Denver Broncos: 3 changes Rich Scangarello made that worked

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DENVER, CO – NOVEMBER 3: Noah Fans #87 of the Denver Broncos runs the ball after a catch and is pursued by Joe Schobert #53 of the Cleveland Browns during the second half of a game 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) /

2. The short passing game

Some of the biggest and most important plays in this game for the Broncos’ offense came courtesy of their short passing game.

Case-in-point:

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1191115937572741120

This play is designed to gain your offense 10 yards, because the safety coming up should make that tackle on Noah Fant. The fact of the matter is, however, you drafted Noah Fant because of his exceptional speed, athleticism, and potential after the catch.

These drag plays off play-action are exactly what I have been screaming for from the Broncos’ offense.

This was one of a couple of plays off play-action where Fant’s exceptional speed and athletic ability paid dividends for the Broncos, but the 75-yard touchdown play is one you put at the front of the highlight reel to show others why you took a guy like Fant in round one.

He made just as nice of a play if not better in the third quarter on a bootleg play-action play where he dragged across the field to the right side, and Allen threw him open near the sideline for a beautiful sliding first-down catch.

There were a number of well-designed natural rub-route plays in this game, specifically some third-down passes to Courtland Sutton which worked to perfection. Sutton didn’t need to run vertical routes all game to have an impact in this one. He made just as much of an impact to the short-middle of the field to help extend drives for the Broncos.

The short passing game was devastating for Cleveland’s defense late in the third quarter as the Broncos actually used play-action passing to set up their run game.

The Browns were forced to respect the Broncos’ pass game, which was seemingly dinking and dunking yet picking up bigger chunks from yards after the catch.

Once the Broncos got numbers in the box, they dialed up this run play to Phillip Lindsay:

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1191140049867296768

Scangarello was killing the Browns with death by a thousand paper cuts in the short passing game/play-action, then hit them with this knockout blow.

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