Denver Broncos’ snap counts and stat discussion for Game 15

So that game was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Getting embarrassed 51-14 on national TV by a 4-10 team that was missing their best offensive player, their best defensive player and who was playing a starting quarterback that had been with the team for about twenty minutes. That sealed the deal for Nathaniel Can’t Hackett.

The Denver Broncos allowed the second most points in a game this season (only the Colts allowed more in their 54-19 loss to the Cowboys). The Los Angeles Rams now have 281 points scored on the season, with about one fifth of that coming in this game. They came into the game second to last in points scored this season. They are now 26th.

The Broncos are almost guaranteed to finish last in scoring. The Colts are now second to last at 248 points while the Broncos have scored 232. The Broncos would need to score 17 more points in the the final two games than the Colts do. If not this will become the first Bronco team to finish dead last in scoring.

Offens(ive)e

In terms of this debacle of a game, the starting offensive line played every snap, but still gave up six sacks. The team has allowed 57 this season and is on a pace to break the franchise record for sacks allowed (63 in ‘63). That was in 14 games though, so this team is not quite as bad as that team in terms of sacks allowed per game.

I turned this game off after the first quarter and went to do something enjoyable with my family (We played farkle). I’m glad I did. From what I was told, the offensive line was not even helping Russell Wilson up off the ground he got knocked down. This is a sad statement, particularly since he bought them all Coach bags for Christmas.

For the first time this season Jerry Jeudy played the most snaps at WR. Courtland Sutton had the second most. Freddie Swain was WR3 as he got 50 snaps. Jalen Virgil got 19 snaps and Montrell Washington got his usual token three snaps.

Greg Dulcich again got the most TE snaps with 45 while Eric Saubert got twice as many and Eric Tomlinson (22 and 11). Andrew Beck played three snaps.

Latavius Murray got 31 snaps and Chase Edmonds got 28 for the RBs. Marlon Mack got 10 as the RB3.

The Rams defense came into the game with 10 total interceptions on the season in 13 games and we gave them four in this game. I guess our QBs were in a giving mood on Christmas.

Defense

Only four of the five stalwarts on defense played every snap: Patrick Surtain, Josey Jewell, Justin Simmons and Damarri Mathis. Kareem Jackson played all but four snaps. PJ Locke spelled him on those four.

Alex Singleton was on the field for 57 of our 65 defensive snaps.

On the defensive line DJ Jones, DeShawn Williams, Jonathan Harris, Mike Purcell, Eyioma Uwazurike, and Matt Henningsen played 35, 33, 33, 31, 22 and 18 snaps on defense.

At OLB/edge Baron Browning, Jonathan Cooper, Nik Bonitto, Randy Gregory and Wyatt Ray played 46, 41, 24, 11 and 8 snaps. I find it interesting that Gregory played only 11 snaps.

The defense in general was pretty terrible this game. I don’t know how many QB pressures we were able to generate, but we had zero sacks and only one QBhit (Uwazurike).

You have to wonder if the defense finally decided to just hit the “f” it button.

K’Waun Williams played 31 snaps as CB3. No other CB played defensive snaps.

Justin Strnad, Essang Bassey, Delarrin Turner-Yell and Lamar Jackson (not the QB) played special teams but no defensive snaps.

OT Christian DiLauro played on special teams, but did not play on offense.

Luke Wattenberg was the only active player who did not play in the game.

Game-day inactives were Kendall Hinton, Jarrett Guarantano, recently released Michael Ojemudia, Calvin Anderson, Albert Okwuegbunam, Brandon Johnson and Elijah Garcia.

For those not paying attention, Guarantano is a QB and Garcia is a DT.

I watch the roster and the snaps each week and there were about five players on this week’s snap counts that I had to look up.

It will be interesting to see what happens next week on the road against the Chiefs. Does the interim coaching staff treat this game as an audition for for the 2023 season for players who have not played much yet this year, or do we run out the same guys on offense and defense that have been playing (at least the few who aren’t currently on the IR).