Brock Osweiler: A tale of two halves

The last two weeks the Denver Broncos have followed the same losing formula. They started out hot in the first half of the game and dominated the opponent. They head into halftime with the lead and feeling good about their chances of victory. Then the second half happens and the Broncos look like a completely different team.

What gives? Why does this keep happening?

A lot of the blame for these collapses has been placed on quarterback Brock Osweiler and the Broncos coaching staff. So I decided to do some digging of my own and compared the first and second halves of Osweiler's first 5 starts.

The results prove that the only thing we have learned about Osweiler is that he has been consistently inconsistent for the Broncos.

First half:

These show that Osweiler has been a pretty good quarterback in the first half of his five starts.

He is completing an impressive 73% of his passes and he's taking care of the ball. The one interception was a tipped pass at the line against the Patriots.

With the way the Broncos defense has been playing this year, this is all we need Osweiler to do. Have a high completion percentage, protect the football and score a few times a game.

These numbers show why the Broncos started 3-0 with Osweiler at the controls of the offense, and why they were dominating the Raiders and Steelers.

Second half:

These stats show one of the reasons why the Broncos have really struggled in the second half of games this season. Osweiler goes from completing 73% of his passes to an awful 47% of his passes. Yes, drops have been an issue for the Broncos this year, but there hasn't been that many.

Osweiler's yardage is down 200 yards and he hasn't passed for a 2nd half touchdown since the New England game. In fact, the Broncos offense hasn't mustered a second half score(field goal or touchdown) since the New England game. That's almost a month without a second half score.

The blame for that has to go to Osweiler and the coaching staff.

Osweiler needs to be more consistent in the second half of games. Having a 30% drop in your completion percentage after halftime is unacceptable. I understand coaching, drops, and other things aren't helping Osweiler, but that doesn't excuse his awful second half play.

The coaching staff needs to be better at making adjustments and make the right play calls to put Osweiler in a better situation. What we don't know is if the real issue here is the play calling or the players not executing the plays being called.