Denver Broncos: 3 Honest Assessments from the Jets Loss

Case Keenum threw for 377 and 2 Touchdowns.

It didn’t matter.  The offense mustered only 16 points and that’s without an excuse like Mason Crosby‘s five missed field goals for the Packers.  Keenum and the offense racked up 438 empty yards on Sunday.  Demaryius Thomas had five catches on six targets for 105 yards and a touchdown.

Denver Broncos

Phillip Lindsay combined for 80 total yards.

It did not matter, Denver’s defense couldn’t stop the Jets and the offense couldn’t keep pace.  It seems like the Broncos offensive coaches are unable to mold their scheme around the talents of their players.  Keenum is best on the move and in play-action (pillars of a Gary Kubiak system, FYI) but finds himself rarely in those situations.  Freeman should be a bruiser and Lindsay excels in space.  It seems like the players are expected to fit the scheme rather than the other way around.

The elephant in the room for the offense, it seems, is the line.  While Denver has enjoyed rushing success, the pass protection has Case Keenum scrambling to make plays and Lindsay and Freeman scrapping for minimal yardage before busting big plays to up the average.

From the time of the draft, through the preseason and now into the second quarter of the regular season, we’ve worked under the assumption that Denver had rolled the dice correctly on Keenum and had as good a draft as we’d seen in Denver. It turns out we overestimated the talent the Broncos had on offense.  As much as Vance Joseph and Bill Musgrave share in responsibility for offensive woes, there’s a portion of the blame for this team that has to fall on the front office: