The last time Denver had a break in its schedule, head coach Nathaniel Hackett said his aim was to “focus” the playbook and the Broncos’ offensive plan.
After an 11-day mini-bye, his team put forward one of its worst offensive showings of a bad offensive half-season, mustering a season-low 258 yards and 13 first downs in a 19-16 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Now, with two weeks between a win in London and a road trip to Tennessee, Hackett and the Broncos must make better use of its off week. For all of the talk about the trade deadline and moving Bradley Chubb, Denver’s best chance at rallying toward contention from 3-5 is to get much more from its offense in the final nine games than it did in the first eight.
That, of course, starts with Hackett, quarterback Russell Wilson and their ability to grow together.
“I get to know him more every single day,” Hackett said. “You always grow as a coach and you grow as a player. You grow the coach and player relationship when you go through situations and when you go through calling the plays for somebody. … As we work together, I get to learn more when he’s trying to find those, what he can do to get those and I’m trying to create those for him. Of course, we learn about each other after every single game.”
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Perhaps a cram session between now and the Week 10 trip to Tennessee is in order?
Heading into Week 9, the Broncos are No. 31 in scoring offense at 15.1 points per game, No. 29 in first downs per game (17) and tied for last in touchdown passes per game (0.75). They are last in red zone touchdown percentage (35%), No. 31 in third-down conversion rate (29.2%) and only three teams in the NFL score on fewer of their possessions overall.
Some other metrics look slightly better, but nearly across the board, if there’s an offensive stat, Denver is in the bottom third of the league.
It is not realistic to expect that the Broncos turn around all of those areas on a dime — they showed signs of life by mounting three long touchdown drives against Jacksonville in London — but the slow start has eliminated the margin for error going forward into the second half.
“They’re going to work the next couple of days and we’re all going to work,” general manager George Paton said early last week. “They’re going to do quality control. I believe in Nathaniel’s coaches and we’re going to figure this out. I like the way we’re trending.”
The Broncos have some areas to examine. How do they continue to unlock the abilities of receivers KJ Hamler and Jerry Jeudy plus tight end Greg Dulcich in the passing game and, in turn, loosen up coverage on Courtland Sutton? Paton held on to those young wideouts through the trading deadline for a reason.
Can one of Denver’s many new running backs – Latavius Murray, Marlon Mack or Chase Edmonds – give the team a bit more in the run game?
Hackettap ability or inability to answer those questions will go a long way in determining what the second half of his rookie head coaching season will look like.
