By Jordan Long
This past Saturday, the Denver Broncos held a free ticketed practice at Broncos Stadium at Mile High, a chance for the Broncos’ fans to be in the stadium and for the players to see what it is like to play there. I was lucky enough to be one of 21,234 fans to attend it. The Broncos ran drills and scrimmages. Here are my impressions about the practice.
I knew going into this the defense was going to be this teams’ strength. New Head Coach Vic Fangio is known for his defensive style. Last year the Chicago Bears were the 3rd ranked defense in the NFL. That was hopefully going to translate here in Denver. What I noticed is the 1st team defense didn’t allow the 1st team offense to gain a whole lot of yards. When they went to 11 on 11 drills a lot of the passes were short for a few yards. There weren’t a whole lot of large gains by the offense in the passing game. The defense batted away the longer passes.
The 1st team offense on the other hand, protected quarterback Joe Flacco for the most part. The offensive line didn’t breakdown and have Flacco running for his life. There were a few times where the defense created pressure and those caused overthrows. Flacco had time to read the whole field to find somebody open even if it was a 5 to 7-yard pass. This should be improved once they play other teams.
The downside was the running game. The offensive line couldn’t block to create holes for the running backs. When the Broncos ran the football, there were 2 or 3 defenders ready to take the running back down. That is an area the offense must work on if they want to have any success this year. They can’t rely on Flacco’s arm. The running game should open the passing game.
The Broncos gave Drew Lock an opportunity to show what he could do for the fans. I was impressed with him. Lock was accurate finding his receiver. He still has room to grow, but it was a great first step for him to show he is the future for the Denver Broncos.
The Broncos simulated an end of game scenario for the final drill. The offense was down by 3 with 2 minutes left. Flacco moved the ball for the Broncos offense but it stalled around the 35-yard line. In that situation the Broncos probably would have tied the game to go to overtime.
The 2nd team offense had a chance to do the same thing. On the 2nd play, Lock dropped back to pass. The defensive line created pressure. Lock tried to throw the football but the ball was tipped by defensive end Adam Gotsis who caught it and ran into the endzone, ending practice.
The downside to practice were penalties. Last season, Denver ranked 31st in penalties with 125 called. There was a crew of referees there helping out during this. If this had been a real game, Denver would have been called for 12 penalties, 4 on defense and 8 on offense. I am not sure what the penalties on defense were since they didn’t call them but used hand signals. What I did see when the offense was flagged were holding calls. Those must be cleaned up before the season starts.
Overall it was a great experience. This was the 1st time since 2014 the Broncos held practice at the stadium. It was successful and the Broncos should consider holding practice there more often during training camp, maybe twice a year. Otherwise there are only 2 preseason games for them. Take a look at my pictures from this event.
What a great analysis!The pictures were an added trea