5 players and coaches to blame for Broncos loss to Bengals

2. Pat Shurmur, offensive coordinator

Pat Shurmur continues to have a rough season for the Denver Broncos.

It’s a tough call on a week-to-week basis of who to blame between Shurmur or whoever is playing quarterback, but when the offense scores only 10 points in a must-win game?

Shurmur deserves plenty of heat for that.

There are two primary areas to point to in this game that highlight Shurmur in a very negative light.

The first is the sequence of plays after a phenomenal drive by the Broncos’ offense in which Teddy Bridgewater suffered a very scary injury. Before and after Bridgewater’s injury, the Broncos put together one of their more balanced and impressive offensive drives of the game. Bridgewater’s conversion on the play he got hurt helped set the Broncos and Drew Lock up for a touchdown drive, a throw deep downfield from Lock to Tim Patrick giving the Broncos a 10-9 lead.

Unfortunately, that lead disappeared as quickly as it appeared, and the Broncos’ offense found itself needing to respond after a big Bengals touchdown to put Cincinnati ahead 15-10.

Shurmur’s offense marched right down the field once again, getting inside the 10-yard line with a great combination of running and passing. It seemed for a stretch, whatever Shurmur was calling was working. Running with Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon, even throwing the ball with Drew Lock to all levels of the field.

It was clicking.

Then, inside the 10-yard line, Shurmur called a read-option for Drew Lock and Lock had the ball stripped right out of his hands as he wrongfully kept the option. It’s something we’ve seen from Lock before, but with Williams and Gordon running the ball so well, why would you take the ball out of their hands at all?

Why would he call this play when Lock has a clear history of untimely turnovers?

Of course, everyone agrees that Drew Lock should not have fumbled the ball, but it was Shurmur who called this absolutely ridiculous play at a crucial juncture of the game.

Besides his grave mistake calling the read-option for Lock inside the 10-yard line, Shurmur using one of his best players — wide receiver Jerry Jeudy — as a total decoy the entire game is embarrassing to watch.

Extremely embarrassing.

How do you justify four targets and zero catches for Jerry Jeudy in a must-win game? How do you justify never giving him the ball as he sprints back and forth in motion all game long?

Pre-snap motion is effective, sure, but get Jeudy the ball. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be getting at least five touches every single game, even if you have to get creative in doing just that.

It’s an egregious mistake the way Jeudy was used in this game.