Denver Broncos 2010 Season: Midseason Report Card

The Denver Broncos are now 2-6 and looking for answers.  Josh McDaniels has officially lead the team to a dubious start this season that makes Mike Shanahan’s remnant look like world-beaters when compared to this years version of “Josh’s guys”.  The sad realities are sinking in and fans and backers of Josh are testy and want a solution. 

This is a short report card that tries to quantify the shortfalls into a grade format for fans to know exactly where the Broncos franchise stands on the field.  This particular report card is not pretty and is reflective of the recent downward spiral the Broncos are on.  How all of this gets fixed is really the point of much debate right now, but this is the mirror the Broncos franchise must look into and take accountability for.

Here are the grade breakouts.

Team Offense: C-

This is still a hard grade to define because of how dynamic the Broncos have been on offense through eight games of the 2010 campaign.  The reality is they are still among the best passing teams (#7 overall) but remain the worst rushing team in the NFL (#32).  The most significant point to note here is that the Broncos have slid six spots in overall passing stats from previously holding the number one slot.

As a complete offense the Broncos have slid from #4 down to #10 in the rankings and are 31 yards off their previous pace in total yards after the first four games.  The Broncos now total an average 363.4 yards per game down from their 394.5 just four games ago.

Denver continues to struggle on third and fourth down and has a high failure rate.  The Broncos have put themselves in a number of tight situations as well due to the failure of the run game.  The Broncos have outright failed to improve this phase of the game, and there is much debate out there about it being the scheme or not the scheme.  The following statistics essentially settle the argument; it is definitely because of the scheme that the Denver Broncos are now among the worst in conversion percentages.

There is an interesting stat that shows Denver as being a team that has amassed the seventh most third down conversions with a total of 41 first downs.  Yet the Broncos have a major drop off in third down conversion percentage where they are bleeding out at No. 22 with a paltry 37 percent success rate.  Fourth down conversions aren’t any better with the team converting just three of eleven opportunities for an even worse 27 percent success rate.

At the end of the day the Broncos lost the time of possession battle in three of their last four games.  Against Baltimore the Raves won the TOP stat at 36:17.  In Denver against the Jets the Broncos edged out at 30:23.  In the blowout loss to the Raiders, Oakland owned the stat at 38:39.  Finally in the most recent game in London against the 49ers, San Fran owned the stat at 33:34.

Quarterback Play:  B-

Kyle Orton has seen drop off in his play and end results, but he still continues to rack-up yards and only threw two picks over the last four games which were all losses.  The thing right now with Kyle Orton is that he does not have the benefit of a run game and his personal leadership abilities are in question and under scrutiny with Tim Tebow waiting in the wings.  All that standing, Kyle Orton is still the seventh-ranked passer in the NFL.  Orton currently owns the fourth-most passing yards per game in the NFL at 296.1.  He also has the seventh lowest total of interceptions thrown at five. 

Orton surprisingly enough is in a six way tie at 10^th with 12 touchdown passes.  It’s impressive given all of the faltered drives the Broncos have had, if the Broncos could have found a way to score just five more TD’s through the air, they are then in contention and in good company statistically.  Furthermore and even more surprisingly the Broncos are second with total completions over 20 yards with 40.  The Broncos also lead the league with completions over 40 yards at nine.  This is a huge turnaround from last season’s results.

All of this has landed Kyle Orton with the No. 6 quarterback rating at 92.7.  Finally Orton has the second most passing yards of any NFL QB at the mid-season mark with 2,369.

The real knock against the quarterback position is a crossed quagmire that put Orton in an unfair position of having to carry more weight of the team’s shortfalls than he actually should be asked to do.  Still his leadership is under fire and falling short due in large part to the shortfalls of the run game and a month and a half of up front pressure against the Broncos offensive line.

At the end of the day a quarterbacks measuring stick is wins and losses, whether fair or not, and currently Kyle Orton is 2-6 on the 2010 campaign as the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos. 

Running Back Play:  Incomplete / F-

All of the grades have dropped off except this one, the run game of the Denver Broncos remains in peril and the team remains dead last in the NFL at the mid-way mark with 67.2  yards per game.  The Broncos had one good game against the New York Jets where they netted 145 yards on the ground as a team.  Apart from that the run game is anemic and has abandoned this team.

