering their 17-point win was their widest margin of victory this season.
Here’s how the Broncos graded out…
(Click here for the offensive grades.)
Defensive Linemen
Zach Allen: B+ — Allen owes Alex Singleton a Chirstmas gift. Singleton had the quarterback in his grasp… but didn’t bring him down and Allen got the sack.
Allen hit the quarterback three times on Sunday, but the sack was his only tackle. But sometimes the numbers aren’t everything for defensive linemen. Allen was a force to be reckoned with in the middle of the defense.
DJ Jones: B- — After a few great games, Jones was quiet on Sunday. He came up with two tackles. One was a run stuff, but he wasn’t involved in any splash plays.
Mike Purcell: B+ — Nose guards never get the respect they deserve. Purcell played his second consecutive great game on Sunday, despite only having one tackle and one quarterback hit in the stat sheet. (He CLOBBERED the quarterback on that hit.) He hustled to help out with a 4th & 1 stuff after halftime. He probably wasn’t needed, but it’s another example of the motor Purcell plays with.
Outside Linebackers
Baron Browning: A — Browning was loud on Sunday. He twisted around the inside and tipped a pass to Jonathon Cooper, which set up an easy touchdown. He forced an incompletion with a pressure off the edge. He collapsed a tight and made a tackle for loss. He helped out with a 4th & 1 stop.
Jonathon Cooper: A- — Cooper didn’t make a lot of plays, but he made some big ones. His interception on a tipped pass set up an easy touchdown. He also had a fourth-down pressure that forced an incompletion.
Nik Bonitto: A- — Bonitto’s only tackle was a great tackle for loss after the Broncos’ early interception. The Chargers tried to trap Bonitto, but he was too fast and beat the pulling blocker into the backfield where he made the play. He only played nine downs because of a knee injury.
Drew Sanders: C+ — Sanders looks far more at home at outside linebacker than inside. He probably made the best play of his rookie season when he separated from a block and made a tackle in the hole early in the second half.
Inside Linebackers
Alex Singleton: A+ — You’ll remember Alex Singleton’s sack that ended the first drive of the game, but he also plugged up the running lane on second down to give the Broncos a chance to get off the field. He could, and probably should, have had another sack in the second quarter, but the quarterback slipped out of his grasp and Zach Allen got credit for the sack.
Singleton wasn’t perfect. He gave up an 18-yard catch on a Texas route in the second quarter. He dropped from his blitz assignment and couldn’t haul in a ball that hit him in the hands. But you could make a case that Sunday was Singleton’s best game as a Bronco.
Josey Jewell: A+ — The finger guns were out on Sunday. Jewell got a sack on a blitz up the middle. He popped the hell out of Keenan Allen to force an incompletion on a crosser. He made a great play on a 4th & 1 stuff. He recovered the game-winning fumble. Jewell was a monster on Sunday.
Cornerbacks
Pat Surtain II: B — Even when he doesn’t play his A game, Surtain is still really good. He gave up an 11-yard catch to a tight end in the second quarter. He gave up six yards to Keenan Allen on a fourth-quarter 4th & 4. He gave up a 22-yarder to Quentin Johnston later on in the fourth quarter. (He may have expected more help than he got from PJ Locke on that play, but I don’t believe that’s the case.)
All-in-all, allowing less than 50 yards is a solid day… but Surtain might want a couple of plays back.
Fabian Moreau: D+ — After allowing 142 yards in his first five starts of the season, Moreau has given up 159 in the last two games. For the second consecutive week, Moreau gave up a deep ball after getting beat by a step off the line of scrimmage and not being able to recover that step in the race downfield. This week, it was a 57-yarder in the fourth quarter. A few plays later, he was called for defensive holding in the red zone.
There’s no need to panic about Moreau—some regression to the mean was to be expected—but a bounceback against the Lions would be a great sign.
Ja’Quan McMillian: A+ — McMillian receives top marks and he could have had an even better game. He couldn’t tap his toes on a potential interception—it was fourth down, so it was actually good for the Broncos that he didn’t. He also had a strip sack that he recovered and returned for a touchdown, but the officials ruled that the quarterback’s arm was moving slightly forward, so the play was actually a third-down incompletion. Oh, and McMillian set up that third down with a pass breakup on the previous play.
Essentially, McMillian was inches away from a stat line that would have included an interception, a pass breakup, two sacks, a tackle for loss, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a touchdown. That’s a Nikola Jokic stat line.
McMillian did so many other good things, but if you want to get nit-picky, you’d point out that he might have been bailed out on a missed third-down throw and that he gave up a 22-yard corner route to Keenan Allen in garbage time. But I don’t care. He also blew up what was supposed to be a double pass because he crashed into the backfield so quickly.
Safeties
Justin Simmons: A+ — Simmons got in on the blitz action with a strip sack in the fourth quarter. It was the knockout blow. But he was solid from start to finish. He essentially ended a drive by himself in the fourth quarter when he had a good hit on a running back in the flat on second down and then nearly picked off a pass—and was nearly called for pass interference—on the ensuing 3rd & 8.
PJ Locke: A+ — Locke’s strip sack sealed the win and made him the first Broncos defensive back to ever have sacks in three consecutive games. He made a great break on a crosser from deep and broke up a fourth-down pass to end a driev earlier in the fourth quarter. He also had his best outing during his starting stint in run defense, plugging up a couple of holes. He might have given a tight end a little too much separation on a fourth down early in the game, but the pass wasn’t completed so we won’t hold that against him.
Special Teams
Wil Lutz: A — Three-for-three on extra points and made his only field goal.
Riley Dixon: A- — Dixon’s 44.7-yard average was nothing special, but pinning the Chargers inside their own 20 on five of seven punts and never punting into the end zone is.
