Termine » While it is always painful to look back on losses

http://www.authenticsdenverbroncos.com/cheap-connor-mcgovern-jersey , especially one as close as Monday’s, there are always plenty of things to learn from taking a second look. As I mentioned in last week’s edition, there are always story-lines that emerge immediately following a game each week, particularly after a tough loss. Due to the heat of the moment, and lack of angles on the broadcast version of the game, I find it helpful to review the film and see which of the story-lines hold true and if new ones emerge upon further review.This week is no different. There were a few positive adjustments made from last week, and some adjustments that need to be made next time around to correct errors. Let’s dive in.The NarrativeBefore we get to anything else, let’s address the biggest narrative that I saw coming out of this game, that the offense did not run the ball enough, or they abandoned the run too early. I saw this all across the Twitterverse as well as on this site. So naturally, when I sat down to review the tape on this game, I expected to see instances of the team foregoing the run late in the game, and egregious pass heavy drives that killed momentum. However, what I found, was actually quite the opposite.Here’s some stats for you:In the second half, Denver had four drives, and ran 19 plays, excluding their comeback attempt drive at the end of the game.Of those 19 plays, 11 were runs and 8 were passes. That’s a that’s nearly a 60/40 split in favor of the running game. Additionally, the passing plays gained 7.75 YPP, with runs gaining 6 YPC.Does this mean Denver should have passed more? Not at all. But the evidence that the team stopped calling runs or abandoned the running attack is just not there.On their first two drives of the second half, Denver ran the ball 5 of their first 6 plays, and 3 of their first 4 plays, respectively. That’s not a team who is abandoning running the football at the end of the game.Furthermore, there has been criticism of Denver allowing a middling Keenum to throw it 33 times (37 dropbacks if you count sacks) and only run the ball 22 times when they averaged over 7 YPC on the ground. However, this stat sheet scouting fails to take into account the fact that Denver had two 2-minute drills, one at the end of the first half and one at the end of the game, in which they exclusively passed due to the clock being a factor and needing to gain yards quickly. 19 (yes you read that right) of Keenum’s 37 pass attempts came in 2-minute situations. Meaning, when Denver had the run as an option throughout the rest of the game, Keenum dropped back only 18 times, to 21 runs (they actually ran it once during the 2-minute drill). Looking at it with that context, Denver had a 54%/46% run/pass split in normal game situations. That’s hardly a team who abandoned the running game.Now, were there times Denver could have run but passed instead? Sure. We could likely go knit-pick every pass attempt and say they should have run the ball, which is really easy to do in hindsight once we know said pass attempt failed.However, there are a few legitimate arguments to be made on the other side. For one, the lack of carries for a red hot Royce Freeman is appalling, and needs to change. He should be receiving a majority of the carries every game, especially when playing a team with as poor tackling as the Chiefs.Lastly, there were two plays that I believe the offense would like to have back, that is really the crux of where this narrative started. Let’s look at those.The biggest is the final drive of the offense, excluding their comeback drive. In that drive, the offense went three and out at the worst possible time, when the Chiefs had just scored, and the Broncos needed to bleed clock.They started the drive with a run on first down. This is important to look at before we get to the actual play in question. Denver runs outside zone with the TE coming across the formation to block the backside.Unfortunately, this play was stuffed for no gain. However, it’s a clever setup by Denver because they are going to run play action off this almost identical look on the next play. Now, earlier in the game, Denver tried this with Heuerman White Case Keenum Jersey , but Bolles allowed the rush to get to Keenum too fast before he could complete the pass.Here’s the look from early in the game. Looks exactly the same as the play above, which is another good move by Denver, running the same look with multiple play variants out of it.This one was wide open and worked well, but Keenum couldn’t get it off in time.So, for this key 2nd and 10, after being stuffed on 1st down, Musgrave calls a similar play to the one he called earlier in the game, and runs play action out of a similar look he just ran the play before. Both are solid, clever coaching moves.This time they ran Emmanuel Sanders across the formation like he is going to block the backside (which is also common), and faked the outside zone action. Unfortunately, Keenum’s release is a little high to get over the defender so the ball floats too long, and the corner plays this excellently.So the result of this play was bad, and in hindsight, that’s all anyone looks at. No play-call looks good when it results in no gain on a critical drive, but in my opinion, this isn’t a bad call.It’s using the run action they just called previously, and re-visiting a play that was proven to have success earlier in the game. It just didn’t work out.There’s another one I didn’t mind the call but hated Keenum’s decision. This is on Denver’s field goal drive, right before the Chiefs began to mount their comeback. A touchdown could have put this game out of reach, or made Denver’s eventual comeback attempt easier.Denver made it into Chief’s territory on a big play to Andy Janovich, the next two plays are runs for four and two yards, leaving a 3rd and 4.Now there’s an argument that Denver should have just run it here, but that’s a risky proposition on 3rd and 4. I don’t mind the call by Bill Musgrave, I just hate the execution by Keenum.He immediately looks to DT on the go-route up the left sideline, however, you can see pre-snap that there’s a safety shading to that side.Meanwhile, on the other side, Lindsay’s defender is being cleared out by the TE route and he is wide open in the