By Jordan Long
The Denver Broncos beat the Cleveland Browns 24-19 ending a two-game skid. Denver’s quarterback for the game was Brandon Allen who made his 1st career start in the NFL. Allen made the most of it.
Allen came into this game being the backup to Joe Flacco. He didn’t always receive 1st team reps in practice but knew the play calls and was waiting for his opportunity. The Broncos had no choice but to start Allen since Flacco is on injured reserve for the rest of the season due to a neck injury.
Allen was a more mobile quarterback who was going to make plays and hopefully make defenders miss for him to buy more time to throw the football. His legs were also going to help him run for 1st downs.
In the game that ended up being true. Allen used his legs to avoid being sacked and bought more time for him to heave the ball downfield. The Broncos offensive line protected him for the most part. There were times where he was being blitzed but his legs helped him find green grass to run the football. Allen ended up with 13 rushing yards. He was sacked 3 times.
When Allen tossed the football, his passes were on time to the receiver. The only one that he might want to have back was caught anyway. He threw to Courtland Sutton but it was behind him. Sutton adjusted to catch it for a 21-yard touchdown pass. If Sutton hadn’t, it might have been picked off since there were two Browns’ defenders in the area. Allen ended the game 12 of 20 passing with 193 yards and 2 touchdowns. Allen used his vision to look at the whole field to find his wide receivers or tight ends. He didn’t try to force the ball downfield when he knew his receiver was double covered.
Denver ran more bootlegs in the game than they had with Flacco. The big reason for that is Flacco isn’t as mobile as Allen. The playbook opened up a bit more which helped Denver win this football game.
This was a decent first game for Allen in the NFL. With that performance, he could be the Broncos’ starter for the rest of the season. Then again it is one game and the media shouldn’t overreact to Allen’s play in this game.
If Denver isn’t close to making the playoffs like they are now and start losing games with Allen, they could see what they have in rookies Drew Lock and Brett Rypien. Only time will tell but Denver is on their bye this week. They will not play again until they travel to face the Minnesota Vikings on November 17th.
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