Broncos 3rd & long: Shutting them up by shutting them out

So, yeah, the Titans offense is not a very good offense (currently 25th in scoring), but that should not take away from the shutout.

The Titans scored 43 points in their Week 1 victory over the floundering Browns (with one defensive TD, but they have scored 55 total points over five games since - including twice being held to 7 points (by the Bills and Jaguars) before Broncos shut them out.

So yes, their offense can be shut down, but this defense has come a long way since getting torched by the quick passing game of the Raiders and the running game of the Jags.

Because of injury and/or ineffectiveness, Broncos have five different starters (Will Parks started at slot CB vs TEN) on defense relative to Week 1.

And what makes it all the more impressive is that we have five starters on defense who were undrafted out of college - and four of those UDCFAs were signed and developed by the Broncos. Only Mike Purcell was “developed” elsewhere.

The defense was able to stop the run on first down as the Titans ran the ball 12 times on first down for a total of 33 yards (2.75 yards per carry). Our refreshed run D did a masterful job stopping Tennessee’s 6-foot-3, 250-pound tailback, Derrick Henry, holding him to 21 yards on his nine first-down carries. His longest run of the day was just six yards, and eight of his 15 carries went for 2 yards or less (one stop for no gain and four TFL’s). That’s pretty impressive.

Despite the great performance at stopping the run on first down against Tennessee, the Broncos are still 25th at stopping first down runs (5.1 ypc). The Jets are first at 3.0 yards per carry, and the Jags are last (5.8 ypc).

The Bronco D was able to hold the Titans to 3-of-15 on third-down conversions (counting the conversion by penalty).

Broncos forced the Titans into third-and-long nine out of 15 times, and the Broncos converted two of those into sacks and one into an interception. Two of those were in third-and-long situations (7 or more yards needed), but the second came in the end-game situation against prevent defense.

Denver’s defense is currently fifth in the league at stopping the opponent on third-and-long, having only allowed conversion on six of 36 (16.7 percent). The Patriots are leading the league in this stat, having only allowed conversion on 8.5 percent while the Dolphins are dead last, allowing conversion on 35 percent. Only three of Denver’s 12 sacks have come on third-and-long plays. For comparison, nine of New England’s 25 have come on third and long.

I know I was one of those wailing about the lack of sacks at the beginning of the season, but the Broncos have been getting pressure even if they have not been getting sacks. Denver is currently 11th in pressure percentage (% of dropbacks where Denver pressured the opposing QB) and these have mostly been done without the use of blitzing (22nd in blitz rate).

According to Pro Football Reference, 23.3 percent of opponent dropbacks result in a pressure. The Bears currently have the best defense in the league at pressuring the opposing QB, getting pressure 34.1 percent of the time while the ‘Phins are getting pressure a league-low 10.2 percent of the time.