Denver Broncos vs. Houston Texans Preview: The Return of Brock

Brock Osweiler filled in admirably for the Denver Broncos in Peyton Manning’s absence on the way to Super Bowl 50.  Now he returns to face his former team.

Brock is back in the building.  The Denver Broncos host their former backup quarterback and the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football this week and nobody seems more hyped to see their former teammate than the Denver Broncos defense.

Disrespect is something that has fueled this Denver Broncos defense for two years.  Disrespect by the media, by the fans, and now by Brock Osweiler.  When Osweiler chose not to respond to his teammates and front office this offseason, it was clear that he was gone.  Osweiler went on to say that the Houston Texans offered him the best chance to win.  To the Denver Broncos, that is simply dis–re–spect–ful.  More on this later.

Quarterback Problems

The Denver Broncos have been absolutely abysmal on offense the past two games and that needs to change.  In week five, the Broncos used Paxton Lynch while starting quarterback Trevor Siemian rested a bum shoulder suffered in a week four win at Tampa Bay.  Lynch put up decent stats in the game, completing 65% of his passes for 223 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT.  He flashed the talent that made John Elway trade up to draft him, but overall he really struggled in the game.

In his return to the lineup in week six, Trevor Siemian struggled mightily.  His stats did not even come close to representing how poor of a game it was for the second year player out of Northwestern.  Siemian completed 60% of his passes for 230 yards and 1a TD, but was completely ineffective in throws longer than 10 yards.  Of the 50 passes Siemian attempted, only 9 went more than 10 yards down the field—and only one of those were completed.  Siemian held on to the ball far too long on multiple occasions leading to inaccurate throws and plenty of balls that he just threw away.

Offensive Line Woes

While neither quarterback has played well the past two weeks, it would be completely unfair to pin both of the losses on that position.  The reality of the situation is that the entire offense has been abysmal, especially along the offensive line.  In week five vs. the Falcons, the line was still missing starting RT Donald Stephenson and starting TE Virgil Green.  Paxton Lynch was pressured on 46% of his drop backs. He was sacked six times in total.  A couple of the sacks were due to the ball not coming out of his hand, but the majority of them the rush got to Lynch in 2.75 seconds or less; an awful performance for the line to say the least.

Both Stephenson and Green returned for the San Diego game.  While the

results were slightly better, it wasn’t a huge improvement—not the type of improvement that would be encouraging for the Broncos.  While Siemian wasn’t under pressure nearly as much as Lynch just days before, penalties became the problem.  Every time C.J. Anderson cranked out a decent run, it was called back for a penalty.  Every lineman for the Broncos committed at least one penalty—a trend that simply cannot continue.

The biggest similarity on the line between the two games was the lack of a run game.  Too often the guards are getting blown off the ball, most notably Max Garcia.  This is typically a problem defined by attitude and intensity, something that has been sorely lacking for this line since week two, and has severely hurt the rushing attack.  Without a viable rushing attack, neither of these young quarterbacks are going to have an easy time having success the rest of the year.