Denver Broncos: 3 changes Rich Scangarello made that worked

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DENVER, CO – NOVEMBER 3: Brandon Allen #2 of the Denver Broncos signals to the sidelines for a play during the second half of a game against the Cleveland Browns at Broncos Stadium at Mile High on November 3, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. The Broncos defeated the Browns 24-19. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /

1. The QB change

If we can be brutally honest for a moment, while also taking nothing away from Brandon Allen, the success of the offense had less to do with the inclusion of Brandon Allen and more to do with the fact that Joe Flacco was not operating it.

Flacco was supposed to force defenses to defend “every blade of grass” on the field, but as it turns out, he was completely inept facing stacked boxes, couldn’t make hot reads before the snap, was incapable of running around and making plays outside the pocket, couldn’t avoid pressure…

You name it, Flacco wasn’t doing it well. It’s not what any of us wanted as we were hopeful Flacco could be a good fit in Rich Scangarello’s offense like he was in Gary Kubiak’s offense five years ago, but his play has taken a substantial turn for the worse.

Now, credit to Brandon Allen, who made some big plays in this game and hung tough in the pocket, making some plays with his legs and basically doing everything we had hoped to see from the QB position on the most basic level.

He extended plays at an appropriate rate. He has a heck of a hard count and drew a penalty on the Browns because of it. Allen gave his receivers chances to make plays and was, for the most part, accurate (enough) with the football.

He missed some throws, he got happy feet in the pocket at times, but for the most part, he not only had the Broncos’ offense on schedule, but he also made some really nice plays and took care of the football.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1191108738339360768

This throw to Courtland Sutton shows us some basic situational football being executed to perfection by the Broncos from the OC Scangarello to the QB Brandon Allen to the WR Courtland Sutton.

This is a stacked box in man coverage and a single-high safety. The Broncos are showing run on 1st-and-10 and the Browns are anticipating it. So what do you call as an offensive coordinator? You take a shot against man coverage with one of the best man coverage beaters in the NFL, Courtland Sutton.

Allen recognizes it immediately, and you can see him before the snap look both ways before crossing, so to speak. He sees man coverage. He sees single-high. This is not rocket science but we’re nine weeks into the 2019 season and we have barely seen this from the Broncos.

Allen knows the safety is going to have a tough time getting over to help on Sutton, so he gets rid of this ball quickly and puts it up there for Sutton to make a play.

Is it the best throw? No. If Ward had turned his head, he might pick this ball off. But he didn’t. And Sutton put on his best Randy Moss impression for us all and made a ridiculous catch.

Again, this is a basic execution of situational football, but we haven’t seen the Broncos execute basic things and there was plenty of that going on in this game, specifically because of the change at quarterback.

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