The errors and inexperience were first laid bare Nov. 22 in Chicago.
But victories have a way of masking mistakes.
Brock Osweiler, the Broncos’ fourth-year quarterback, led the team to a 17-15 victory over the Bears that day while unveiling an offense that coach Gary Kubiak had hoped to run from Day 1 in Denver.
The run game was alive. The passing game was steady. The turnovers were nonexistent.
But the sacks were…. five of them.
Sunday, in a Broncos loss to the Raiders, they were still there. Five more.
“Anytime there’s anything that goes wrong with the offense, I believe the quarterback is the first person that needs to fix something,” Osweiler said. “I can get the ball out sooner in the backed-up situation. I can understand the protection that we’re in, understand that we’re backed up, we can’t give up a sack at this point in the game, where’s my quickest option to get the ball out?” Osweiler said. “I’m always going to look at myself first, and of course there are areas that I can work on.”
If Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning’s vice has been interceptions (a league-worst 17) this season, Osweiler’s has been sacks. Of the 187 times he has dropped back spread over 18 quarters this season, Osweiler has been taken down 17 times, for a sack rate of 9.09 percent. In 337 pass plays over the first nine games of the season, Manning was sacked 15 times, a rate of 4.45 percent.
Kubiak saw the red flag go up after that victory at Chicago and watched as it stood at full mast after the Broncos’ latest defeat against Oakland, when Khalil Mack’s five sacks quashed any hope the Broncos’ offense had of gaining ground before the final whistle.
Osweiler completed 35-of-51 pass attempts, none that led to a touchdown. His 308 total yards were shaved to 276 when the 32 yards lost to sacks were accounted for.
The five sacks spoke volumes, but it was last one, with 1:56 remaining in the fourth quarter, that was the loudest.
On a second-and-4 at Denver’s 29-yard line, Mack sprinted around the right edge of the offensive line to barrel toward Osweiler, who tried to evade the sack by moving out left, instead of up toward the line of scrimmage.
Osweiler drifted and got caught.
“You work on that all the time,” Kubiak said. “We do drills with that all the time. Until you get out there and get a bunch of starts under your belt and a bunch of snaps under your belt, sometimes it’s not natural. You tend to slide away from something instead of moving up away from it and help the tackles.”
A drop-off in pocket awareness from a quarterback with more than 17 seasons of NFL experience to one with only four starts is to be expected. But with every outing, every play, the differences, both good and bad, become pronounced and exploited.
This season, Osweiler has needed, on average, 2.68 seconds to unload the football after fielding the snap, the 24th-fastest time among NFL quarterbacks, according to Pro Football Focus.
The fastest? Manning, at 2.31 seconds.
“That’s what makes Peyton Manning, Peyton Manning,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told Pittsburgh media Tuesday. “I think it would be unrealistic to expect anyone to operate in a Peyton Manning-like way from that standpoint.”
Part of it is by design, as Osweiler has been more of a game-manager than passing threat, guiding a balanced attack in the air and on the ground for the Broncos. The plan — the crux of Kubiak’s zone-blocking, stretch-run offense — helped them to three victories in Osweiler’s first three starts.
But the one loss — as well as the prospect of facing the Steelers, a team that ranks fifth in sacks (38) — has put the spotlight on areas of weakness.
Weaknesses Osweiler admittedly has seen, and felt, many times over this season.
“I’m going to be the first one to say that’s on me, and I need to get the ball out quicker, I need to find an outlet quicker,” he said. That’s exactly what I’m going to do, and I’m going to learn from it and grow and get it better.”
Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or @NickiJhabvala
