(Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
The Broncos were able to hold on for a win over the Panthers on Sunday. The team played well on offense and came away with a 32-27 victory. It was an impressive performance that almost was lost due to a late surge from the Panthers, but the Broncos did enough to hold on for the win.
The offensive line was quite a bit different this week – especially upon the news that starting left tackle Garett Bolles would not be able to play due to an illness on Sunday morning. Without notice, the Broncos had to start Calvin Anderson at left tackle. Add in new starting right guard Netani Muti and Elijah Wilkinson at right tackle, and only two regular starters (Dalton Risner, Lloyd Cushenberry) were out there for the Broncos.
Despite another curveball, the Broncos were able to adjust and play good football.
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio believes a win like this can further emphasize what he always preaches about playing hard and competing.
“They hear it from me all the time. They prove it with their actions daily — not just on game day — but they do it daily. If you were to come out, you couldn’t tell a difference between practice now and practice for the first week. These guys come out and work. They believe in themselves. They’ve taken all these challenges and they just keep fighting. To get rewarded with a W makes it easier to drive home that point, no doubt about it,” Fangio said.
Can the Broncos keep up their winning ways against a better opponent? Up next, the Broncos are home on Saturday for a Week 15 game against the Buffalo Bills. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly from the Week 14 win.
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The Good
Drew Lock had arguably the best performance of his pro career in Week 14. He went 21-of-27 passing for 280 yards and a career-high four touchdowns. Lock stayed with the short-passing attack for most of the game, but he did sprinkle some deep shots in here and there.
The game plan from offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur worked and Lock responded with good play for the most part. He did start out the game a bit out of rhythm, and you could see the frustration with himself after a pass intended for Jerry Jeudy hit the dirt in the first quarter on an easy throw. It was the worst pass of the day, but Lock was able to shake off that throw and come back with steady-to-spectacular play.
Fangio noted how efficient Lock was on Sunday.
“We were more efficient; 21-of-27 is a lot better than we’ve been doing. We hit some big plays, threw some touchdown passes. It was really good to see. And we spread the ball around. It was nice to see K.J. (Hamler) come up with some big plays. We believe that he can add that to our offense. Jerry (Jeudy) had a 31-yarder. Tim (Patrick) had a 32-yarder. Big plays are huge,” Fangio said.
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The Bad
There must’ve been some bad pizza in the Broncos hotel yesterday. That was the story when Michael Jordan had his famous “flu game” for the Bulls back in the day. This wasn’t as nearly a historic performance, but something stomach related was going around the Broncos this weekend.
Bolles was knocked from this game due to illness on Sunday morning. Then later in the game, tight end Noah Fant had to leave the locker room due to an illness. Bolles did test negative for COVID-19 on Sunday morning, so that’s not the reason why he was sick. I’m sure Fant took a test as well, but those results have not been made public as of this writing.
Fangio believes it could be food poisoning that affected both Bolles and Fant.
“That’s what we believe it is at this point in time. Obviously, we’ve tested both Garret and Noah — they’re both negative. They’re going to stay the night like I said, and if they’re negative again tomorrow for COVID then we’re going to fly them back. Hopefully, that’s all it is,” Fangio said.
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The Ugly
The Broncos defense almost gave this game away late in the contest. The Broncos had a 25-10 lead entering the fourth quarter, but they saw that slip away with two scoring drives by the Panthers. After a touchdown run from quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and a Panthers field goal, all of a sudden the game was 25-20.
The Broncos even scored a touchdown after that on a pass to rookie wide receiver K.J. Hamler, but they still could not distance themselves further. With the score 32-20, the Panthers drove down the field again and starting running back Mike Davis plunged in for a touchdown.
With 3:26 left on the game clock, the Broncos went three-and-out on offense and only used up 38 seconds. That gave the Panthers the ball back with plenty of time. Fortunately for the Broncos, they were able to stiffen up as a defense and play like they had in the first half.
Kareem Jackson knows who was to blame for the fourth-quarter drives the Panthers put together to get back into the game.
“Those two drives, I felt it was self-inflicted. As a defense, I felt like we got a little lax on those two drives. Early in the game and up to that point, we were dominant. To relax like that and they go right down the field, it’s definitely something that we didn’t want to happen. That’s what happens when you get a little lackadaisical and not doing what you’re supposed to do execution-wise. To pick it back up on that last drive just shows that if we do things right and all 11 of us communicate and we’re all on the same page, we can go out there and execute and play the way we played earlier in the game,” Jackson said.
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The good, the bad and the ugly from the Broncos win over the Panthers - 104.3 The Fan
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