Denver Broncos: Week 6 against the Las Vegas Raiders, 25 or Under?

Denver Broncos offense: 25 or under?

Second-year wide receiver, Kendall Hinton deserves to be the headline here. After not only scoring his first NFL touchdown, Hinton also had his best Tim Patrick impression and had what was the catch of the game on the last drive of the game, with just 0:58 left in the game.

It wasn’t all bad for the Denver Broncos offense Sunday. Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick also had great games. Sutton had 7 receptions for 120 yards and a touchdown, while Patrick had 7 reception for 89 yards.

Rookie running back, Javonte Williams, broke off another big-time run and set up the Broncos offense in scoring position before he drew a delay of game penalty for spiking the football. He ended the day with 8 carries for 61 yards.

These three players will be vital in the Broncos’ upcoming matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders. Establishing the run game early and running efficiently is the biggest key to ending this two-game skid. Other than dominating the line of scrimmage, the Denver Broncos have to get off to a fast start.

Teddy Bridgewater needs to avoid horrific sacks and has to keep this team in third and manageable. That also falls on offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. His run-run-pass approach is blatantly obvious at this point and provides defensive coordinators with great insight on how to keep this offense from moving the chains.

Blame hasn’t been on a sole individual from an offensive or defensive perspective for the failures of this team the previous two games. Garrett Bolles has not been playing up to his standards, nor has the entire offensive line.

Dominating the line of scrimmage is a must for any team if they have a desire to be successful, especially a team that should have a run-first approach. Las Vegas is giving up north of 134 rushing yards a game this year, which is 25th in the NFL.

That should be the approach the Denver Broncos take offensively. In front of the home crowd, the fans would love nothing more than abusing the Las Vegas Raiders to help climb their way back to offensive relevancy.

Former Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach, Jon Gruden, has been in news across the nation. An outpour of derogatory emails and insulting slurs were just recently released, coming from Gruden’s personal email account. Since, he has officially put in his resignation and he was dismissed from the team.

That could be motivation for this Raiders football team. It could spark unity and a semblance of an ‘us against the world’ type of feeling that could push them to heights we haven’t seen. It could also derail the Raiders as they will be playing under interim Head Coach, Rich Bisaccia.

Who knows what this game will bring, especially with two teams that have struggled mightily in the previous two weeks.

For the Denver Broncos and their offense, a few things must happen in order for them to fight their way out of the hole they have dug themselves in. One, as I said before, dominate the line of scrimmage.

Two, run the football and run it efficiently. Three, Teddy Bridgewater must step his game up. Bridgewater must develop a sense of urgency before the fourth quarter begins and he has to avoid taking drive-killing sacks.

They must stay in third and manageable, Teddy Bridgewater is not capable of converting 3rd and long at a consistent rate. Bridgewater and Shurmur also have to get Noah Fant involved in this game. Three receptions for 20 yards is not acceptable for Noah Fant, especially when this receiving core is decimated like it is.

Last but not least, the Denver Broncos have to get off to a fast start. Since Shurmur has taken over as the Denver Broncos offensive coordinator, the Denver Broncos have gone 24 straight games without an opening drive touchdown.

Now is the time for this to change.

Time is ticking on Shurmur as this team’s play-caller, he should feel the heat coming off of his seat. He has to call a great game Sunday, he needs to make sure rising star, Maxx Crosby has a minimal impact by chipping him with Eric Saubert, not Noah Fant.

For my prediction of 25 or Under for the Denver Broncos offense, I don’t think they get to 23 points. As it stands today, I’ve lost quite a bit of confidence in this unit. Until they prove otherwise, I have no reason to pour faith into this unit.

That said, I think they creep right up on the threshold and manage to put up 26 points in the old fashioned blue uniforms. If I was a betting man, I would bet that Melvin Gordon gets into the end zone twice, with two rushing touchdowns.

Noah Fant doesn’t score in this game, but I do think he will see a high volume of targets. Ultimately, I see him having his best game of the season and he closes in on a 100-yard day but falls just short with around 87 yards.

In this scenario, the offense struggles to finish drives, but they do convert four field goals from the trusty Brandon McManus.

Will 26 points from the offense be enough to propel this team to victory?