By Jordan Long
The Denver Broncos fell to the Las Vegas Raiders 34-24, evening their record at 3-3. Denver is going to have a short week before facing the Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football. At 3-3, Denver isn’t looking like a playoff team and changes could be coming.
The Broncos let the Raiders go right down the field scoring on their opening possession. Denver ended up doing the same thing in response. After that, Denver was outscored by a combined score of 27-3 going into the 4th quarter. In the 4th, Denver managed 14 points but the Raiders were basically playing a prevent defense. The score isn’t an indication of how the game went.
On offense, the Broncos couldn’t stop the Raiders from pressuring quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. He was hit plenty of times because his offensive line couldn’t protect him. Bridgewater was sacked 5 times. That is on offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. The play calls he called didn’t give Bridgewater protection. It seemed like a guy was coming at Bridgewater unblocked. Bridgewater was 35 of 49 passing for 334 yards and 3 touchdowns even though there was a guy in his face the whole day. Those aren’t bad numbers. The problem was he tossed 3 interceptions caused by the Raiders’ defense.
Pat Shurmur needs to understand that not only in this game, but during the 3 game losing streak the plays aren’t working. Fixing it seems to be an issue. What he really should do is keep a tight end or even a running back in the formation to block which might help Bridgewater to have more time to throw the football.
The Broncos also don’t have a threat of a running game. Whenever Shurmur calls a running play it doesn’t go for many yards. This is on the offensive line not blocking their man. The Broncos ran the ball 23 times for 112 yards. Denver had some sort of running game but it wasn’t enough to keep the Raiders defense off balance plus Denver had to abandon the running game in the 2nd half since they were behind. Shurmur needs to fix what is broken on offense. He has yet to do that and Denver is lucky to be 3-3.
The defense couldn’t stop the Las Vegas offense. Anytime the Raiders had the ball, they would move it down the field into scoring range. Denver was also beat plenty of times in the secondary which were long passes by Raiders’ quarterback Derick Carr. Carr passed for 341 yards and 2 touchdowns. Carr had all day in the pocket to throw the football. The Broncos didn’t have much of a pass rush on him, managing 2 sacks. Carr was able to find his receivers for large gains.
The Broncos’ defensive coordinator is technically Ed Donatell. The problem is he doesn’t call the defensive plays. Head Coach Vic Fangio is the one that calls the defense. Whatever Fangio calls the defensive plays, they don’t work. He isn’t adjusting his game plan. Fangio needs to give up play calling and focus on how to make the whole team better. He isn’t.
It isn’t just on the coaches. The players aren’t doing their job either. According to ESPN.com, tight end Noah Fant said “Von said it in the locker room, it’s time for everybody to look in the mirror and see what we’re doing wrong, not looking to anyone else. Just farming our own land instead of looking around.”
Von Miller added “Basically, we’re not doing enough to win. It’s nobody’s fault — we’ve got to point the finger at ourselves. We got all type of talented people everywhere … we’ve got to trust each other.”
The Broncos have 11 more weeks to go. This is a short week as they face the Browns. Denver must improve in all areas the rest of the year. If not, changes will be coming and it might even be a whole new coaching staff for the 2022 season.
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