flat. Overall, based on the defensive alignment, this combo on the right would have been a better one to work.But, Keenum continues to stare down DT and eventually just throw it away as he was double covered, even though he has time and potentially could go to Sutton up the seam, since the safety is shading DT.Overall, just a bad, bad play from Keenum, but not a terrible playcall, in my opinion.Again, it’s easy to go back to all these failed passes and say they should have run the ball in hindsight, but when breaking them down in context, I’m actually okay with the playcalls, just not the execution.AdjustmentsOn the defensive side, I thought they played their hearts out for the majority of the game, and Joe Woods called a nice game. Denver fell victim to a really hot Mahomes in the 4th quarter who was making plays that reminded me of peak Andrew Luck back when the Peyton Manning Broncos got beat by the Colts two years in a row.That said, the biggest mistake by the defense, and adjustment they need to make is keeping Mahomes contained, especially on the right side. Mahomes was absolutely lethal when rolling to his right, and Denver let him escape out the right side way too many times.This chart, courtesy of NextGen Stats, shows that Mahomes did nearly all of his damage deep on the right side http://www.authenticsdenverbroncos.com/cheap-jeff-heuerman-jersey , and really his whole passing chart skews right.On two critical plays of the Chiefs final touchdown drive, Denver let him escape to his right.Here is the infamous 2nd and 30 play the defense gave up.Von Miller let’s Mahomes escape out of the pocket, and he eventually finds an open receiver. Regardless of what coverage you call, when the quarterback has six seconds to find a guy and is great throwing on the run, it’s going to be tough to stop.However, the very next play is even worse. Here’s the blitz everyone was calling for. This is on a key 3rd down. Denver intentionally overloads the left side and drops the right side off in coverage.Where do you think that is going to force Mahomes?? Where would you go if you were him in this image below?He gets out of the pocket again and burns the defense.Overall, Joe Woods called a very nice game, but next time they play the Chiefs, they need to employ the strategy Denver used against Aaron Rodgers in 2015, and Cam Newton in the Super Bowl. Box them in on the edge and don’t let them escape, while applying pressure up the middle. Hopefully, next time they play the Chiefs they will learn from this and adjust.Hope you enjoyed this week’s recap. Be on the lookout for a defensive breakdown coming soon about Denver’s adjustments against play action, and let me know your thoughts in the comments below. The Denver Broncos are coming out of their Bye week at 3-6 with a mere 8-point differential in games, which means they are losing a lot of close games. Part of that has come down to the teams inability to score more points in those close games. Holding the Houston Texans to 19 points at home should be a win most weeks, but under Vance Joseph they are piling up the losses.After reviewing film, Joseph talked about what the Broncos need to do moving forward to generate different results in the scoreboard.“I think offensively we have to obviously start faster and score more points early,” Joseph said on Monday. “Obviously, being better in the red zone and being better on third downs—the numbers don’t lie there. I think defensively we had a couple games where we didn’t stop the run. Our nickel run defense wasn’t very good. Our base run defense was really good. Obviously, taking the ball away more and helping our team that way, we need more of that. On special teams, our return units have to get better. There’s a lot of things that we watched and saw that we can get better at.”The defense and special teams units seem to be mostly doing enough to win games. The struggles are coming from the offense. Despite Case Keenum having his best game of the season, the Broncos came away with a mere 17 points at home. That’s not going to win many games.For Joseph, the key is starting faster. “I think the first 15-20 plays of the game, you can tell right away if your plan is pretty good or if your plan is not good or if it’s player error,” Joseph said. “In my experience in this league, in that first 15-20 plays, you can tell right away. If your plan is good, if your team matches up well, you just know. I think in the first 15-20 on both sides of the ball, we have to play better football. Last week against the Texans, the first drive, they score on us. Now, we had some player error in that drive that we can’t have, but offensively, we didn’t get our first first down until almost the second quarter. We can’t have droughts like that and expect to win games.”In a bit of irony, the Broncos have been starting fast. They rank second in the NFL in first-quarter scoring behind only the Kansas City Chiefs. It has been after the first quarter where the offense has faltered. They rank 24th in second-quarter scoring, 19th in third-quarter scoring, and 26th in fourth-quarter scoring.Apparently, Joseph is talking about just this last game and not taking the entire season into account. Starting fast is important, but finishing is even more vital and the Broncos offense isn’t finishing anything after that first quarter in games.For Joseph, everything is on the table and desperation is setting in.“Absolutely, our team is desperate,” Joseph said. “When you watch us play, we do play a desperate brand of football. I told the guys, hope can’t be your strategy. You can’t hope to win, you can’t luck-in to win an NFL game. It’s too hard. We have to play better football. We have to score more points early and play dominant defense. That’s our brand of football. Hope can’t be your strategy. You’ve got to play better.”We saw that brand of desperation last week as Joseph chased points at the end of the first half with an inadvisable 62-yard field goal attempt that ended up giving the Texans the decisive field goal. We saw that desperation when he again settled for a 50-plus yard field goal instead of risking a negative play at the end of the game.“Whatever it takes,” Joseph said when asked how the team will score more points. “It’s as simple as that. Score more points—whatever it takes.”The Broncos must win. Whatever it takes.