Training Camp Takes: Defense dominates but offense fights back late

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Vic Fangio began Friday’s practice by bringing his team together in a huddle. After a minute of Fangio addressing his team, players started to hoot and holler and get hyped for whatever message the coach was delivering.

The defense took that shot of energy and ran with it to start practice. The offense, however, didn’t pick up on it one bit as they came out flat, sluggish and out of tune. The energy started to hit the offense as the practice went on.

Here’s what went down during the Broncos’ seventh practice of training camp.

DEFENSE DOMINATES, OFFENSE RALLIES

The seventh practice of camp started off by the first-team defense facing the second-team offense and the second-team defense going up against the first-team offense. That was apparent with the first-team defense, but couldn’t tell the first-team offense was going up against backups.

The first-team offense opened up with a drop by Courtland Sutton. Then came their most impressive play of the first half of practice when Royce Freeman caught a Texas route out of the backfield and turned it upfield for what would have been a first down. After that, however, first downs weren’t easy to come by.

The following plays included a pass breakup by Duke Dawson and Drew Lock sailing a ball over Phillip Lindsay’s head.

The offense opened up the following series with two positive plays — a short completion to Noah Fant and a five-yard run by Freeman — before ending with a sack, courtesy of Dre’Mont Jones and Malik Reed.

All of that was against the second-string defense, don’t forget.

When Lock and Co. faced Fangio’s first-team squad, not much changed. The defense snuffed out a screen, held LeVante Bellamy in check on an inside run and Jurrell Casey absolutely destroyed any hope of a Lindsay run developing. A similar series against the second-team defense followed before the first-team offense got another shot at the first-team defense.

In the first move-the-ball period, beginning at the defense’s 30-yard line, the offense went nowhere. Lock started off with two incompletions before his worst decision of the day. Under pressure, and likely resulting in a sack from Casey, Lock sailed a ball 30-yards downfield into a sea of defenders right into Justin Simmons’ chest for an interception.

Then the tides began to turn.

Starting from their own 20 with 2:10 left on the clock, the offense was down four points with one timeout. Only a touchdown would do.

Lock began the drive with his longest completion on the day to Sutton on the left sideline for 20 yards before going right back to him for a short gain. Three more short completions had the offense well on the other side of the 50 before Lock found Sutton yet again for a short gain.

The second-year quarterback avoided disaster by A.J. Bouye just missing an interception in the end zone. Then, on 3rd-and-goal from the seven, Lock scrambled to his right and shot the ball to Tim Patrick on the right sideline of the end zone. Patrick secured the ball and appeared to get both feet down — although, of course, the defense strongly disagreed. Touchdown.

Practice ended with a goalline period from the 2-yard line in which the first team faced the second team. Both offenses found success on the ground and in the air. The final play of practice was an easy touchdown pass from Lock to Jake Butt on a play in which the entire defense believed the running back had the ball.

The offense rode into the weekend on a high note.

BACKUPS STEP UP

After the injury bug stung the Broncos for the first time in camp on Thursday, many backups were promoted to the starting lineup on Friday. And they played like starters.

Filling in for Von Miller, Malik Reed might as well have been wearing No. 58 during Friday’s practice. He was that dominant.

His impressive outing started the very first play of practice when he blew up a run play to the right side. Three plays later, he and Mike Purcell combined for a sack.

Reed had no problem going up against the first-team offense either. Collapsing the pocket, Reed pressured Lock in what likely could have been a sack, but at worst forced an incompletion. He rounded out his impressive practice with another run stuff and pressure on Jeff Driskel.

Royce Freeman, Denver’s third running back, took a significant step up on Friday filling in for Melvin Gordon. Instead of being the clear No. 2 running back to Lindsay with Gordon out, Freeman took Gordon’s spot in the lineup by being the one-two punch with Lindsay.

Freeman was reliable as a receiver out of the backfield, including his impressive catch-and-run run mentioned earlier. The third-year back also ran with force and hit holes hard.

Finally, Josey Jewell filled in for Todd Davis and did an admirable job. Jewell made the correct plays in the run game and was solid next to Alexander Johnson, only allowing one significant catch when Freeman beat him on the Texas route.

PRO BOWL ADDITION

No. 99 was a force to be reckoned with on Friday. Jurrell Casey, a Pro Bowler in each of the last five seasons, looked every part of a Pro Bowl defensive lineman during practice.

Along the defensive line, Casey had two sacks on the day, including one against Lock and the first-team offense.

Casey also stepped up in the run game, blowing up multiple runs in the backfield. During the goalline period, Casey was behind the line of scrimmage in what would have been a tackle for a loss.

DNVR STOCK REPORT

Trending Up

• Jurrell Casey: The 6-foot-1, 305-pound Pro Bowler was simply a beast on Friday.
• Malik Reed: Von Miller’s absence was not felt during practice thanks to Reed’s play. Nuff said.
• Royce Freeman: After taking a significant backseat through much of the first week of camp, Freeman had his number called and he delivered. He’ll still be Denver’s third running back by a wide margin when Gordon returns, but he helped his stock on Friday.
• Courtland Sutton: Jerry Jeudy and the Broncos’ new offensive weapons have received a lot of attention to start camp. But Sutton is unquestionably Lock’s go-to target.

Trending Down

• Jeff Driskel: Denver’s backup quarterback made a few nice throws, but was wildly inconsistent and off-target. Accuracy continues to be an issue for No. 9.

INJURY AND AVAILABILITY NOTES

• Von Miller (elbow) and Melvin Gordon (ribs) did not practice on Friday and are both day-to-day. Fangio doesn’t expect either to miss much time.
• Todd Davis will miss at least a week with a calf injury, according to Fangio. Davis’ injury is not as serious as the one he sustained last year and it’s not to the same calf.
• Elijah Wilkinson tweaked his ankle during practice but is fine.
• Nick Vannett did not practice for a third straight day as he remains in the concussion protocol. On Wednesday, Fangio said Vannett would be out the “next few days.” He was at practice, which is a positive sign for him moving through the concussion protocol.
• K.J. Hamler did not practice and is expected to miss a couple of weeks with a hamstring injury.
• Austin Fort also did not practice after having an arthroscopic knee procedure. He’ll miss four-to-eight weeks.
• The Broncos do not have a single player on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

PLAY OF THE DAY

Down 4. Ball on the 7. 3rd-and-goal. 10 seconds left.

“Drew Lock drops back, pressure in his face, scrambles right, Lock with a dart to the right side of the endzone for Tim Partick. Caught! Let’s see if he got his feet down. He did! Touchdown Broncos!”

That’s likely how Dave Logan would have called the Broncos’ play of the day on Friday that capped off Denver’s 80-yard touchdown drive.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

• Kareem Jackson would have had a candidate for play of the day in a live game. On a run to the left side, the hard-hitting safety barreled down on Lindsay and popped him with his shoulder pad. Even with easing up, Jackson still delivered quite a blow to No. 30. Full speed, Kareem would have delivered a massive hit. It would have been the second time Jackson rocked Lindsay in their careers.
• Patrick Morris got the call on Friday to work with the first-team unit at center, while Llyod Cushenberry worked with the second string.
• Jake Butt had three catches in seven-on-seven from backup quarterbacks and ended practice with a short touchdown catch from Lock in the end zone.
• Albert Okwuegbunam had an excellent catch in the end zone during practice.
• McTelvin Agim had nice outside pressure on Brett Rypien, forcing him to scramble out of the pocket.
• Peyton Manning took in practice, joining Steve Atwater as a guest on Broncos Camp Live
• The players will have Saturday off, before returning to practice on Sunday.