Mile High Report
Any win is still a win. When the Denver Broncos beat the Jets by one point last season, it still counted as much toward getting into the playoffs as any other AFC win (outside of the West). The offense looked poor against a Jet defense that had been gouged a few times this season.
The New York Jets defense had allowed 27 or more points per game in their first five and yet the Broncos were only able to manage 13 points. As poor as the offense played, the defense played one of the best games I have ever seen a Bronco defense play. Were it not for a fumble and a long KOR, the Jets offense would have scored 3 points.
The Bronco defense allowed 82 total yards, which was the 10th fewest yards allowed by a defense this century.
Even better than that, the negative 10 net yards allowed by the Bronco defense on Sunday was the least passing yards allowed by a defense this century.
The defense was put in two very bad situations, one by the offense and one by the kickoff coverage team. If Dondrea Tillman wraps up instead of going for the big hit, the 72 yard KOR never happens. As it stands now the Broncos have the worst KO coverage team in the league – allowing a league worst 29.3 yards per KOR.
The defense held the Jets to 2/15 on 3rd down conversions and 1/2 on 4th down conversions, but I am still miffed about the fake punt that was so obvious my blind college friend could have seen it coming. The stifling 3rd down defense was partly due to great coverage and partly due to great pass rush. The nine sacks by the Broncos was the second most in team history (tied with three other games) and the most by a Bronco defense this century.
This was only the second time the Bronco D has had seven or more sacks and gave up negative passing yards. The other time was in 1971. Those are the only two times in team history that the Bronco defense has allowed negative passing yards. It was also on the second time this century (2012 vs KC) that the Bronco defense has allowed 30 or fewer passing yards. What’s crazy is that the Broncos allowed 14 passing yards on 2/14 against the Bengals in 2000 and LOST. I’m really glad I don’t remember that game.
Jeremy Crawshaw is still doing a great job of forcing our opponents to start inside their own 20. He has gotten 16 of 30 punts inside the 20 which is 53.3% – good for 4th best. His four touchbacks in six games is not great, but the fact that he is forcing FCs at a good rate (2nd best behind Ryan Wright) is very positive – that tells me his hang-time is great.
With the win in another one-score game, the Broncos are now 9-12 in once score games under Sean...
