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The blame game is heavy right now, but that’s what happens with emotions are running high and everyone is disappointed. The Denver Broncos 2016 season is over. And that sucks.
Pro Football Focus levied their post mortem of the Broncos 33-10 blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and it wasn’t pretty.
Here are the biggest takeaways.
Travis Kelce was beastmode
The Chiefs game plan was to stay as far away from Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. as possible and the strategy worked to perfection as Travis Kelce shredded the Broncos coverage linebackers and safeties for 11 receptions for 160 yards and a touchdown.
Denver star CBs Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib were only targeted on underneath throws, as evidenced by the fact their six receptions yielded went for just 24 yards. Kansas City instead went after S Darian Stewart and LB Todd Davis, who gave up a combined 11 receptions on 13 targets for 149 yards and two scores. Stewart made matters worse by missing four tackles — of the 12 he has missed this season, eight have come against the Broncos.
Kelce didn’t just make the big plays in the passing game, he made three critical blocks that sprung all of the Chiefs biggest runs. He was unstoppable on Sunday.
Trevor Siemian’s worst game
There is little else to blame for the offensive performance than at the feet of Trevor Siemian. Three Broncos offensive lineman made PFF’s top five offensive grades for this game. Max Garcia (84.7), Russell Okung (82.1) and Matt Paradis (78.0) were all efficient and consistent in this game. As a unit, they only allowed 10 pressures on Siemian out of 43 total dropbacks.
Trevor Siemian had a disastrous night, as he was completely ineffective under pressure and unable to make accurate throws downfield. He completed just three of 13 passes that traveled at least 10 yards through the air, for 64 yards and an interception, and on 10 pressured throws he completed just two passes for 20 yards, and had a QB rating of 39.6.
| Pressure | Attempts | Completions | Comp. % | Yards | Yds/Att | TD | INT | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pressure | Attempts | Completions | Comp. % | Yards | Yds/Att | TD | INT | Rating |
| No pressure | 33 | 15 | 45.5 | 169 | 5.1 | 0 | 1 | 48.7 |
| Plays under pressure | 10 | 2 | 20.0 | 20 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 39.6 |
| When not blitzed | 30 | 13 | 43.3 | 151 | 5.0 | 0 | 1 | 45.3 |
| When blitzed | 13 | 4 | 30.8 | 38 | 2.9 | 0 | 0 | 40.2 |
| All Plays | 43 | 17 | 39.5 | 189 | 4.4 | 0 | 1 | 43.7 |
That is a bad day at the office.
Where the Broncos go from here is anyone’s guess, but there needs to be some major changes in the coming weeks. Gary Kubiak has had two seasons to get some offensive production and it just appears to be getting worse.
We blamed Peyton Manning at one point last season and now some are blaming Trevor Siemian, but the only constant here are the men on the sidelines calling the plays and devising the offensive schemes. They have clearly failed this team.