ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Five games into the NFL season and the Denver Broncos’ offense has already found themselves in familiar territory.
After an encouraging 3-0 start, in which Denver’s offense scored at least 23 points in each game, Pat Shurmur’s group has plunged back to earth. In the past two weeks, the Broncos have scored a combined 26 points. Thanks in large part to that, Denver has gone 0-2.
“Yeah, it’s concerning,” Vic Fangio said after Sunday’s 27-19 loss to the Steelers, talking about the offense. “You know, we didn’t move the ball very well at all until late there, so obviously it’s a concern.”
Averaging 20.4 points per game, the Broncos have the ninth-worst scoring offense in the NFL. Last year, in Shurmur’s first season leading the unit, Denver had the fifth-worst scoring offense in the NFL, averaging 20.2 points per game—only 0.2 points less than they are currently averaging in 2021.
In fact, the Broncos haven’t averaged over 21 points per game since the Peyton Manning era. In 2015, Denver eclipsed 22 points per game even with Manning’s worst statistical season of his career.
Despite the struggles on offense, the head coach has not lost faith in his offensive coordinator.
“I’ve got no qualms with Pat, other than our results haven’t been good enough,” Fangio stated on Monday. “We got to find a way to fix that.”
Fangio, Denver’s defensive play caller, has already been involved with the offensive side of the ball. In fact, the head coach met with Shurmur and the offensive staff on Monday morning.
“We all just have to do a better job,” Fangio said, when specifically talking about the offense. “We have to do a better job of coaching these players. We have to do a better job of playing. We’re all in it together.”
While Fangio hasn’t lost confidence in his offensive coordinator, he does worry about his players losing faith in the staff and what plays are being called.
“Anytime it’s not going the way you would like it to go, everybody’s confidence level can be threatened,” Fangio stated. “We can’t let that happen. We’ve got to go execute the plays to the best of our ability and make them work.”
The reason Fangio isn’t losing hope in the offense is because he’s “seen them do it.”
“And I know they’re capable of it,” the head coach added.
In the first three weeks of the season, Denver averaged just over 25 points per game. That output over five games would put the Broncos’ offense just outside of the top 10. That’s the type of production that gives Fangio hope.
However, the Broncos have the worst third-down conversion rate in the entire NFL at just 28.6 percent and the third-worst red-zone offense as they only score a touchdown on 42.1 percent of their trips inside the 20-yard line.
“Our first and second down offense has to be better, both in the run game and pass game, so we’re not in so many third and longs,” Fangio said, explaining how to improve on third down. “But when you do get in third and longs you do have to be able to convert some of them. You can’t get shutout. Twofold there—we’ve got to throw it and run it better on the early downs and we’ve got to be able to convert some of the longer ones to keep drives going.”
Despite his concerns over Denver’s recent struggles on the offensive side of the ball, Vic Fangio hasn’t lost confidence in Pat Shurmur yet. But it’s clear, the offense needs to get back on track.
