Column: Broncos’ big plays carried Denver to big first half lead before late loss

These are the Denver Broncos the Broncomaniacs hoped for all season long. Well, mostly.

For the first time all year, the orange and blue — complimentary colors — played complimentary football, thrashing the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first half for a 17-6 lead. That was helped by multiple big plays, which came in bunches in the first half. Those big plays evaporated for nearly the entire second half as Jacksonville scored 20 straight points, then scored the game-winning field goal to send Denver to 0-4.

How important are explosive plays? Denver enjoyed four of them in the first half on the way to their two-touchdown lead. But the Broncos had zero explosive plays for most of the second half, watching their lead evaporate along the way. Finally, down six, Flacco connected with Emmanuel Sanders and Courtland Sutton on explosive plays on the go-ahead drive. But, that lead was short-lived as the defense was too tired to stop Jacksonville on the way to their 33-yard field goal for the win.

Back to the first half; the offense started out hot, and enjoyed multiple massive plays, while the defense came up with three sacks in the first half alone to end their streak of lackluster play.

But, arguably what allowed the defense to pin its ears back and get after Gardner Minshew was that early lead. The offense’s hot start pushed the defense and together the Broncos looked like a completely different team, a complete team, for the first time all year long.

Rich Scangarello, the new offensive coordinator, bought back an old-school offensive system which utilizes the bootleg, zone-blocking and dink-and-dunk passes. Welcome to the NFL circa 1995, when Mike Shanahan masterminded the Broncos and almost the same exact offense.

This year, Denver’s offense has been very good at sustaining drives, leading the NFL with 7.6 plays per drive going into today’s victory. But, what the Scangarello’s offense couldn’t do was make the big play. To wit, the Broncos were 26th in the NFL with a 5.0 yards per play average.

Then, came Sunday.

In the first quarter, Joe Flacco handed it off to Phillip Lindsay who went right even though almost every other player went left, and the running back gained 28 yards. The next play, Flacco connected with Noah Fant and the tight end turned the ball upfield, going 25 yards to the end zone for his first-ever NFL touchdown. Two big plays, 7-0 lead.

On the Broncos’ next touchdown drive, Flacco connected with Emmanuel Sanders on a deep out and the veteran receiver gave all his effort to bring the Broncos to the seven yard line. One play later, Flacco rode that momentum and hit Courtland Sutton high and out of reach of the defender for the 14-3 lead.

Then, in the second quarter, Flacco found DaeSean Hamilton on a deep corner and 28-yard completion to the Jacksonville 11. Unfortunately, that drive ended in a field goal, but the big play helped Denver put more points on the board.

It should be noted that Scangarello’s great play call on Lindsay’s run was also executed to perfection; props to the coordinator and his players. And then, to call the tight end screen on the next play, it was perfection by the young play-caller.

Remember that all-important yards per play stat from earlier in the piece? In the first half of the game, Denver ran 37 plays for 257 yards; 6.92 yards per play. That nearly two yards per play improvement was key in their scoring and lead.

In the second half, however, Denver’s offense fell back to earth. In fact, they were atrocious in the 3rd quarter, with eight yards on six plays (1.3 yards per play). Quickly, the Broncos’ two-touchdown lead evaporated and Denver trailed 20-17.

Then, it was 23-17.

Finally, the Broncos hit an explosive play (25-plus yards) again when Flacco found Sutton over the middle for 27 yards and down to Jacksonville’s 33 yard line. And then Sanders for 27 more yards, setting up Sutton’s second touchdown of the day and the 24-23 lead.

But, the Jags finished the day with a 55-yard drive and the game-winning field goal.

Explosive plays — and consistency — are clearly needed by Scangarello’s offense. You can’t have one or the other, but both to win. When the Broncos went three-and-out three straight times in the second half, Jacksonville rode the momentum and stole the lead. Denver’s fourth-quarter, hurry-up drive to take the lead back was impressive, but it was too little, too late.

The Broncos defense had already exhausted its energy as Jacksonville had the ball for nearly 25 minutes out of 30 in the second half.

Going back to explosive plays one more time: Adding explosives and turnovers together is a great predictor of wins in the NFL. Denver had six explosive plays, while the Jaguars had four and forced the interception by Flacco; so Denver actually enjoyed the 6-5 advantage and still lost.

Denver is continually finding new ways to lose on this 0-4 start to the season. Next up, the Broncos play the Chargers (2-2) at 2:05 p.m. MT next Sunday.