Stat Snip: Week 1 Broncos-Steelers

So often things fall by the wayside in the box scores after a game, so I wanted to just create a series that takes a quick look at one statistics that help describe or are informative about the past game. Just a short look, nothing intense (that's what the off-season is for) that may be interesting or useful about the previous week.


This week we'll be looking at the Broncos deep passing game.

Peyton Manning: 0 of 1 on passes of 20 or more yards

So, in a phrase, there wasn't a Broncos deep passing game, Peyton Manning ranked 28th in deep pass attempts per total attempts. Now I chose this stat because it goes to show the focus of the offense. Now this off-season we looked a lot at what to expect from this new offense, and one of the topics was whether there would be a lot of deep passing. From 2009 to 2011 the Broncos were a top 5 deep passing team under the McD/McCoy offense, but with the arrival of Manning, the fanbase was split whether this would continue. Now as staffers we came to the side of seeing fewer deep passes based on Manning's past performance along with what we saw in the pre-season.

The pre-season was the biggest test for Manning's arm on deep passes, and he showed he had the arm strength to make the throws, even overthrowing some targets. The issue came with his deep accuracy, and this was a problem because he is still rebuilding his shoulder strength, and it takes hundreds of throws to get used to a shoulder you aren't used to, so this inaccuracy is expect, and not a bad thing. It's clear Manning and McCoy talked about this and against the Steelers game planned to avoid the deep ball.

Look for this to continue, along with a strong run game and the no-huddle offense are just as capable of moving the chains and scoring, as we saw against the Steelers. Now remember, this isn't a bad thing, it's purely part of the offense. Also keep in mind, Manning's incompletion wasn't off the mark, it was actually a drop from Demaryius Thomas.