5 Things the Broncos Must Improve on Coming out of Week 1
The Denver Broncos came out victorious in Week 1 over the Indianapolis Colts. The score at halftime was 24-7 Broncos, but the Colts made a comeback in the second half. The final score of the game was 31-24 as the Colts fell short on a late fourth-quarter drive.
Early in the game, the Broncos were making a strong statement in what could be a playoff preview. That start lost its luster when the Broncos allowed the Colts to get back into the game.
The Broncos started strong, but their momentum almost completely faded after halftime. There are plenty of positives to take away from this performance, but there are also many things the team needs to work on.
Here are five things the Broncos must improve on coming out of Week 1.
Montee Ball Needs Better Rushing Numbers
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The Broncos have a new starting running back in 2014. Last year’s starter, Knowshon Moreno, was allowed to move on in free agency to the Miami Dolphins earlier this year. The plan was for Ball, their second-round pick in 2013, to take over as the lead back.
Ball is a strong runner between the tackles, and he improved his determination and intent as a runner as his rookie season went on. This year, Ball is trying to carry that momentum over.
Against the Colts, Ball was below average.
He carried the ball 23 times on Sunday night, but he was only able to rush for 67 yards on the night. That’s good for merely 2.9 yards per carry. Simply put, that’s not good enough for a player getting such a large workload. For example, in the final six games of the 2013 season, Ball averaged 6.5 yards per carry—good for second in the NFL during that time (Jamaal Charles, 6.6).
On similar plays, against similar defensive fronts and with the same blockers in front of him, backup running back C.J. Anderson was able to rush four times for 27 yards (6.8 yards per carry). Had Ball averaged that total per carry, he would have rushed for over 156 yards in the season opener. That amount of rushing yards would have made a huge impact on the flow of the game.
Ball knows how important it was for the offense to get off to a hot start. “Yeah, that was our goal, that was our goal to come out fast, start fast, start the season off right and I believe we accomplished that. Now we’ve just got to work on the little details and finish the game off strong.”
While Moreno had over 130 yards rushing in Week 1 against the New England Patriots, Ball failed to get his game on track against the Colts.
The Broncos offense needs Ball to get more production on the number of carries he’s likely to get each week.
Demaryius Thomas Needs to Get More Involved
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Denver’s passing game is the league’s most dangerous, but on Sunday night the team failed to get Demaryius Thomas jump-started properly.
Peyton Manning couldn’t say whether or not the lack of production was a timing problem or not.
“I have to see the film. Overall our execution wasn’t as good. I can’t point to one particular thing, but our execution wasn’t as sharp in the second half as it was in the first half. Certainly we proved it in the first half we can do it, we just got to do it every single possession.”
Thomas had a team-high 11 targets against the Colts, but he only converted four of those targets into catches for 48 yards total. He didn’t look like his normal self, and Thomas dropped four of the passes that Manning put right on the money.
In order for the offense to operate at its highest level, Thomas needs to stop dropping passes and play up to his enormous potential.
It seemed like Thomas was trying to do too much on the plays where he dropped passes. Instead of securing the catch first, Thomas looked like he was thinking about running after the catch before making sure he had the pass in his clutches.
The Broncos should try to start things out quickly with Thomas. There are play designs that can get him the ball easily in order to help establish a rhythm. Thomas can take over a game when he is “on”—and the Broncos need to get him to that point as soon as possible each and every Sunday.
Get More from Their Return Game
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The Broncos want to be a complete team. They already have the league’s most dangerous offense, and they made a ton of upgrades on the defensive side of the ball this year.
Denver also must improve on special teams if they want to give themselves the best chance to win the Super Bowl.
They played the season opener without starting kicker Matt Prater as he served the first of his four-game suspension. Brandon McManus is filling in for Prater, and he scored seven points against the Colts. McManus was 100 percent accurate on the night, going 1-for-1 on field goals (21 yards) and 4-for-4 on extra points.
Britton Colquitt continues to be one of the best punters in the game. Against the Colts, Colquitt punted five times for 234 yards (46.8-yard average). One of his punts landed inside the 20-yard line, and the longest punt of the night was 53 yards.
The Broncos need more from their return game.
