FanPost

Broncos vs. Texans: The Broncos Are Not A Bad Team

With games like what we saw in Houston it's really difficult to make clean judgements about what this team is and isn't, and what to expect from them in the future. In very real and meaningful ways they did a great job, and in key moments of the game, mistakes were made that cost us dearly. The Texans are a hot team right now with a lot of weapons and we had every ability to win that game. We just didn't.

We are not a bad team, we are just one of the many average teams in the NFL that can surprise one way or the other week to week. We could easily be two wins better than we are now, and we might surprise on a couple of games later in the season. I'll be surprised though if we finish better than 7-9 at this point.

I Know Vance Joseph is Worse Than Stalin But...

Let's take a step back for a moment and consider that the Broncos had a number of injury issues that they had to deal with in this game. The secondary was down both Darian Stewart and Bradley Roby. During the course of the game we lost one of the best center's in the league. There was a lot of adversity that needed to be overcome in order to make this a winnable game and ya know what? We overcame it for the most part.

That actually speaks to good coaching. That speaks to making good schematic adjustments and setting up the team for success. Whether that falls on Musgrave, Woods, or Joseph, is a big open question and it's hard to know who's really making those decisions during the course of the game.

All in all, our offense had one of its better games of the season while missing the best player on our offensive line and playing one of the best front sevens in the league. Our defense held it together and got meaningful pressure on Watson regularly. If we'd won this game, it would have all felt pretty good.

No Really He is Worse Than Stalin...

That said, Vance Joseph's biggest weakness is that, in the flow of the game, he's not a good coach. That yes, he can get a good week of practice out of his players, but then he goes and makes crucial mistakes during the game. Those mistakes this week include:

  1. Going for a 62 yard field goal while there's enough time left on the clock for the opponent to get themselves into field goal range. If there's 3 seconds left, fine, take the shot, but that's not what we saw. That 3 points we handed them ended up being the difference in this game.
  2. Icing a kicker and sparing him from his own missed field goal. That said, Shanny would have made the same exact move. I'm 98% sure icing the kicker is not actually a thing even if superstitious coaches think it is.
  3. Once again challenging a play that was very clearly not going to be overturned. He has at least one of these every game it seems. Worse, in most of these cases, even if it was overturned, it wouldn't make a big difference in the game.
  4. The clock management towards the end of the 4th quarter was abysmal. You're on the edge of your kicker's range and you've got a timeout left. So why not hurry it up and try to give him a little more room to maneuver? You've got a timeout, so you can use that to stop the clock and kick it. Instead we go for the field goal on 3rd down and miss.

Musgrave's Play Calling

Musgrave frustrates me, but I'm not sure what the right answer is. A week ago, the team is on the fringe of field goal range, and he runs a clever end around that loses yardage and puts us out of field goal range. Huge mistake, right? Well this week, he does the opposite, and runs a very predictable run up the middle against one of the best front sevens in the league. He does this with a backup guard/center combo in the game.

So the result is that rather than eek out a few more yards, McManus has to kick a 51 yard field goal. That said, 51 is well within his range, he just shanked it. That's the job he is paid to do and he simply failed to do it. Even being a few yards closer, that kick was shanked enough that it wasn't going to matter.

Overall though it felt like the play calling was better in this game. The tight ends were heavily involved in a way that they haven't been in previous games. We did run the ball with some regularity, though we did see the very weird thing of running three play action passes in a row. It seemed to work for the most part though.

Joe Woods Did Well

Joe did well in this game (unless it turns out that VJ is doing the calls in the game now). He had Cravens in the game for the first time this season, but was playing without Roby and Stewart. Still he put together a solid defensive game and we held the Texans to 19 points. The Texans found some holes early in the game, but adjustments were made and our defense was shutting them down regularly.

Case Keenum

Case Keenum had his best game of the season in this game in spite of having a decimated offensive line. He only got one touchdown, but I believe this is his first interception-free game of the season. He made some key throws throughout the game, and if he played like this in every game I'd be pretty content with him. Not the future starter, but the good enough for now starter.

Also, he showed a degree of clutch that he hasn't previously exhibited. It was 4th and 8 on the last drive of the game and he made a perfect pass to Sanders while being hit. That's the kind of thing we want to see from him every week. McManus doesn't even get a chance to miss that field goal if Case and Sanders don't put that together.

My sense of things is that Musgrave did a better job of play calling in this game and helped set Keenum up for success. This is the first game where we've meaningfully involved our tight ends. I think that was a matter of necessity because needed to buff up our protection against a great front seven. Hopefully though this is something we look to going forward.

CS vs DT

  • DT - 3 catches for 61 yards and 20.3 average/catch
  • CS - 3 catches for 57 yards and 19 average/catch
I'm still feeling good about this trade in my mind if not my heart. I'll feel better when I find out what player we end up with because of that fourth round pick.

Bradley Roby

If I'm Bradley Roby I'm a little worried about the fact that our secondary didn't really seem to miss a beat while I'm not dressed for the game. Maybe people stepped up to fill that void. Maybe there were some scheme adjustments. Overall though I didn't miss Roby in the game.

I'm Going to Miss Von Miller

When I look at Chubb in his recent performances and I look at Von Miller's contract, I'm increasingly doubtful about how long Von Miller is going to be a part of this team. His cap hit the next two seasons is $25M/season. With Chubb clearly playing at a high level, it's going to be hard to justify that kind of money. He'll probably be here next season, but in 2020, there's substantial cap savings if we get rid of him.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's at least some consideration of trading him in the off-season. As Mack just proved, we could get a lot for him in a trade, but I'd still hate to see him go. If it meant a legitimate upgrade at quarterback though, sign me up!

Disappointed But Hopeful

I'm disappointed by this loss, but I keep feeling like this team is better than their record suggests. We're a team that has clear weak spots, largely because of a series of questionable drafts. Our 2018 draft was markedly better both because of picking earlier, but also because of seemingly better strategy. We'll be picking low again in 2019 and if we keep the approach that worked last time then we'll continue to get better.

We need a solid #2 CB and Roby isn't it. We need to stabilize the offensive line, and while we made good strides towards that we really need a good left tackle and then move Bolles over to the right side. I feel good about the interior of the line when people are healthy though.

My sense of things is that, week to week, the team is playing better. The Jets game was our low point, but we've played the Chiefs twice and the Rams since then. We just aren't good enough to beat good teams right now. That's a mix of coaching and simple gaps in the quality of our players across the team. It is what it is.

What I haven't seen recently is the team just implode. What got me to calling for Vance Joseph's head last season was that our team looked totally unprepared, and they had no fight. They'd get behind in a game and just melt down. I haven't seen that kind of collapse in a few games.

Can We Win on the Road?

This team isn't going to the playoffs. None of the wins really matter at this point, and so going forward we have a very good test of what this team is made of. Also, there's no team saving quarterback that we're going to get from blowing the rest of the season. So what I'm watching for is signs that we're meaningfully turning the ship.

I want to see us start winning road games. Since the start of the Vance Joseph era, we've been somewhere between abysmal and apocalyptic on the road. A big part of this comes down to a weak offensive line and a mediocre quarterback working in a loud environment. Doing better on the road would be a sign to me that we're figuring some things out.

My guess at this point is that Vance Joseph is going away but not until the end of the season. Wins don't matter right now and there's no obvious replacement for him. So we'll see if he can take this team and give it some signs of life. If he can get us to looking like a real team on the road and winning a few hard games we shouldn't, then he might save his job.

Overall though I still think he's done, it's just a matter of time. We're better this season but we're just not better enough.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.