DENVER — On offense, the Broncos were rarely at full gallop for most of the season. Only in the 30-16 win over the Dallas Cowboys did their attack truly click as it was designed against a quality foe.
But in recent weeks, the horses have barely been able to leave the stable without throwing a shoe. The Broncos’ output has dropped from middling to meager — a piddling 12.0 points per game during their current three-game losing streak.
On a per-possession basis, the only thing that has improved in the last three games is the team’s ability to avoid three-and-outs.
But this is a pattern of the Broncos offense — and a whole this year. In these last three games against teams that are in the playoff conversation, the Broncos floundered. Their prized ground game struggled against stacked boxes, and there wasn’t enough punch in the passing game to take advantage of foes daring the Broncos to throw.
“Man, look. If I knew the solution, we would have the problem fixed. So, I can’t really say what the problem is,” said running back Melvin Gordon. “But we’ve just got to go out there and make our plays. We just haven’t been making enough plays.”
The last time the plays came consistently was in the Week 14 rout of Detroit.
“I think we’ve had some good stretches offensively,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said. “When Teddy [Bridgewater] was in there we had some good games and some good run of games as far as winning and losing. Drew [Lock] has been put in some tough spots [and] we’ve lost a little bit of a rhythm with our offense —both in the run and passing game. We just haven’t been able to get over the top here of late.”
But those stretches have mostly come against the lesser lights of the Broncos’ slate.
Against teams that are 4-12 or worse, the Broncos average 42.5 yards, 2.46 first downs and 3.08 points per possession, holding the ball for three minutes, 40 seconds a series. Against everyone else — including each of the last three opponents — the Broncos’ production plummets, to 31.2 yards, 1.82 first downs and 1.60 points per possession.
Not coincidentally, the Broncos are 3-9 in those games.
The metrics aren’t good with either starting quarterback. In those dozen contests against teams that are not in the NFL’s lower caste, the Broncos average 32.0 yards, 1.88 first downs and 1.70 points per possession on drives led by Teddy Bridgewater and 27.5 yards, 1.24 first downs and 1.55 points per possession on series led by Drew Lock.
What both of these have in common is that neither is sustainable for a viable offense. Both quarterbacks have dealt with key absences; Bridgewater had six starts without Jerry Jeudy and played three games without Garett Bolles; Lock had to play last Sunday without Jeudy, Tim Patrick and Bobby Massie. That’s just life the NFL; the question is whether these can absences be overcome. For the Broncos offense of this season, the answer was usually negative.
“We haven’t scored a lot of points. We haven’t had rhythm in either the running game or the passing game on the early downs, and we haven’t been able to convert the third downs at a good enough clip,” Fangio said. “It’s been a little difficult, but I’m confident that with George [Paton] here we’re going to find the answers to that moving forward.”
Paton’s job is to identify and acquire the players to make the offense — and the team — go.
Thus, the quarterbacks seem likely to change — again. They’ve changed in recent weeks, and the output remains unsatisfactory. When that happens, the burden falls to the common thread — which puts offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur in the line of fiery criticism.
Talent isn’t a question, Gordon said.
“I’ve got my feeling towards a lot of stuff, but, you know — we’ve got to be better. We’re too talented,” Gordon said. “I think — especially in the month of November — we’ve made too many mistakes as a ballclub to put ourself in a. Position to win. Just too many mistakes, honestly, that you can’t make, and we’ve just got to make our plays, man.
“We haven’t made enough of them. We haven’t really been converting on third downs; we struggled with that a little bit, and we shouldn’t. We have too much talent. We have to catch the ball, [when] it’s a bad throw, you have to make it a great throw. You have to make it a great play.”
And as Gordon said, that is the case even when Shurmur calls a “bad” play.
“[If] Coach Shurmur called a play that’s bad, it’s our job to make it good,” Gordon said. “If he calls a good play, it’s our job to make it good. Not to put it on us, but I’m just saying, we’ve got to make some more plays at the end of the day, we make the offense go.
“We just didn’t make enough plays, and we just played too sloppy in the back half to be the team that we wanted to be, and those mistakes kind of cost us.”
And that will be the requiem for a Broncos offense that remains stuck in the barn.