Last year’s primary return man, Trindon Holliday, was allowed to move on to the New York Giants in free agency earlier this year. The Broncos had a competition raging during training camp to replace Holliday, and veteran receiver Jordan Norwood looked like a lock to make the team because of his ability as a receiver and return man.
Norwood was lost for the year with a knee injury in training camp, and that opened the door for undrafted rookie Isaiah Burse to make the team as a return specialist. Burse caught 100 passes last year for Fresno State, but his greatest asset for the Broncos is the ability to make defenders miss.
Burse is lightning quick, and he’s difficult to bring down in the open field. He has good speed, and Burse can be a threat to score any time he touches the ball.
Against the Colts, Burse had three punt returns for a total of four yards. In addition, Burse also fumbled a return that was luckily recovered by fellow rookie, cornerback Bradley Roby. The Broncos avoided disaster on that play, but that may not be the case next time.
Burse made the final roster, but the team could use better ball security and big plays from the rookie return man.
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Start Faster in the Second Half
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The Broncos came out of the gate on fire offensively. They scored on their opening drive for the fifth consecutive regular-season game dating back to last season and the 17th time overall in the 33 regular-season games with Peyton Manning. This marks the 25th time in Manning’s career he has thrown at least three touchdowns in the first half of a regular-season game.
Things changed drastically after halftime for the Broncos offense.
Their first three drives of the second half ended with punts. In those three drives, the Broncos only ran a total of 14 plays combined. The drives totaled only a little over six minutes on the game clock. These short drives put the Broncos defense back on the field with little rest.
After the game, Manning was asked if the team ran out of gas in the second half against the Colts.
“I couldn’t say. I thought we played at a good tempo in the first half and we wanted to do that in the second half but we just couldn’t stay on the field. We played a good tempo to try to get them running, you have to convert third downs to stay on the field and we just had a three and out early and we had some drives we just didn’t convert. So it’s something that we’ll definitely learn from and got to find a way to play all four quarters as an offense.” Manning concluded, “Thank goodness our defense picked us up when the offense wasn’t doing their job quite as well.”
The Broncos need to play a complete game offensively. Their defense bailed them out this week, but the Broncos need to stay in sync on offense if they want to win against tougher competition.
Develop a Killer Instinct
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The game was won, but their 24-7 lead at halftime quickly evaporated as the Colts made a second-half comeback. The Broncos offense seemed to run out of steam, and that put more pressure on the defense.
Broncos head coach John Fox believes the Colts' touchdown near the end of the first half changed the momentum in the game.
“Yeah. I think what’s interesting with first games, going into them—I think it’s everybody in the league’s dilemma—is there is nothing to gauge it on yet. There are a lot of new players, we had new players back, we hadn’t played a four-quarter game yet. So we will learn a lot from it. It’s good—congrats to everybody—[QB] Peyton [Manning] and everybody in there did a great job finding a way to win a game like that against a good football team.” Fox concluded, “We’ll learn from it and correct a lot of things and hopefully improve next week against Kansas City.”
The Broncos have made big upgrades to the defense. DeMarcus Ware made an impact against the Colts, compiling 1.5 sacks on Sunday night. Ware likes where this defense is heading.
“I think it’s [headed in] the right direction. We have to always put four quarters together. We were able to do that. It wasn’t the perfect four quarters that we wanted, but we can improve on it next week.”
Broncos defensive end Derek Wolfe believes the season opener sets the tone for the rest of the regular season. “Yeah, once you get that first one under your belt it’s a little easier to get that second one, so hopefully we just keep rolling, just try to get better every week and keep playing games.”
The defense has playmakers and may be headed in the right direction, but the offense needs to follow suit. The Colts made a comeback, but that could have been stunted if the Broncos offense hadn’t gotten off track.
The team has more aggressive playmakers on the defense, and they need to make sure that aggression carries over to the offensive side of the ball. The team wants to have more balance on offense, but they need to keep their foot on the gas and put a quality opponent like the Colts away.
All quotes and injury/practice observations obtained firsthand. Record/statistical information provided via email from the Denver Broncos unless otherwise noted. Contract and salary-cap information provided by Spotrac.com. Transaction history provided by ProSportsTransactions.com.
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