Through the first two games of the season, the narrative surrounding the Denver Broncos offense has been that they can’t finish drives. While that is entirely true, looking at the same situation from a different angle, a different narrative arises: the Broncos offense has a chance to be great.
“I think we are doing some good things,” quarterback Trevor Siemian said on Wednesday after practice. “I think we are really, really close. We are knocking on the door to being a special group — like you said finishing those drives — but we’ve had a good bit of success which is encouraging.”
In the Broncos’ first two games, they’ve had 18 possessions, not including kneel downs, and 13 of those have ended in plausible field goal range, within the opponents 36-yard line (53-yard field goal).
However, the Broncos only scored a field goal or touchdown on just eight of those 13 opportunities, leaving five legitimate opportunities wasted (one fumble, three interceptions and one missed field goal). If the Broncos were able to finish those drives with just field goals, they would have had an additional 15 points between their two games.
Head coach Gary Kubiak said the problem was not isolated to one person, but that third-down conversions in opposing territory could be the answer.
“It’s on all of our shoulders,” Kubiak said on Wednesday after practice. “Finding the right call, making the right play, converting short-yardage — that’s two weeks in the row that we’ve missed three third and ones.”
Currently, the Broncos average 20 offensive points per game, which ranks 18th in the NFL. If they were able to get at least field goals on their five missed opportunities then their offensive points per game would be 27.5, which would put them in the top eight teams in the league. Siemian knows the differences between 20 and 27.5 points per game is just a few plays.
“Look back at tape and one or two things go our way and it’s a totally different ball game.” Siemian said. “I think we’ll get those fixed.”
To put this into perspective, last season the Broncos offense averaged 19.6 points per game, ranking 22nd overall, while Carolina lead the league with 28.6 offensive points scored. The Broncos inability to finish in opponent’s territory is holding them back from being a top offense in the league, while making them seem no different than last year’s sub-par offense.
The solution is simple.
“When a play is called we need to execute. It’s as simple as that,” fullback Andy Janovich said.
While the offense isn’t converting in opponent’s territory, they are getting it into opponent’s territory often. In fact, the Broncos have the second fewest punts in the league (5) and are on pace to punt less than half of the times they punted last season (85).
“Guys want to get into the end zone. They don’t get down there just to kick a field goal,” Janovich said. “That’s like a kick in the nuts.”
Although the Broncos offense doesn’t look too different from the sub-par offense from last season, in terms of offensive points scored, the offense this season is putting the team in a position to be successful. If they can start capitalizing on these opportunities, which really shouldn’t be too difficult, the narrative on how good this offense is will change dramatically.
