JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —The Denver Broncos’ expected Sherman-like march through a team that has now lost 17 consecutive games took a little while to get going at TIAA Bank Field on Sunday.
That might not be bad for their full-season outlook.
Eventually, order was restored. The Broncos took the lead on the first play after the two-minute warning late in the second quarter, and scored 23 consecutive points bracketed by a pair of Jacksonville Jaguars touchdowns.
The 23-13 final scoreline flattered the Jaguars a smidgen and didn’t reflect the vice grip the Broncos had on the proceedings for most of the day after their balky start.
Consider this: According to pro-football-reference.com, The Broncos became the 339th team since 1940 to allow fewer than 200 yards, have a turnover margin of plus-2 or better and have an advantage of at least 200 yards in total offense. None of those teams lost. The average margin of victory for those teams was 30.0 points.
The Broncos won by 10.
That stands as a reminder of the fact that the Broncos left room for improvement. They should have won in an walk. Their miscues kept the game competitive.
“Every week something is going to come up where it’s like, man, you were great in one area, improve in one area,” said quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who, it must be said, is probably one of the aspects of the team not in need of an improvement. Ditto Von Miller, who has three sacks in two weeks.
But the defense as a whole knows it could have started better — even though it quickly restored order. In the game’s opening moments, No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence showed the flashes of why he was considered a generational quarterback prospect headed into this year’s NFL draft. He went 5-of-7 on the Jaguars’ opening series — including 3-of-3 for 62 yards on third downs — and the Jaguars led, 7-0.
“I wasn’t very impressed the first drive, obviously,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said. “They threw at us outside and made plays that we couldn’t defend, but we got it going after that.”
Fangio said he called the game “a little bit different after that — but not drastically different.”
The results were drastically different, though: Jacksonville went from averaging 7.5 yards per play on its opening series to 2.7 after that. Lawrence’s passer rating plummeted from 144.6 on the opening series to 11.6 after that.
So, the Broncos overcame their shaky defensive start. But there were other issues.
Start with the penalties. The Broncos’ 10 flags for 101 yards were each the second-most for a single game in the Fangio era, and the Broncos’ worst figures in both categories in 29 games.
“Way out of whack,” Fangio said. “We emphasize it to the point of (ad) nauseam. If anything, I think I emphasize it too much, and we’ve got to cut those out — especially the ones that are unnecessary: false starts, offsides, post-whistle penalties.
“You know, those are just bullshit. And we’e got to eliminate them.”
There should have been a pass-interference penalty against Jacksonville cornerback Shaquill Griffin in the second quarter when Griffin collided with Sutton as he ran a deep route,
And then there are the special teams. The third phase has some issues that cross over on the Venn diagram with penalties, since the Broncos committed two false-start penalties on punt plays, one each by Baron Browning and Nate Hairston.
But for the second time in their last 13 games, the Broncos were gashed for a touchdown on a kickoff return, with Jamal Agnew avoiding a pair of potential tacklers, cutting back and sprinting downfield. Once Jacksonville linebacker Chapelle Russell successfully blocked Broncos cornerback Mike Ford, a 102-yard touchdown was assured.
“From my vantage point — which wasn’t a great one — it looked like we had a chance to tackle [Agnew] real early, and everybody went right by him,” Fangio said.
Pressure from an unblocked Jonathon Cooper on the subsequent two-point conversion ensured that the Broncos’ lead remained at two scores, from which point they ran out the final 5:26 after Eric Saubert successfully fielded Josh Lambo’s on-side kickoff.
However, that couldn’t remove the stain of the return, the second one allowed by the Broncos in the last two seasons. Denver is now responsible for yielding 25 percent of all NFL kickoff-return touchdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Special teams were at the core of many back-of-the-roster decisions at the 53-man deadline last month — and in the team’s Day 3 draft choices, something that general manager George Paton acknowledged immediately after the draft concluded.
Seven of the 11 players on the field for the Broncos weren’t on the team in any capacity last year, evidence of the emphasis on overhauling the unit. And despite the best efforts to shake things up, the issues persist.
“[Agnew] is one of the top five returners in the league, but obviously it’s a problem,” Fangio said. “[It’s] not one that we haven’t addressed. We went out and got some guys, claimed at the final cut down to help us with special teams. We played Josey Jewell on special teams, and he got hurt on a special teams play.
“So, it’s been addressed. We just need to keep sawing wood at it.”
And then there is the offense, which struggled on third down Sunday, going 2-of-11. The Broncos went three-and-out just twice in 11 drives; Jacksonville went three-and-out twice as many times in two fewer possessions.
But those three-and-outs — and a pair of other drives that quickly petered out after ra single first down, with penalties playing a role in each — offered room for improvement.
“Eliminating the dead drives,” tight end Noah Fant said when asked what the offense could do better. “We had a couple of drives that were important that we either stalled out or had to punt or whatever it may be.
“So eliminating those drives and just constantly trying to get points especially in crucial parts of the game. I think that’s where we can take another step and really put daggers in teams late in the game with scoring drives.”
And in spite of the issues, the Broncos have a pair of wins by double digits in their first two games for just the seventh time in franchise history. In the previous six such seasons, they averaged 11.2 wins a year, never had a losing season, went to the playoffs five times and won the AFC three times.
It’s a good start.
But it could be so much better, and the Broncos know it. They also know that if they don’t fix these issues, their juicy promise will shrivel.
They can be happy at 2-0.
But they know they have work to do and plenty to correct.
That’s how you stay hungry and avoid complacency. And that might be the key for the Broncos going forward.
