Broncos offense was better with Graham Glasgow at center

The Denver Broncos offense was not very good when Graham Glasgow was starting at right guard. But maybe Glasgow wasn’t the ONLY problem.

Lloyd Cushenberry III got hurt on the drive right before halftime (on the 9 yard completion to Greg Dulcich). During the first half on Sunday the Broncos gained 141 yards on 32 plays - 38 rushing and 103 passing. All but 2 of those yards were gained with LC3 at center. On those rushing plays Melvin Gordon had 5 for 24, Latavius Murray had 5 for 12 and Russell Wilson had 1 for 2. The four actual plays that Glasgow played center on in the first half resulted in a 9 yard completion, a seven yard sack and two incompletions on the final plays of the half.

The Broncos finished the game with 331 yards - 101 rushing and 252 passing (we lost 22 passing yards on three sacks which count against passing yards in the NFL and against rushing yards in college). That means that the Broncos gained 190 yards on 29 plays in the second half - 63 yards rushing and 149 yards passing. Those 63 yards rushing came on 17 runs.

Since Glasgow was not in on any rushing plays in the first half all of the first half runs were with LC3 at center and all of the second half runs were with GG. The Broncos averaged 3.45 yards per carry in the first half (LC3 at center) and 3.71 yards per carry in the second half (GG at center). While this difference might not seem like a big one, it is significant. The run game was better in the second half. We also have to remember that there were three runs in the second half (the two TD runs and the QB sneak on 4th and 1 at the end of the game) that were designed to only get one or two yards (all three did just that).

If you remove those three runs, the Bronco run game gained 59 yards on the other 13 carries or 4.53 yards per carry.

If you look at the admittedly small sample size (33 snaps), the Bronco offense has been better with GG at center than with LC3.

It will definitely be something to watch as it appears that LC3 could miss the next game against the Titans. It would not surprise me to see GG retain the starting job at center once LC3 is healthy if the Bronco offense looks better against the Titans than it did in the first half against the Jags.