Broncos vs Jaguars: The No Bull Review

That was honestly a surprising game to see the Denver Broncos play. The Jacksonville Jaguars beat our team soundly in every facet of the game by and large. Their coaches out-coached ours. Their players wanted the win way worse and played fast and hungry. Credit to the Jaguars for coming into Denver and laying a whooping on this team the likes of which we haven’t seen this season.

For Broncos Country, let’s not overreact to this. I honestly think a loss late in the season for a high-win team is good. Good teams use a loss like this to temper themselves into a stronger version.

Offense

The Jaguar defense played this team very well and caused multiple problems for Sean Payton’s offense. They had pressure on Nix better than most teams. They covered well enough especially in critical downs. They made some plays knowing what was coming.

This is all the script we typically see the Broncos offense having the advantage. The crazy thing was that we still had some play designs that took the Jags by surprise, but wasn’t able to capitalize on them (deep throw inaccuracy and drops were the main problems). The offense didn’t execute the play calls well enough.

The offensive skill players have got to learn how to catch footballs that hit them in the hands. So many inept drives had catchable balls dropped. The drop consistency from all over the roster is baffling and could be the cause of an early end to a spectacular season.

Finally, the offense has got to keep finding ways to run the ball. I know the game started getting away from us, but that doesn’t mean abandoning the run, especially when both your main backs were averaging over 7 yards per carry. The team had 17 runs to 47 passes which seems way too lopsided even for a game where we ended up being down 2 scores late and needed to go all out on passing.

Quarterbacks

This was a pretty up and down game for Bo Nix. He threw a perfect fade to Sutton in the end zone for an easy 6. Then he has a baffling read option fumble trying to pull the ball when McLaughlin was a step past him. His interception throw was a terrible choice. Bryant was completely dominated on the play and Bo just locked on and let it rip. The only good thing about it was that it pushed the Jags back down the field.

The biggest nit I have to pick with Nix over this season is his long ball placement. He’s consistently underthrowing wide open scoring plays all season long. He’s got to stop moon balling every deep throw and figure out how to lengthen the angle to hit his deep threats in stride. It was evident on two deep throws in this game where his guys had to try to make contested catches that got broken up because of it.

Line

The line had a much rougher outing this week (again, credit the Jags’ pass rush – they were far more disruptive than most other teams we faced outside of the Texans). Garett Bolles having two false start penalties at home was honestly irritating. I’m sure he’s kicking himself over it, but we can’t have our vets making simple mistakes like that to set the team back. Ben Powers was back this week and I noticed him having some trouble with some of the stunts that were run to his gaps. It wasn’t a major issue by any stretch of the imagination and I expect it is largely due to being his first game back after an injury.

Running Backs

R.J. Harvey continues to blossom as the season wears on and had a spectacular game. One play had him motion everywhere, then dip outside for an easy catch to move the chains on 3rd down. He had an astounding run for a touchdown making guys miss and keeping his balance to dive for the endzone. That was supreme effort on the field and this offense needs to keep finding ways to get the ball in his hands.

Jaleel McLaughlin was no slouch in this game either. He had a big run early that would have been an 80 yard touchdown if the last defender hadn’t yanked him down by his shoulder pad.

Receivers

Courtland Sutton is playing his best ball at just the right time. He’s one of the guys that dropped a key ball the back of the endzone through that hit him in his hands). Yes it was a very difficult ball to catch given how wide it was thrown, but he’s the #1 receiver and needs to make that play.

Marvin Mims, Jr. finds a huge hole in the Jaguar’s zone defense and got a huge gain. He was 3 of 3 on his targets. I still hold that we need to find more ways to get him targets.

Pat Bryant catches a quick out and twists through a tackler to gain a couple of extra yards. Drops a catch on 3rd down that he had to twist around for. I get that it was a difficult catch, but it was in his hands and should have been caught. Thoughts and prays for him and his recovery from a plainly filthy hit by the Jaguar’s defender. That defensive back should have been ejected from the game and didn’t even get a flag for his helmet to helmet hit on a defenseless receiver.

