Plain and simple, the Broncos’ defense can’t stop the run. The Broncos were trampled during the preseason and they haven’t done much better through three games that counted.
Entering Week 3, the Broncos ranked 27th against the run by allowing 156 yards per game. They surrendered 186 yards against the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 23-14 loss Sunday.
“You’ve got to play together,” Broncos middle linebacker D.J. Williams said. “You can’t leave one gap open against good backs like Fred Taylor and (Maurice) Jones-Drew.”
Williams made eight tackles, but when strong safety Nick Ferguson leads the team with 11, the defense has problems. How did Williams feel about his performance?
“It wasn’t one of my better games, I could have played a lot better,” Williams said. “You never know until you look at it on film. Regardless, I’d rather have played horrible and had my team win than play great and lose. But I didn’t play great. I’ve still got a lot of growing to do and a lot of mistakes to get rid of.”
What did he say?
The Broncos burned all three of their second-half timeouts with 3:52 left in the third quarter. One came when the Broncos lost a challenge on Domenik Hixon’s fumble on the kickoff to start the second half.
The next two were blamed on a malfunction in the radio headsets between the coaches.
“It just went blank on us a couple times,” Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. “We tried to get it fixed but in most of the second half, it was going in and out on us.”
Graham drops sure 1st-down pass
Shanahan took two fourth-down gambles and neither worked. The first was on fourth-and-1 at the Jacksonville 3 following the third timeout with 3:52 left in the third. Kick the gimme field goal and the Broncos would have moved the score to 20-10. Instead, Jay Cutler was stopped short on a quarterback sneak.
“We obviously thought it was going to work,” Shanahan said.
The next fourth-down call was a bigger surprise. The score was 20-14 with 4:19 remaining in the game. The Broncos were at their own 9-yard line, fourth- and-5.
The lack of timeouts and his defense’s inability to stop Jacksonville factored in Shanahan’s decision to go for it. Cutler hit tight end Daniel Graham for what would have been a 20-yard gain or so, but as Graham hit the ground, the ball popped loose for an incompletion. Ballgame.
“I just had a gut feeling with the way they were controlling the tempo that that would give us the best chance to win the game,” Shanahan said. “And it almost turned out good.”
Dumervil excels
Denver defensive end Elvis Dumervil had two sacks for the second consecutive week and now has four sacks on the season. It was Dumervil’s fourth multiple- sack game of his 19-game career. Dumervil had a sack of Jacksonville quarterback David Garrard and recovered a fumble in the third quarter.
O-line had no Mustard
Denver had only six healthy offensive linemen on Sunday with Ben Hamilton and Ryan Harris injured. In the last two weeks, the Broncos signed tackle Chad Mustard the day before the game. But not this game.
Henderson out
As expected, Jacksonville standout defensive tackle John Henderson did not play with a head injury.
In need of oxygen
Quarterback David Garrard summarized Jacksonville’s 18-play, 80-yard scoring drive that took 11 minutes, 44 seconds and put the visitors ahead 7-0 early in the second quarter like this:
“When it ended I thought the game was over. I thought we used up the time for the whole game. I had to get oxygen after that drive. It was really good to get that clock going and put a stamp on how that game was going.”
Iwuh contributes
Former University of Colorado linebacker Brian Iwuh, who is in his second year with Jacksonville after signing as a free agent out of college, made a tackle and recovered Hixon’s fumbled kickoff return to open the second half. Iwuh’s recovery resulted in a field goal and a 20-7 Jaguars lead.
“It felt real good to come back home and get a win in front of my friends and family,” Iwuh said.
Footnotes
Broncos tight end Nate Jackson caught his first NFL touchdown pass in the second quarter. … Cecil Sapp played much more than Mike Bell at fullback. The two split time last week. … Receiver Javon Walker had two catches for 10 yards after having 17 catches in the first two games … Running back Travis Henry had 35 yards on 11 carries. That snapped a four-game streak in which Henry had 100-plus yards, which led the NFL.
