Denver Broncos: 5 studs from victory over Miami Dolphins

2. Pat Shurmur

Something had to give for the Denver Broncos’ young offense at some point, right?

Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur was seen literally shaking his head in the booth as the young offense gained one yard on six plays with an interception in their first two drives of the game.

After those first two drives, the Broncos’ offense started to get things going and they were not only calling good plays, but the offense actually felt like it had a good flow in this game.

Pat Shurmur has not consistently put the Broncos’ offense in the greatest situations with his play calls, but he did a great job in this game cooling off the hot Miami defense on the ground and through the air.

Shurmur’s commitment to the running game in this one paid huge dividends. The Broncos went for 189 on the ground at 5.7 yards per carry with two touchdowns. It would have been three if Melvin Gordon had not fumbled late in the fourth quarter.

Shurmur’s calls and flow in this game resulted in 459 total yards of offense and 7.3 yards per play. Those are not numbers the Broncos are used to seeing, obviously.

There was a very nice balance throughout this game, and when the Broncos needed to answer the Dolphins’ late field-goal drive to put the game within seven points, Shurmur didn’t get overly conservative and the Broncos came within one yard and a bad turnover away from putting the game permanently out of reach.