The Denver Broncos are on a bit of a roll. With a win over the Houston Texans, excitement over the direction of the team continues to grow. There’s a youth movement taking place in Denver, and it sure is fun to watch.
During the Denver Broncos win over the Houston Texans I somewhat sarcastically tweeted a GIF of a jumping goat in reference to Drew Lock. As I mentioned to Ian St. Clair on the MHR Radio Podcast, the rookie may not live up to that hype, but he has infused life into the offense, and helped get Broncos Country off life support.
I could practically copy and paste last weeks big takeaway if I wanted to. I won’t, because I want to look at Drew Lock, and admire what simply adding him to the roster has done. Consider for just a moment how stagnant and dry the offense has been all season. Not just this season. All of last season, too. It was the first time Denver had scored more than 24 points since beating the Arizona Cardinals 45-10 on October 18, 2018.
That’s right, 2018. Over a year without breaking 24 points, and the last time was against a bad Cardinals team with Josh Rosen at QB. The question has to be, what about Drew Lock is different? Why have the Broncos taken such a big step forward with Lock at QB? In a word, confidence.
Whatever Lock brings to the table, the biggest attribute he seems to possess is an air of confidence about his game, and what he can do for the Broncos. And it shows in how successful the team has been in pressure situations.
Against the Texans, the Broncos were 5 for 8 on 3rd down conversions. Lock completed 5 of 5 passes, and converted on 4 of those passes scoring 2 touchdowns. In two games Lock is 15/18 on 3rd down for 149 yards and 4 touchdowns. He has scrambled for one first down, and taken one sack. The red zone and 3rd down are money situations, and in those situations, Lock has been money.
In a game that Denver had no business winning, they followed their rookie QB, and absolutely demolished the Texans. It was 31-3 before Houston ran into the locker room at halftime. From then on, Denver was just riding out the victory.
Obviously, the offense cooled in the second half, but Rich Scangarello provided Lock with a great game plan. The offense executed well, and the defense came up huge. Kareem Jackson’s TD run after Jeremiah Attaochu recovered the fumble forced by Alexander Johnson and handed it to him before being tackled was a huge play. Plays like this help create momentum, and with the way the offense played, the momentum never swung back to the Texans until it was much too late.
For now, the big story is the play of the Broncos rookie QB. Everything he does has many in Broncos Country floating with excitement. It’s like Ian said on the podcast, “It’s fun to watch this team, and it’s all because of Drew Lock.”