Denver Broncos Report Card Week 10: Grading Each Unit

The Denver Broncos are on a two-game winning streak. No, seriously.

Ending the league's longest drought for consecutive games won at 29 games, the Denver Broncos forced their read-option attack down the throats of the Kansas City Chiefs, defeating them 17-10 on Sunday.

In one of the most unbalanced attacks in NFL history, the Broncos were able to walk away with a win, despite rushing the ball 55 total times in comparison to just eight pass attempts.

A win is a win and although it wasn't pretty (what win by a Tebow-led team is?), the Broncos stand in second place in the AFC West through nine games, just a game back of the division-leading Oakland Raiders.

So how did each Broncos unit look in their key AFC West victory in Week 10?

Quarterback

Let's be honest here: The Broncos came in with the intention of establishing the read-option attack, as evidenced by their +47 ratio in running the football in comparison to passing the football. They succeeded in doing exactly that.

The quarterback's job in this game was to help establish that running game. Tebow did that, while contributing to both of Denver's touchdowns by running and passing. The Broncos averaged 4.4 yards per carry and 244 total yards, with Tebow chipping 43 of those yards himself.

The passing numbers don't look pretty—2-8, 69 yards, 1 TD and no interceptions—but he didn't make any mistakes as most young quarterbacks do. He led Denver's offense the way John Fox designed him to use it.

Therefore, it was a solid, not spectacular effort on Sunday.

Final Grade: C+ 

Running Backs

All things considered, the running backs played extremely well. They started off fast, contributing to an opening drive that resulted in eight carries for 57 yards and a touchdown for an average of just over 7.0 yards per carry.

They averaged 4.4 yards per carry as a team on Sunday, but that doesn't tell the entire story.

John Fox coached an absolutely stubborn game, which did result in a win, but could have easily lost them the game against a better opponent.

The Broncos were repeatedly getting stopped throughout the game because of their high reliance upon the running game, which at one point in time resulted in five straight punts.

Had the game plan been a little bit more balanced and Fox was a little more willing to throw, the yards per carry would have been higher.

In the end, it doesn't matter, as the Broncos gained 244 rushing yards and won the game. Over the past five weeks, the Broncos have been the best team in the NFL in that category.

Final Grade: A

Receivers

What is there to really say?

There were eight total pass attempts. Matthew Willis caught a nice pass behind the line of scrimmage and turned it into a 12-yard first down gain.

Eric Decker caught a beautiful 57-yard touchdown pass on the only other completion to put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 17-7 lead.

There were a couple of drops. The receivers seemed to block well downfield.

The receivers' jobs in this game were to block well and catch the occasional pass. They didn't get much of a chance to prove themselves, so they earn a solid grade.

Final grade: C

Offensive Line

As it's been mentioned several times throughout this slide, the Broncos had one goal in mind: Run the ball.

They were willing to live and die by this philosophy. The Broncos ran the ball 14 straight times to start off the game, followed by 12 more straight rushing attempts before passing the football again.

They ran the ball a total of 55 times and the offensive line blocked as well as they possibly could block for that many rushing attempts in a game. Did I mention that the Broncos were missing Willis McGahee and Knowshon Moreno for the majority of the game?

Lance Ball gained 96 yards on 30 carries to help put the game away for Denver.

Despite the predictable playcalling, the offensive line grinded it out in the 244-yards rushing effort.

Final Grade: A+

Defensive Line

There were two stories to this defensive line on Sunday.

On the positive end of the spectrum, this defensive line was ferocious on the pass rush. The Broncos had five total sacks on the day—two from the defensive line—and most of it had to do with linemen properly filling in their gaps and occupying blockers to free up Von Miller and DJ Williams.

To let it be known just how well they played, Ryan McBean had consistent penetration through the line of scrimmage; he racked up a sack of Matt Cassel.

On the negative side of the spectrum, the run defense did not play well, due in large part to the defensive line.

The Chiefs ran for more yards—134, 5.6 per carry—than they passed. I understand Jackie Battle and Dexter McCluster haven't been bad in filling in for Jamaal Charles, but nearly six yards per run given up to those guys simply cannot happen.

The good outweighed the bad on Sunday, but there will be games where Denver won't have as consistent of a pass rush and the defensive line will have to hold up against better rushing attacks.

Speaking of the Jets on Thursday...

Final Grade: B-

Linebackers

In the absence of their leading tackler, Wesley Woodyard, the Broncos' linebacking corps stepped up in a huge way.

DJ Williams and Von Miller were all over the ball and were probably Denver's best players defensively. Hell, Joe Mays made plays.

Williams led the team with nine tackles, including one sack. Mays was second with eight tackles, all solo. Miller was fourth with seven tackles, including a couple of sacks.

The Broncos had a great effort overall on defense on Sunday in limiting starting quarterback Matt Cassel to under 100 yards passing. They harassed him all day into 28 pass attempts for a little over three yards a pass. That is absolute domination.

The only flaw from the linebackers was on run defense.

Final Grade: A-

Defensive Backs

Yes, the pass rush was the main reason for Denver's success defensively. The linemen and linebackers were unstoppable in their pursuit of the quarterback.

However, the defensive backs still need to do their job in the backfield in order to consistently put the quarterback on his back. The backfield did that.

The Broncos did not record any turnovers, but they limited Cassel to 93 yards passing. Denver shut down Dwayne Bowe and Steve Breaston so much that Dexter McCluster led the Chiefs with six receptions for 48 yards.

Bowe, one of the top receivers in the game, had just two receptions for 17 yards.

Despite the lack of resistance on run defense, this was one of Denver's most dominant efforts defensively. All that matters in the end is the win and the 10 points allowed on the scoreboard.

Special Teams

Boy, what has happened to Matt Prater?

Prater hit a field goal, but badly missed one wide left with just under two minutes in the game. He is now 9-14, hitting field goals at just a 64.3 percent rate. That is cause for concern; Prater needs to be on the money if the Broncos are to be winning close games in the future.

Despite Prater's inconsistency, Britton Colquitt did have a good game. Four of his seven punts were downed inside the 20-yard line, which put the Chiefs in an even tougher position to operate offensively.

The Broncos didn't have an amazing return game as they did in the previous week against Oakland, but they also didn't give up any big plays on special teams.

All in all, it was a solid win for a Broncos team that is quickly heading north on their hopeful quest of winning the AFC West.

Final Grade: B