Broncos at Jets: The No Bull London Review

The Denver Broncos survived a signature “play down to your opponent’s level” moment in London this week.

This game was both bizarre and frustrating to watch. I want my lost sleep back after having to watch our offense flail around like a fish out of water.

What got lost for me until the end of the game was just how dominant the defense was (or maybe how bad the New York Jets are on offense…could be both). They put on an absolute clinic for the London fans on how to play smothering defense.

Offense

I’m ready any time for Sean Payton to get these types of game plans out of his system. It sure did seem like more than 80% of the plays were designed to throw within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage or just hand the ball off.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel like sometimes you need to stick with the run game. That being said, when I was looking at the Jets last week, run defense was the only thing I saw that they were doing well as a team.

It was absolutely nonsensical for the Broncos to keep running the ball when it wasn’t working all game long. The Jets can’t cover, and before this game, they were giving teams buckets of points each week.

I can easily put on a tin-foil cap for a moment and say that it sure looked like the NFL wanted the Broncos to make sure to keep the game close for the “home team in London.” I’ve seen a few years of Payton, and he has a harder time sticking to the run game each week than he does abandoning it.

Quarterbacks

Bo Nix played the game he had to in order to get the win. He looked like Tom Brady in his prime compared to the quarterbacking we saw from the opponents this week. There were some plays left out there on the field to be sure, though. For example, he had Engram open in front of him for a 5-7 yard gain on a crossing route and just ignored it until the corner had a chance to catch up.

He did some pretty good work with his legs in this game, though. Some of the play designs only had 2-3 receivers out in routes and were very easy for the Jets to cover. When that happened, it was good to see that Nix recognized it and very quickly took the running yards the defense was giving him.

Line

Let me share with you all that Matt Peart is not it at left guard. He was slow to react, weak to hold his blocks, and gave up multiple holding penalties. For a veteran player, he looked woefully unprepared to play the game of NFL football. I’m honestly surprised that he got the nod, as I thought both Throckmorton and Palczewski (who has guard experience) looked better in the preseason.

I honestly need to stop dogging on Wattenburg so much. Obviously, as Peart showed us, it could be much, much worse.

That being said, any player can have a bad game. If they start him next week, I’ll be cheering for him to redeem himself, as hopefully the jitters are out of his system after this one.

Running Backs

I wish I had some really cool things to say about the backs this week, but all of them honestly kinda sucked. The run game averaged 3 yards per carry, which was a pretty decent rate back in the ‘80s.

The only real note was that R.J. Harvey had a bad drop on a short pass. It was the kind of routine pass play that backs should be able to catch in their sleep. It was odd to see as he’s been showing good hands as a receiving option so far this year.

Receivers

Evan Engram had his best game as a Bronco this week. Engram picked up a first down on a 4th and 5 play with an insanely quick first step. He had 5 catches on the day for 42 yards (don’t balk…that was the most of any receiver for the Broncos). Four of his catches went for first downs. Three of those were on 3rd down plays. You love to see that kind of impact and production from the tight end position.

Troy Franklin started the game off with a fumble, which gave the Jets over 25% of their points on the day. His speed and clean route running are apparent to me each and every week. It is really fun to see him grow both in skill and in how they use him in the play calls.

Let’s give rookie Pat Bryant a shout-out for his two catches. He’s also running really clean routes. He had two catches for 22 yards in the game, both of which went for first downs.

Nate Adkins gets a touchdown on a sneaky play design. They lined him up outside, then forced the defender to have to cover a WR screen to that same side, which left him wide open with no safety help over the top. Adkins is such a good blocker that these sneaky plays happen where teams don’t take his route seriously, and he’s really consistent in making them pay for it.

Defense

82 yards.

9 sacks

13.3% 3rd down conversion rate.

This defense kicked ass and took names. I envisioned Sean Payton calling Vance Joseph to his office this week and asking, “If we kinda just screw around for 4 quarters and only score 13, can you make sure we win this thing?”

To which Joseph replied, “...hold my beer.”

The defense had all of the answers for the Jets. If it weren’t for turnovers and safeties, the Jets likely would have only had 3 points on the day.

Front 7

Jonathan Cooper broke the Jets with a 4th down sack at the end of the game. He bulled his blocker off balance and sacked Fields to end the game. He picked up a sack on 3rd and 9, overpowering his tackle and planting Justin Fields for not getting the ball out quickly enough. Along with his 2 sacks, he had 5 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 3 quarterback hits, and 1 pass defense in the game.

Nik Bonitto absolutely smoked his defender to get a huge sack for the Broncos on 3rd down. He continues to be on pace for an absolutely smashing sack total by the end of the season (he leads the league with 8 sacks and is on pace to get 23).

Former Jet John Franklin-Myers got a sack on a 3-man rush, which was impressive as hell. He chipped in 2 quarterback hits and a tackle as well.

Justin Strnad was in on the action in this game as well. He ended the game with 1.5 sacks, 5 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and 2 quarterback hits.

Secondary

Talanoa Hufanga made the stop of the game for the secondary, hitting the receiver at the first down marker that would have given the Jets a great opportunity to kick a field goal. He blew up a running play on a safety blitz. He also got a sack on the day from another blitz

Pat Surtain got to defend a play in the 3rd quarter. It was an out, and he closed perfectly and swatted the ball away. He had two passes defended on the day, and I think he gave up one short catch, which goes down in my books as no big deal whatsoever.

Special Teams

Wil Lutz had to put his leg all the way into it on his first kick of the day. It was a 57-yard field goal, and he squeaked it in on the right side to help tie up the game early. Points were very scarce in this game, and Lutz was responsible for more than half of them.

This special teams seems to be good for one busted return coverage each week. The Broncos are among the worst special teams units in the NFL and don’t seem to be trending in the right direction in the return defense game.

Final Thoughts

The positive note for the offense is that they are showing that they can get it done in crunch time. This was another comeback drive for Bo Nix and the Broncos in a very tight game.

Maybe next week against the Giants, we won’t need a game-saving drive to seal the win at home.

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