Denver Broncos win: How all three phases performed vs. Seahawks

Defense

Pass Rush

Von Miller is on pace for 48 sacks this season after a three-sack performance against Seattle, and we’ll see if the league gives him credit for falling on top of Wilson after a botched snap late in the game. They should give it to him upon review, as the play was clearly not supposed to be a run but Wilson had to fall on the ball just to prevent the Broncos from taking it away again.

Miller looked like a league MVP in this game, playing one of the best games I have seen in his eight NFL seasons.

He notched seven total tackles, three (unofficially, four) sacks, two forced fumbles, four quarterback hits, and three tackles for loss.

Miller was not the only Broncos rusher to get some action in this one, either. Bradley Chubb and Darian Stewart combined for a sack on the first play of the game for Denver’s defense.

Shaquil Barrett had a sack to close out the first half, and Chris Harris Jr. got a sack on Russell Wilson in the fourth quarter at a critical juncture, giving the Broncos six total sacks on the game.

They finished with a whopping 11 hits on Russell Wilson, and Joe Woods dialed up some great pressure throughout the game from his interior guys, as Shelby Harris also got home for two hits on Wilson.

Run Defense

The Seahawks averaged four yards on 16 carries, including seven carries for 51 yards from Chris Carson. He was easily the most efficient back on the team from a per-carry standpoint, but he also got the ball stripped from him by Von Miller on one of his better runs in the game.

The Seahawks’ running backs only got 14 carries in this game, so their offense lacked balance and they deliberately did not play into the Broncos’ strength in that regard.

Pass Defense

The Broncos’ coverage on wide receivers was up and down throughout most of this game. I would say they were mostly good, as even on Brandon Marshall’s touchdown catch, Bradley Roby was right there in coverage.

Where the Broncos struggled was against the tight end — again — and it was infuriating to watch.

Will Dissly — yes, you read that right — led the Seahawks in receiving with three catches for 105 yards. Tyler Lockett’s 51-yard touchdown catch propelled him to 59 total receiving yards in the game.

Aside from a couple of bad breakdowns in coverage, however, the Broncos were really strong in this one. Some of the sacks Russell Wilson took throughout the game were a result of great coverage on the back end, and the Broncos picked off a pair of passes in this game, including a desperation throw to cap it all off by Pacman Jones.

Depth chart update/spoiler — it looks like Pacman has ascended to the clear number three corner in Denver right now.

The Broncos have to be better against tight ends, and they cannot give up so many big plays on busted coverage. That was an issue in this game.