Game Thread: AZ vs Denver - Week 15

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[Duffman]

I’m here in person because my uncle had an extra ticket, I’m guessing because no one would buy it from him.

 

[PumpFake]

I’m here in person because my uncle had an extra ticket, I’m guessing because no one would buy it from him.

Nice! Post some pics, Duffer!!

 

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[LGM]

I’m here in person because my uncle had an extra ticket, I’m guessing because no one would buy it from him.

Looks like a ton of no-shows. I can't wait for the day when we don't have a sell-out. If ever there was a season for it to happen, it's this one.

 

[Duffman]

I wish we had Matt Prater.

 

[SpringStein]

Looks like a ton of no-shows. I can't wait for the day when we don't have a sell-out. If ever there was a season for it to happen, it's this one.

I don’t think that’s possible. I think all games are sold out for the year.

 

[Duffman]

Murray is about the only bright spot on Offense. Well Jeudy’s been good today too.

 

[megalodon30]

Alright it’s a blowout now. Let that Jarrett Guacamoletini get some snaps.

 

[megalodon30]

Nice to see Surtain end it with a pick.

Go Broncos!

 

[PumpFake]

Duffman =

 

[CEH]

I don’t think that’s possible. I think all games are sold out for the year.

plus the wait list is 87K i just looked

owners don’t really care if fans show up. they have their money and local broadcasting rights which is more than season tickets plus revenue sharing.

why buy a team if your goal is not the a Super Bowl. we’ll see what they spend and do

some are saying owners wanted the extension and Paton wanted to wait that’s why he’s safe in 2023 plus owners are new of the whole NFL thing

 

[Duffman]

Duffman =

All it took was for me to come to a game to snap the streak.

 

[nflbronco]

18,400 no shows

 

[PumpFake]

plus the wait list is 87K i just looked

owners don’t really care if fans show up. they have their money and local broadcasting rights which is more than season tickets plus revenue sharing.

why buy a team if your goal is not the a Super Bowl. we’ll see what they spend and do

some are saying owners wanted the extension and Paton wanted to wait that’s why he’s safe in 2023 plus owners are new of the whole NFL thing

I saw that somewhere. That the extension was at the behest of Walton’s group.

 

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Murray feeling the love.

 

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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The first start of Luke Wattenberg’s NFL career lasted less than two quarters. The rookie didn’t get yanked early from his left guard spot during a Dec. 11 home game against the Chiefs because he had suffered an injury, like so many of his teammates along the offensive line, but because he was swimming.
In only 27 snaps, Wattenberg was charged with two sacks and three pressures allowed, according to TruMedia, appearing completely overwhelmed by star defensive tackle Chris Jones and other members of Kansas City’s front four. Coach Nathaniel Hackett pulled Wattenberg, deciding instead to go with a rotation of Quinn Bailey and Netane Muti, two players who spent most of this season on the practice squad, to fill the spot vacated by injured starter Dalton Risner.

Before Wattenberg could drop his head amid the benching, veteran Graham Glasgow was there to lift him up.

“I told him, ‘Hey, this was your first game that you ever (started),'” Glasgow said of Wattenberg, whose only other meaningful action this season had come in a Week 10 relief appearance at center. “‘That was your welcome-to-the-NFL moment. Now you’ve got it over with and you can learn from it and move on. It’s only up from here.'”

Fast forward to Sunday, when Wattenberg was thrust into action because injuries — first to Risner at left guard and then to Tom Compton at right guard — kept rearranging Denver’s makeshift offensive line. It wasn’t perfect for the fifth-round pick out of the University of Washington during his second-chance outing, but he was part of a unit that helped produce 113 rushing yards in the second half when the Broncos scored three touchdowns in four possessions. On those three second-half scores — a 3-yard Marlon Mack run, a 10-yard Latavius Murray run and a 3-yard pass from Brett Rypien to tight end Eric Tomlinson after a nifty play-action fake — Wattenberg anonymously executed his assignments, invisible in the way an offensive lineman generally wants to be.

“He worked hard this week, he took it to heart, and I’m glad he got a chance to go out there and was able to show what he can do,” Glasgow said.

Finding ways to make life easier Sunday for Wattenberg and the rest of the fast-shuffling front is one example of how Denver’s coaching staff has made key halftime adjustments the past two weeks. In the 34-28 loss to the Chiefs in Week 14 and Sunday’s 24-15 victoryover the Cardinals, the Broncos scored a combined five second-half offensive touchdowns, tied for the second-highest total in the league over the past two weeks. Denver’s offensive touchdown total after halftime in the first 12 games, which included three overtime periods? Six.

“Every single week is different, and every single time you go out there it’s different matchups,” Hackett said when asked why the Broncos found the sort of offensive success in the second half that had largely been elusive this season. “For us, it’s been different players on offense also. As you’re trying to figure those guys out, you make sure you’re putting them in the right spot. You might go into (a game) with a mindset of, ‘Hey, this is going to be good for this guy.’ But you don’t know until you go out there. That’s our job, and that’s the fun part about this game.”

Shuffling through seven different offensive line combinations in two games, as Denver has done the past two weeks, might not fit under everyone’s definition of fun, but perhaps this staff has become so accustomed to players popping in and out of the lineup during games that they have started to get a handle on how to adjust. Though the Broncos trailed 6-3 at halftime and would be down 9-3 by the time they first touched the ball in the third quarter, Hackett made clear to his offensive coaches that a path to offensive success in the second half needed to be forged on the ground.

It helped that Murray, whose 130-yard performance made him the first Broncos rusher to eclipse 100 yards this season, ripped off a 35-yard run on Denver’s first play of the second half, sprung by key blocks from new wide receiver Freddie Swain and tight end Eric Saubert. But sticking to the script had not been Denver’s strong point this season. Too often the Broncos operated in a one-score game as if they were chasing a three-touchdown deficit. Save for an ill-advised throw into double-coverage by Rypien on the final play of the third quarter Sunday, Denver was happy to eat its vegetables.

“Old-school football,” Saubert called it.

Hackett and his staff have seen wrenches in their way at every turn this season. In two separate games this season, wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, a talented offensive play-maker around whom large chunks of various game plans are created, exited in the first quarter and didn’t return. Three starting tackles have suffered in-game injuries. The guard carousel the past two weeks has been “wild,” to use Hackett’s term. But in a finishing stretch that serves as an important evaluation window for a coaching staff under scrutiny, finding fixes on the fly will continue to be paramount for Hackett.

On Sunday, the common sense approach triumphed. Though Murray will celebrate his 33rd birthday next month, he has been among Denver’s most reliable offensive players since making his debut with the team in Week 6 against the Chargers. Murray had averaged 4.5 yards per carry during the Broncos’ previous three games. He had exploded for a season-best 52 yards in a Week 12 loss to the Panthers. The staff felt a breakout coming.

“This is a guy who just loves the game,” Hackett said of Murray. “He doesn’t care where he’s playing or who he’s playing with. He just loves to be out there and play. How he’s picked up the system and taken on a leadership role, even in the limited time he’s been here, is a big credit to him.”

The Broncos have three games left to build off their current momentum and try to figure out who makes sense as part of the puzzle in 2023. When Russell Wilson returns on Christmas Day after a one-game absence due to a concussion, the plan shouldn’t alter wildly. The Broncos should play to the strength of the revolving personnel on offense as they’ve done for most of the last six quarters. Continuing to make the most of in-game adjustments as Hackett and his staff have done recently would go a long way.

“We love scoring points in the second half,” Hackett said. “We just want to put it together for four quarters.”

 

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What jumps out at you?

 

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