Denver Broncos: What You Need to Know Heading into Week 4

The Denver Broncos suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in Week 3. They scored a season low in points and lost in Seattle with a final score of 26-20.

This game was a huge test for the Broncos, and they failed.

For three weeks in a row, we’ve seen the Broncos offense look out of sorts for at least two quarters. The team needs more consistency from the offense if they want to advance through the playoffs and back to the Super Bowl in 2014.

They get a bye in Week 4 to get things back on the right track. The Broncos enter their bye week with at least a .500 record for the 16th time in the last 21 years.

Head coach John Fox knows how to approach an early bye.

“This is my second time in 13 years that we’ve had an early bye. You make the best of it. It’s still a break. You do get to recharge, even though you still have a long ways to go.” Fox concluded, “You just deal with it.”

Denver still has a lot to deal with if they want to win the Super Bowl this season.

Division Standings

Team	Wins	Losses
Denver Broncos	2	1
San Diego Chargers	2	1
Kansas City Chiefs	1	2
Oakland Raiders	0	3

The Broncos still sit atop the division, although they are tied at 2-1 with the San Diego Chargers.

The Chargers are moving forward with a new-look rushing attack. They lost Danny Woodhead to a leg injury in Week 3, and they’re already missing regular starter Ryan Mathews because of a knee injury. These injuries have elevated free-agent acquisition Donald Brown to feature back status.

The Chargers run the ball often, but they don’t get a ton of production on the ground. However, this philosophy does keep defenses honest and they’re keeping drives alive.

		NFL Rank
Rushes	98	3rd
Yards Per Rush	2.43	32nd
1st Downs Per Rush	16.3	31st
3rd Down Conversion Percentage	54.5	12th

The passing game is led by veteran Philip Rivers. He’s currently tied for seventh in the league with 778 yards passing. Rivers also has six passing touchdowns and only one interception. The Chargers have done a good job protecting Rivers this year, and he’s only been sacked twice in three games.

It is still early in the season, but no team has an easier remaining schedule than the Chargers. Nine of their remaining 13 games are against teams that are currently under .500. This week, the Chargers get to play the Jacksonville Jaguars at home.

With an offense that can move the ball in many different ways, the Chargers are one of the biggest threats to the Broncos this year.

You can’t say that about the other two teams in the AFC West.

The Kansas City Chiefs finally won their first game of the season in Week 3 as they defeated the Miami Dolphins.

Running back Jamaal Charles missed the game against the Dolphins as he deals with a high ankle sprain he suffered in Week 2 against the Broncos. This has led to an increased role for backup running back Knile Davis. Against the Dolphins, Davis recorded the first 100-yard game of his career, rushing 32 times for 132 yards and one touchdown.

Their passing game features quarterback Alex Smith and a bunch of below-average wide receivers. Dwayne Bowe has a ton of natural talent, but too often his effort doesn’t match his potential on Sundays.

Smith does a good job when he keeps his passes short and close to the line of scrimmage. His average pass traveled 2.9 yards downfield in Week 3, the shortest by any quarterback in a game in the last three seasons.

	Week 1-2	Week 3
Completion Percentage	58.4	76.0
TD-INT	1-3	3-0
Yards Per Attempt	5.9	7.4
Average Pass Distance	8.1	2.9

The real weapon to watch out for here not named Charles is tight end Travis Kelce. The second-year pro has Rob Gronkowski-like ability, and each week his number of snaps has increased for the Chiefs.

In Week 4, the Chiefs face the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. This is the first home game for the Chiefs on Monday Night Football since Week 8 of the 2011 season, when they beat the Chargers 23-20 in overtime.

The Oakland Raiders have not won a game this year. The everlasting rebuilding project continues, and the team has few bright spots on either side of the ball.

One player worth highlighting here is rookie quarterback Derek Carr. His game is translating to the NFL quite well, but Carr does struggle when under pressure.

	Less Than 5	More Than 5
TD-INT	2-1	1-2
Completion Percentage	71.0	48.7
Interception Percentage	1.4	5.1

The Raiders are 8-27 under Dennis Allen (since 2012), the second-worst record in the NFL over that time. The Jaguars are 6-29 since the 2012 season.

This week, the Raiders travel to London for the first time to face the Dolphins.

Injury Report

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The Broncos are going to use the bye week to get some guys healthy. One of those players is linebacker Danny Trevathan. He’s missed all of this season due to a knee injury, but he’s been targeting a Week 5 return since he was injured in training camp.

Tight end Virgil Green was concussed in the game against the Seahawks. There’s no update on his status as he goes through the NFL’s protocol for dealing with concussions. One would logically assume that he’ll be ready for the Arizona Cardinals game after the break.

Right guard Louis Vasquez and safety Quinton Carter are both dealing with minor ailments, but they should be able to practice next week.

Linebacker Lerentee McCray is working his way back from a minor knee injury. He missed the game against the Seahawks, but McCray is hoping to be cleared for practice on Monday.

What Must Improve

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There is more than one area the team needs to work on improving. The first area to highlight here is ball security. The Broncos' first play on offense against the Seahawks was a fumble by Montee Ball.

Fox knows that ball security is paramount to success in the NFL.

“It’s a point of emphasis every week. It’s on our must every single week. It was a meaningful game we turned it over each time we’ve played those people.” Fox continued, “It wasn’t the plan but it’s something that you win 80 percent of your games when you win the turnover ratio and that’s something we did not win on Sunday.”

Fox is also looking for continued improvement from the secondary.

“I saw us get better. I know the result wasn’t what we wanted and that’ll never change, but I think we took strides as a football team. It wasn’t the result, but that’s what we strive for. That’s all I can ask for as the head coach is that we get better and in a lot of areas we did.”

This Broncos offense is out of sync. Part of the reason is the lack of proper execution from the ground game.

Ball is averaging 3.4 yards per carry in 2014. The Broncos are averaging over 40 fewer rushing yards per game than they did last year.

As the starter, Ball has forged ahead for 104 yards after contact. That number ranks sixth in the NFL. However, he only has 61 rushing yards before contact—and that is tied for 41st in the league.

Ball’s blockers up front need to do a better job of blasting open holes for the second-year back. In addition, Ball himself must do a better job of timing his burst to—and through—the hole.

Another reason for the poor rushing statistics is the team’s lower time of possession. Over three games, the Broncos have averaged only 27:57 in time of possession—a rate that ranks 26th in the NFL.

Passing yards, rushing yards and time of possession are all down from last year. These things must be improved if Denver wants to be taken seriously as a Super Bowl contender.

Summary

The Broncos have an early bye week, but they won’t let that fact knock them off track. The Broncos are getting healthier during their time off, and they will be ready for a challenging post-bye schedule.

The bye week will allow Trevathan to get closer to full strength. Getting the talented weak-side linebacker back is a huge boost for the defense.

The team needs to work diligently to jump-start the ground game. Ball has been struggling this year, but if the timing, blocking and chemistry improve, then the production fans have been waiting for will come.

We'll see if the Broncos can come out of the bye week looking sharper on both sides of the ball.

All quotes and injury/practice observations obtained firsthand. Record information provided via email from the Denver Broncos or from ESPN Stats & Inc.