Drew Lock: How did the young QB bounce back against Miami?
How did Broncos QB Drew Lock bounce back against the Dolphins?
After losing two straight games on the road, the Denver Broncos desperately needed to get back in the win column and they had a tough task on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.
Miami head coach Brian Flores has proven that he was more than just riding on Bill Belichick’s coattails in New England — he is a great defensive schemer and made life particularly difficult on Chargers rookie quarterback Justin Herbert two weeks ago.
With the Dolphins making life so tough on Herbert and Broncos quarterback Drew Lock throwing four interceptions against the Las Vegas Raiders (and getting hurt in the process), Lock was facing an uphill battle to get back on track.
Starting off the game 0-6 with an interception had Pat Shurmur up in the booth literally shaking his head, whether he was frustrated with Lock or just the combination of struggles the offense has had in recent weeks.
The Broncos are committed this season to seeing what Lock can do. Against the Dolphins, the mission was to see if he could make better decisions with the ball and score more than turn the ball over.
In the early portion of the first quarter with a pick and a three-and-out, it looked like the same old song for Lock and the offense. Until it wasn’t.
On the Broncos’ third drive of the game, Lock started hitting throws and despite some annoying penalties from the offense, converted multiple third-and-long plays on an 11-play, 73-yard touchdown drive.
The Broncos had two more drives resulting in field goals to end the first half, giving the team a lead heading into the locker room with the ball to start the third quarter.
The opening drive for the third quarter was a very good one, but the Broncos weren’t rewarded for it with a failure on 4th-and-1 after 10 plays, 61 yards, and over five minutes.
The Denver defense held Miami to a three-and-out on their first possession of the second half, and the Broncos’ offense responded with another long scoring drive, this time a touchdown.
Two drives later, the Broncos marched all the way down to the Miami one-yard line where Melvin Gordon fumbled.
After Lock started the game 0-for-6 with an interception, he finished 18-of-24 with 270 yards, 15 yards per completion.
Lock’s success in this game after a rough start is not coincidentally tied to the fact that the Broncos ran the ball exceptionally well as a team (5.7 yards per carry, 159 rushing yards). The passing game was still arguably the best it has been this year in many ways. Lock was much more efficient after his early interception and bounced back from a bad mistake to make a lot of really good reads with the ball.
There were a few plays left on the field (the KJ Hamler slot fade, the swing out to Troy Fumagalli come to mind) but Lock was able to get the Broncos into scoring range on six of the eight drives after the three-and-out in the first quarter.
Lock was able to do this against an aggressive Brian Flores defense, which was out-schemed by Pat Shurmur in this game, quite frankly. It was some of Shurmur’s best work of the season, and it was some of Lock’s best work of the season despite the fact that he didn’t put up other-worldly numbers.
Broncos fans wanted to see progress from Lock, and this game provided it. In a number of ways, Lock looked a lot like his 2019 self in this game — taking the short throws off of play-action, being calculated with his downfield shots, fitting the ball into some tight windows, and playing within the offense.
The pass that got Lock into a rhythm was a 3rd-and-10 play where he has a clean pocket and he does what every fan or analyst has been asking him to do — stay in the pocket, don’t drift back, plant your back foot, and fire.
Lock’s pass on that particular play to KJ Hamler seemed to spark his confidence and get him rolling for the rest of the game.
There were a lot of plays designed to get the ball out quickly to the Broncos’ playmakers and let them do their thing. This kept Lock in rhythm when he was asked to take deeper drops and go through more progressions and also kept the Broncos’ offense on schedule.
Every receiver who caught a pass for the Broncos in this game had at least one play of 15 or more yards.
This wasn’t an offensive clinic like we see from Kansas City nearly every week, but it was a very needed response from Drew Lock against a good and well-coached Miami defense.