Some good stuff to talk and think about this week from the Denver Broncos 38-6 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
The Denver Broncos’ six wins have come against teams with a combined record of 22-41 with the Atlanta Falcons being the only team currently with a winning record. The Broncos’ five losses have come against teams with a combined record of 36-15. Translation, the Broncos are beating the teams that they should and losing to the teams that are “better” than they at least were at the time.
I have no doubt that if the Broncos were to play the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers right now that they would beat both teams. The Broncos would have beaten the Kansas City Chiefs. The losses to the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens were pretty resounding, particularly if you recall that the Chargers were up 23-0 on the road before the Broncos scored 16 points in the final ten minutes of the game. The offense that the Broncos had in that game (the sixth game of the season) is miles from the way that the offense is playing right now.
The Bronco offense had four three-and-outs that game and the longest offensive drive before the fourth quarter gained 28 yards. Of course the injury-depleted Falcon defense is not comparable to the Charger D, but many of the offensive woes that game for the Broncos were self-inflicted. The Bronco offense had four offensive penalties and a handful of drops.
In the win over the Falcons the Broncos only had two three-and-outs and one of them was near the end of the game when Jarrett Stidham was in at QB and the team was just running to kill the clock.
The Bronco offense will get two more chances against good/great defenses with games on the road against the #1 scoring D right now, the Chargers, and at home at the #8 scoring D the Chiefs. The rest of the schedule is facing some bad defenses (see below)
The Indianapolis Colts have the best of the four bad defenses and they are currently 19th. The Cleveland Browns are 24th, the Cincinnati Bengals are 28th, and the Las Vegas Raiders are 29th.
The maturation of the Bronco offense has been due in large part to the growth of Bo Nix as an NFL QB. Bo is now tied in the minds of many with Jayden Daniels in the race for offensive rookie of the year. The Broncos have not had an OROY since 2002 with Clinton Portis. The Broncos only other OROY was Mike Anderson two seasons before.
With 19 total touchdowns Nix has opened up a five TD lead on Daniels. Don’t forget about the Nix receiving TD against the Ravens. 14 passing, 4 rushing and 1 receiving. At Nix current pace he should finish with 30 total TDs on the season. That task is made easier by facing four weak defenses in his final six games.
Nix also only has one turnover-worthy...