Denver Broncos game 2 snap count and analysis

An ugly win by the Denver Broncos is still a win and it’s better than a pretty loss.

Offense

Our offensive line played all 72 offensive snaps, but Graham Glasgow got shoved back into the backfield on too many plays for my liking. I guess his ability to pass block outweighs his seeming liability (relative to Netane Muti) as a run blocker. Fleming looked good in the run game again this week. The offensive line has not been called for holding on any passing plays yet this season.

The Broncos have only been called for offensive holding three times and one was on the jet sweep to Montrell Washington when Melvin Gordon got called for holding down the field. The other two were on Lloyd Cushenberry on running plays.

That call on Gordon led to an odd situation. Because the holding occurred downfield well beyond the line to gain, the Broncos gained a first down but were penalized after the first down. The next play was first and 1 from Houston 45. The penalty occurred at the Houston 35. The ball was spotted at the Denver 46 before the run. I can’t say that I have ever seen a first and one from midfield in 30+ years of playing and watching football.

The running back snaps were heavily weighted in Javonte Williams’ favor. He got 47, while Gordon got 23 and Mike Boone got 7. Williams got 15 carries and four targets on his 47 snaps while Gordon got 10 carries and one target on his 23. Boone didn’t see the ball on offense.

Albert Okweugbunam got the most snaps of the TE group, but we used all four tight ends quite a bit. Despite playing the most Albert had two targets and zero catches. He had another drop in this game on a 3rd down play where he had plenty of room to gain the first down if he had caught the ball. The Erics (Saubert and Tomlinson) played 26 and 24 snaps on offense while Andrew Beck played 21 snaps. Unlike game one, Beck only touched the ball once on offense - on that WFT? FB/TE speed option on 3rd and 1 in the 3rd quarter.

Jerry Jeudy leaving with a rib injury meant that he only played 10 offensive snaps. Courtland Sutton again was the primary target of the offense playing 66 of 72 offensive snaps and getting 11 of 31 targets. Kendall Hinton played a relatively quiet 55 snaps on offense one week after being called up from the PS. He was targeted one time and he a catch for 20 yards. Tyrie Cleveland played 31 snaps while Washington played 12. Cleveland had three targets; Washington had one.

According to PFR, Bronco receivers have five drops so far through two games. It feels like there have been more than that. For comparison, in 2019 on 516 passes, Seahawk receivers only dropped 17. Russ has had five on 73 so far this year. PFR shows that no Bronco receiver has more than one drop, but that doesn’t jive with my memory.

Calvin Anderson was the only offensive player who played on special teams but played zero offensive snaps. Brett Rypien, Netane Muti and Luke Wattenberg did not play at all from the offensive group.

Defense

With Justin Simmons out Caden Sterns played every defensive snap alongside Kareem Jackson at safety. P.J. Locke played 15 defensive snaps when we used three safeties (heavy nickel).

Four cornerbacks played defensive snaps. Ronald Darby played all 63, while K’Waun Williams played 50. Patrick Surtain was limited to 25 because of injury and rookie Damarri Mathis played 38 snaps in his place.

The heavies on the defensive line played 43 (DJ Jones), 28 (DeShawn Williams) and 24 (Mike Purcell) snaps. Dre’Mont Jones and Matt Henningsen played 53 and 17 snaps.

The outside linebackers had Bradley Chubb playing 48, Randy Gregory 43, Baron Browning 30 and Jonathon Cooper 4 snaps.

Alex Singleton hardly left the field at ILB (60 of 63 snaps) while Jonas Griffith played on only 26 snaps on defense.

Defensive players who played zero defensive snaps included Justin Strnad, Aaron Patrick, Essang Bassey, Delarrin Turner-Yell, and Darius Phillips. Patrick had a nice tackle on punt coverage.

Special teams

Our core special teams guys (not counting K, P and LS) appear to be Saubert, Locke, Cooper, Strnad and Patrick. All had 21 or more special teams snaps (of a possible 26). Cleveland, Beck, and Bassey each had 18. I found it interesting that Chubb (3) and Gregory (1) both played on special teams albeit sparingly. Chubb might be on the FG/PAT block team, but I have no idea why Gregory was in on a special teams snap given his injury history.