Offensive Breakdown: Analysis of The Denver Broncos Offense

The Denver Broncos have been struggling on offense this year. They have an excellent coach in Hackett and an all pro qb but haven't been able to put it together. They have been seeing a ton of man coverage on both early downs and also on 3rd down. Thus they are at 30% 3rd down efficiency. On 3rd down vs the Colts they were 0-13 on 3rd and 3 or more which is not very good. That leads to poor 1st down % as they have a 4th worst 29% at getting first downs. There are several reasons the offense has been off schedule which I highlight below. 

Why the struggles:

1. They don't score TD. 6 Td's in 5 games is not very good. Lowest in the league. They are terrible in the red zone as well, ranking last in the league.   They are averaging .6 touchdowns per game in the red zon.

2. The wr don't get separation and are not very good at working the middle of the field. There are times when they have openings vs zone coverage but I don't think the wr take advantage of it. 

Here vs. The Texans they run a good concept vs cover 2, but the spacing is a little off and Russ makes a poor read. They high low the will and both lb's play the shallow and you have the dig/in route behind it. 

Another example.

Look at the #2 wr and the easy route adjustment he could make vs the coverage the Texans are in. He bends it he's wide open.  Like this is bad imo. Easy adjustment to make.

Also, to me it's single high cover 3 presnap, as a qb I would work the top side route concept. Lot of room to operate on the tops side of this formation.

Here vs the Texans, should hit the dig for a 20 yard gain. Run a route. It's slow motion. Seems like this should be an easy completion for a nice chunk of yardage.

3.  Defenses have been effective playing their outside wr in man coverage while playing underneath concepts on early downs. This has effected their boot, vertical passing game as wr have not been able to get open on some vertical concepts. Really has effected their play action downfield passing game on 1st and 2nd down. Texans did a great job against them using this concept. The Broncos won 16-9 but the Texans had a really good game plan.

vs Texans 

Here is a similar situation vs the Chargers. They run boot but no one is open vertically down the field.

Here are 2 examples in the chargers game.  They run boot with the crossing route and their is no place to go with the ball. The Chargers do a nice job matching the coverage.

4. They also have been a little predictable, like running this little flip play vs the Colts. They ran the same play several times against the raiders and you can see the Colts adjusting to the formation. No body is fooled and it's a 3 yard loss on the play. I'm not spending 40 hours on film breaking it down but teams have seen some things and game planned effectively.  Take it out of the playbook or run a compliment because every team has sniffed it out. 

5. They get themselves into some long 3rd down situations because of their inefficiency on early downs.  Too many 3rd and 10+ situations has really handcuffed the offense. 

6. On 3rd down they are near the bottom at 30% efficiency. Their struggles were evident last week as they were 30% efficient vs the Colts. 

7. Often times they have wr and qb not on the same page. A wr may run a slant and RW things its a hitch. He throws a fade and the wr runs a hitch. Russell has made some very bad decisions in games and has been slow to process. Really surprised by some of his decisions.

Here's another example where Russ has an easy check down but forces the issue downfield. Take what they give you. LB runs with the wheel, throw to the rb. Easy concept.

These are just some of the struggles and I'm excited to see the adjustments for their future games. 

Broncos run game attacking the Bear front/odd fronts vs Dolphins and using motions vs Steelers

I analyzed the Broncos run game against the Dolphins and Steelers.

The Broncos used some good schemes to rush for 189 yards on 33 carries vs the Dolphins. They primarily did it against 2 fronts, the bear front and the 4-2 front with 2 2i (inside techniques). They also played some man free which allowed the Broncos wr to crack on the SS and block 2 for 1 because their was no crack replace with the cb. 

The Dolphins love the bear front on run downs.  The Bear front has been used throughout the year by the dolphins. It has been effective for them in the run game, playing dividends vs teams in the last few games.

The trouble with the Bear front is usually in the passing game as you are forced to play cover 1(man free) or  cover 3 with some 1/4, 1/4 half coverages sprinkled in. The Dolphins play alot of man free with it.

The Broncos changed some of their traditional zone schemes and went to some more power gap schemes in this game. They ran outside trap and some power and had various plays in which different players pulled and it worked out very succesfully.  When they went to their 4-2 with 2 , inside 2i techniques, the Broncos attacked that and got 2 big runs for 40 yards. 

BEAR FRONT

Lets look at some of the bear runs. 

Here they run a nice 3x2 double team scheme with the guard tackle and tight end. They seal the right side, the h back kicks out and they get a nice 9 yard gain.

 Here on 1st and 10 the Broncos run the outside trap scheme pulling the guard and the backside tackle for 5 yards 

After the 5 yard gain they come back to the power scheme on 2nd and 5. The dolphins are in man free(outside leverage by the sam lb gives it away) They run power with the left guard kicking out the olb.

The Broncos get a nice 25 yard gain on the play. wr does enough to block the SS and set up the big run.

The 

On another 1st and 10 vs bear, they pull the guard and he logs the de and it allows the tackle to turn it outside for a nice 9 yard gain. The tackle sees the guard log the de and stays outside, the rb follows and its a nice gain.

Vs. 42 front

Dolphins play both dt in 2i's, inside shade in their 4-2 look. They get hit for 2 big runs vs this.

They run to the right side for 20 yards with Lindsay on the scheme below. Great job by the center getting out and blocking the SS.

Here they pull the center and tackle and run outside trap concept. The defensive end works up field so the tackle kicks out and the back cuts up. 

They run a similar scheme but pull the backside tackle and he kicks out for a 20 yard touchdown, nice check and scheme design for another 20 yard gain and touchdown. 2 big plays vs the dt and nose being in 2i fronts. 

These were some of the successful runs the Broncos had on the day. They did a nice job scheming things up and running effective schemes vs the Dolphins bear and 4-2 front.

Vs The Steelers

Some of the best runs they had is when they motioned as the Steelers play man free quite a bit. 

By motioning, you sometimes get a secondary/lb displaced and allow cutback lanes. Especially since Dupree can be vulnerable in the run games because he loves to rush the passer.

Below, the Steelers have safety blitz which looks like changed with the change of strength. They usually send the sam but here send the weak free safety. The Broncos go jet motion and the lb has to cover it and it creates a huge cutback lane on inside zone. The LB leaves the box and it causes issues.

A nice 8 yard gain

On 2nd and 3,

They run inside zone off jet motion, the Steelers have a sam blitz on and this time don't check the blitz. The sam blitzes and the lb takes the jet motion. This leaves a huge cutback lane on the inside zone. Broncos get 17 on the play.

Later on the Steelers try to adjust with the safety as they blitz the mike with the motion. The Broncos get the same effect as the Steelers leave yet another cutback lane. 3 carries for 42 yards using motion early in the game. Nice scheme by the Broncos.

The Steelers defense can be vulnerable at times when you go 3x1 to 2x2 and motion when in man free and  the Broncos took advantage of that in the run game.

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