Some other stats of note are that the Broncos only have 538 total rush yards through eight games, a league worst of 2.9 yard average per carry, and they have exactly zero rushes over 20 yards or more.  The New York Giants have something like 14 at this juncture of the season.

Finally the running backs are primarily responsible for the Broncos losing the turnover battle.  In the last four games the Broncos have lost six fumbles and have fumbled an additional four times.

Offensive Line Play: D

Through the first four games the Broncos offensive line allowed 11 sacks of Kyle Orton and numerous pressures.   In the last four games the Broncos have given up 10 sacks.

That gives them 21 sacks, on pace for 42 on the season, and an average of 2.7 sacks per game.  That does not include pass pressures which usually exponentially increase additional hits on the quarterback, forced throws, tipped balls, incompletions, and interceptions.

The O-line has also failed miserably in short yardage rush plays and third and fourth down conversion percentages are very low due to this.  Again the Broncos have converted only 37% of third down attempts and 27% of their 11 fourth down tries. 

Finally the most obvious flaw is the lack of a legitimate rushing attack.

The projected starting offensive line has only played one game together, that being the most recent game in Tennessee, so the outlook is positive for moving the grade up.

Tight Ends & Wide Receivers: B-

Last report the tight ends got a C- because of the poor run game and lack of pass game contributions.  The receivers were given an ‘A’ grade because the team was moving the ball and at least a .500 ball club after four games.  It’s hard to give a stellar grade here because you look at the yards amassed not being translated into points through the air and there is a poor rushing attack.

Everyone who follows the Broncos knows the potential to explode is there; it just has not been realized and may not be realized under the current scheme.

Defense: D-

After the first four games of the season Denver was ranked No. 16, since going on a four game skid, the Broncos defense has fallen to No. 24.  That says a great deal about where the team is at.  The Broncos were in the middle of the pack playing tough teams well and have gone to falling down a mountain.  It got to the point where they didn’t take Oakland seriously and wound up paying a serious price.  That loss was so bad that it became a culmination for the coronation of Josh McDaniels replacement talk.  It’s the sort of loss that is inexcusable and it is understood that teams have bad games from time to time; however that one did strike a chord with the Broncos faithful.

The Denver Broncos real tell of the tape is up front however.  The team has amassed just nine sacks over eight games.  That puts them at No. 29 in a 32 team league, the best team in the sack exchange is the Tennessee Titans who have totaled 26 and the rival San Diego Chargers have 25.  The point is the Broncos have little pressure up front and it is directly giving other teams opportunities and costing the orange and blue directly.

Now don’t forget much of this is fallout from the failures on offense, its added pressure put on the defense at key points in the game.  The defense has held up to a point however the consequences are magnified.

Part of the drop shows up in areas like interceptions (No. 24) with five, forced fumbles (No. 29) with three, fumble recoveries (No. 18) with four, and the most damaging total points allowed where the Broncos now rank No. 31 out of 32 teams and have given up 223 points three less than Jacksonville at 226.  Really that is an ‘F’ grade in it of itself however, the Raiders game put them in that position so I am willing to throw some of that out, and that is why the defense gets a D-.

Special Teams B-

Kick coverage has been better but still not stellar after giving up a TD on a kickoff return to the Titans in week four.  The Broncos lost a punt return for a touchdown due to a clip by Jarvis Moss last Sunday in London against San Francisco.

The bright spot has been the punting and kicking, yet Bronco punter Britton Colquitt still has a good average at 44.4 yards per punt even after only averaging 20+ yards per punt in London.  Colquitt however does not have a stellar net average; he is ranked No. 21 at 37.5 yards per punt.  This puts the Broncos in the top 11 for worst punt coverage.

Matt Prater is ranked fourth in touchbacks at 14; the Broncos however have the eighth worst kickoff return coverage and are allowing 26.4 yards per return.  Prater is 12-13 in field goal attempts and has missed one point after (last Sunday in London) that ranks him No. 11 overall.  Had the Broncos chosen not to pass on so many field goals earlier in the year he would have been in the top three of field goal kickers and the Broncos may have put themselves in position to win one or two more games.

Obvious overall these grades are not what the Broncos would like, but the team gets an ‘F’ over the course of the last four games having gone 0-4 during that stretch.

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