The Denver Broncos have spent a lot of time drilling the Red Zone so far in training camp, and with good reason. Andrew Mason pointed out on Denverbroncos.com, that Denver’s offense ranked last in the league in red zone touchdowns per trip and the defense ranked 23rd in touchdowns allowed per red zone trip.

We’ll address the offense in another article, but for now I want to focus on the defense.

The Denver defense took a huge step back in this area in 2017 going from 8th in the league in red zone touchdowns allowed all the way down to 23rd, allowing 24 touchdowns inside the 20 yard line last year.

Chris Harris talked about it a little bit earlier this off-season:

“It was our red zone defense. You see us on the field, you see us on third down, we were tough. We still finished top 5 in a lot of categories, but our red zone was terrible, we gave up too many passing touchdowns, guys weren’t on the same page, we just panicked a lot in that red zone. If we can fix that and continue to play a high level inside the field, like we were first, second and third, and tighten up our red zone we’ll get back to being dominant.”

The numbers back Harris up. Denver was 2nd in the league allowing offenses to convert on 3rd down a paltry 31.5% and ranked 2nd in the league in 3 and outs forced per drive. Yet, when the opposing offense made it into the red zone, they scored a touchdown 58% of the time.

So what gives? I’m glad you asked because I asked the exact same thing, and decided to dig through every touchdown Denver gave up in the red zone in 2017. Here’s what I found...

That is a lot, so let’s break this down a little more.

Offensive Turnovers

I specifically added the far right column charting the previous offensive possession so we could see the impact of the offensive play on the defense.

It was pretty significant. Of the 24 touchdowns Denver’s defense gave up, 9 of them came directly after an offensive turnover. That means, 37.5% of the touchdowns given up were done so with an assist from the offense.

Of those 9 touchdowns given up off of an offensive turnover, the average starting line of scrimmage was Denver’s own 31!

Additionally, the average opponent starting line of scrimmage across all of Denver’s allowed red zone touchdowns was the opponent’s 43 yard line. This means, the offense only had to gain 37 yards to even be in the red zone.

So at first glance, Denver’s red zone defense looks bad, and there are definite areas of improvement we’ll get into. But, upon further examination, it’s clear the putrid, turnover ridden Denver offense had a significant negative impact on the defense’s red zone numbers.

Running Backs & Tight Ends

As I began watching these red zone touchdowns on film, a lot of them started to look really familiar. Then, it hit me: I have already seen most of these before when I broke down every touchdown given up to a tight end or running back.

That’s because nearly half (11) of the 24 touchdowns given up in the red zone were on a pass to a tight end and running back.

I go into it in more detail in the link above, but here are some highlights (lowlights?).

Will Parks here gets beat by the motioning running back.

Darian Stewart gets beat 1-on-1 here by the back, but Todd Davis also fails to be where he should have been to help inside.

Down in the red zone where space gets tight and schemes are limited, it’s all about match-ups and winning 1-on-1 battles. This is why teams regularly succeeded throwing to tight ends and running backs in this area, because Denver just could not match up with them last year.

Miscommunications

The last reason Denver struggled in the red zone is exactly what Chris Harris was talking about - miscommunications and guys not being on the same page.

The above example of Davis missing his assignment inside is a good example of this. There were a few instances where Will Parks got caught peeking in the backfield and just never covered his man, the tight end.

Another where Talib assumed someone would pick up his guy as he went across the formation, and no one did, so he was all alone for the score.

A prime example of guys not being on the same page, and likely the one that was on Harris’ mind when he made these comments, was this play with Harris and safety Justin Simmons.

This is the first game of the season and Simmons has just stepped into a full-time role as TJ Ward left. He is in single high coverage at the top, and both Harris and Roby have receivers breaking inside.

Both corners allow their receivers an inside release, expecting help inside.

Parks right in the middle zone drops off to take away the underneath throw in the middle. At this point, Simmons needs to recognize where his help is needed and stay up top to take away the slot coming in on a skinny post.

However, the wiley vet, Rivers gets him to bite over the middle by staring that route down, and as soon as Simmons takes a step forward, he immediately looks to the slot route has all kinds of room.

Here’s the end zone angle. There are three guys covering the crosser, and no one over the top to help Chris Harris.

Harris is clearly not happy about it and was expecting help over the middle.

This is just one example of the communication issues the secondary experienced in the red zone. Granted, this was Simmons’ first game playing full-time free safety as a second year player, but still, guys not being on the same page allowed several big plays in Denver’s secondary last year.

Summary

Other than a few instances of big-time receivers (Dez Bryant, AJ Green, Alshon Jeffery, Amari Cooper) making big-time plays, these three buckets above are the main issues I found in Denver’s red zone defense.

The good news is, the first two were issues that were overarching themes from last year that the team has been working to address. So, while the numbers don’t look good from last year, it’s not time to panic on this defense because of their red zone numbers.

If Denver’s offense can limit turnovers this year, and the defense can be more effective matching up against tight ends and running backs along with improved communication with more time together, they should see their defensive numbers rise back into the upper echelons of the league.