Troy Franklin also gets kudos for a consistent game. He caught a deep corner while getting tackled for 48 yards. He caught 4 of 5 targets on the day and made his plays count.

Defense

Vance Joseph was completely out coached in this game. His defense looked out of place, undergunned, and outmatched in the secondary. It seemed like Jacksonville had a very clear plan on how to get receivers open and it played right into what Trevor Lawrence is capable of (which is a lot…he doesn’t get enough credit for how good he is in my opinion).

The killer for the defense was poor tackling. It was all over the field at all levels and it looked absolutely pathetic compared to the standard this team has put in place for how they play defense. We heard from the sideline Joseph cussing out the defense and I 100% get it. This team was trying to be the NFL’s best team in the league and the defense came out this week and flopped around on the field like a bunch of stranded fish.

While I think this game was likely a blip on the radar, I can guarantee you if the defense plays like this against the Chargers, we will lose that game. If they play this way in the playoffs, they will be one and done.

Front 7

Jonathan Franklin-Myers had an absolute monster of a game up front for the defense. He got a pocket collapsing sack with help from superb coverage early and late in the game for 2 sacks on the day (the later coming on a 3rd down to end a drive). He also had a tackle for loss and 2 quarterback hits.

Malcolm Roach shoots around his defender for a big sack on 3rd and 15. He also had a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit. This defensive line is one of the deepest I’ve seen for the Broncos in a long time.

Big shout-out to Que Robinson for his play in this game. He got on the field for only 19 plays, but made them count. He got a pass defense on a batted pass, had a big sack inside the 10, got 2 quarterback hits, and had a tackle for loss as well.

In a game full of bad angles taken for tackles, of course Alex Singleton needs a moment to shine. He took bad angles multiple times in the game including a total whiff on a run to the outside. He’s still a guy that leads the team in tackles, but tackles after big gains don’t mean much in my books.

Secondary

Riley Moss mostly played a really good game. He had perfect defense on an out breaking route to bat the ball away as well as a tackle for loss on a sideline pass. The bad was that he took the same poor tackling angle on two passes to the outside and got owned on both giving up huge plays. He’s got work to do on that technique for sure and solve that issue or other quarterbacks we face are going to wear that sideline pass out on him for big gains. It is hard to pile on too much when a guy gets a sack, tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, 6 tackles, and 2 pass defenses from the cornerback position.

P.J. Locke’s coverage is far too soft. He gave up multiple big catches by letting receivers have too much of a cushion. With Brandon Jones out, this is a big area of concern for me as Locke was a guy that was front and center of many of our bad losses last season to good quarterbacks. The scary thing is that I see a big lack of depth at safety (I noticed that before the season started). I don’t think swapping in Devon Key or JL Skinner is the answer to any of the questions this defense has.

Special Teams

Wil Lutz had a bad miss in this game for a kick that was under 50 yards. In a game where there were plenty of problems to be had, a field goal miss is honestly probably not that big of a deal (they lost by 14 after all).

Final Thoughts

Let me reiterate that the Jacksonville Jaguars outplayed our team from top to bottom. They deserved to win this game.

That being said, I can’t close this out without wondering if the NFL has it in for the Broncos or if Sean Payton pissed in Shawn Hochuli’s Post Toasties the morning before the game. This ref crew absolutely wrecked the Broncos with so many drive killing (or extending for the Jags) penalties. The late hit on Locke was nonsense (he had already left the ground when the whistle blew and Lawrence didn’t throw the ball to the ground), the pass interference call on Barron was just wrong (you can put your arm on the receiver’s arm), there were two OPIs that the refs swallowed their whistles while the Jaguars were allowed to push away our defenders to make big catches, and the flag on Roach for landing on the quarterback was at best questionable. But the icing on the cake to me was how multiple times in the game the play clock hit 0 before the Jags hiked the ball and they just got to play on instead of getting the full impact of playing an away game. The fans at the stadium did their jobs and the refs just ignored it completely.

On to business, though. The Broncos need to dial in and lock on to the game at Kansas City on Thursday. They have to win it and shouldn’t for one second think it will be easy just because the Chiefs are on their 3rd string quarterback.

Broncos vs Jaguars: The No Bull Review

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