Why Vic Fangio remains confident in Pat Shurmur and the Broncos’ offense

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Eight games through the season, the Denver Broncos’ offense has not lived up to its potential, to say the least.

The Broncos have the sixth-worst scoring offense in the NFL, only averaging 21.8 points per game. Yet despite the struggles and growing frustration, Vic Fangio is staying the course and maintaining his confidence in first-year coordinator Pat Shurmur.

“My confidence is good [in Shurmur]. Pat’s an experienced guy. He’s been through this before,” the head coach said on Monday after the Broncos fell to the Atlanta Falcons 27-34 the day before. “The good thing about being experienced is you’ve seen the highs and the lows. Unfortunately, we’re going through the lows right now, but he’s had plenty of highs in his career.”

Over the past two weeks, the Broncos have witnessed these highs and lows for themselves. In the first three quarters of the past two games, Denver’s young offense struggled to put points on the board.

Against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 8, Shurmur’s offense scored 10 points by the end of the third quarter. A week later against the Falcons, Denver only managed six points through three quarters.

However, in each fourth quarter, the Broncos’ offense showed how high their ceiling can be when everything is clicking. In the final quarter of each game, Denver scored 21 points — not total, but in each game.

“I think they have a chance to be really, really good,” Fangio said when asked about Drew Lock, Jerry Jeudy, K.J. Hamler, Noah Fant and Courtland Sutton. “But they have a lot of growing to do also. And part of that growth is just playing together. Playing together means practicing. The more these guys can rep together on the practice field and in the games, the better off they’ll be. We like all of those guys you mentioned.”

Not once in the Broncos’ eight games of 2020 have Lock, Jeudy, Hamler, Fant and Sutton all played in a game together. With Sutton out for the rest of the season, it won’t happen this year.

Even putting Sutton to the side, the rest of the Broncos’ young offensive passing nucleus has only played together in three full games. Those four players were together at the beginning of Week 2, but Lock was injured before the end of the first quarter.

It took until Week 7 for Lock, Jeudy, Hamler and Fant to get back on the field together. Since then, they’ve played the past three games together.

“We’re optimistic that we’ll get this thing turned around soon,” Fangio said about the offense. “We’re going to be working to that end both the players and the coaches. It’s a cumulative effort between both players and coaches and we’re going to work hard to get that fixed.”

In the 20 full quarters Drew Lock has played in 2020, there’s been a drastic difference in the way he and the offense have produced in the past two fourth quarters compared to the other 18 quarters.

As mentioned above, in the past two fourth quarters, the Broncos’ offense has scored 42 total points. However, in the other 18 quarters Lock has played in full, Denver’s offense has managed only 64 total points.

On a per-game basis, those 64 points equate to only 14.2 points per game. On the other hand, Denver’s hot fourth-quarter offense the past two weeks equates to an incredible 84 points per game.

While there’s no doubt the Broncos’ offense needs to flash more often, having seen their potential, Fangio is able to remain confident.

“We do think they can develop into a good group of quarterback and wide receivers and really give us a good passing game here,” the head coach stated on Monday.

In the second half of the season, the Broncos and Pat Shurmur will have a chance to prove Fangio right.