DENVER — Give Brett Rypien a one-pass do-over and he might have clinched the No. 2 quarterback job.
Then again, if No. 2 quarterbacks didn’t occasionally need a do-over, they’d be starters.
Rypien was still pretty good in guiding the Broncos to a 23-13 victory against the Minnesota Vikings in a preseason battle of backups on a warm late-summer Saturday night before an Empower Field at Mile High crowd of 63,030 (13,443 no shows).
Broncos outside linebacker Baron Browning finished off the play of the game with a 17-yard fumble return for a touchdown late in the first half. Defensive end McTelvin Agim did the heavy lifting with a strip sack of quarterback Sean Mannion with 48 seconds left in the half. Browning picked it up and ran it the other way for the score.
“No doubt, I think there's a lot of good improvement across the board,'' Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett told 9NEWS sports anchor Rod Mackey at halftime. "You see the run game get going. ‘Ryp’ has done a good job moving the ball. We had that one turnover, but we just can't do that in the red zone. I think all the guys have come to play today.”
The Broncos finished their preseason schedule with a 2-1 record even though Russell Wilson and about 20 other starters never played.
Rypien was 14 of 21 for 137 yards in his one half of work in his battle with veteran Josh Johnson for the Broncos’ backup quarterback job to Wilson. But had Rypien not thrown a first-and-goal interception -- and had Seth Williams and Kendall Hinton not dropped perfect passes during the final 1:50 hurryup drill of the first half -- Johnson would have started the second half in a significant hole.
"Guys played their heart out,'' Rypien said. "Thought we did a lot of good things. Liked to have had that one back.''
Johnson rallied nicely and completed 11 of 14 passes for 107 yards. The competition for No. 2 QB is significant because there will not be a No. 3 quarterback on the Broncos' 53-man roster that will be selected by 2 p.m. Tuesday.
"It's going to be a hard decision,'' Hackett said in postgame press conference.
"One thing I've learned is to not worry about it,'' said Johnson, who is in his 15th professional season. "Those guys know what they're doing: Mr. (George) Paton, coach Hackett, all those coaches, those guys know what they're doing. Whatever decision they make I'm going to be good with.''
It was a scoreless first quarter primarily because the Broncos’ offense failed to finish off an 89-yard opening drive. Mike Boone, the Broncos’ No. 3 running back behind Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon III, ran for gains of 16 and 11 yards and Rypien completed 8 of his first 9 passes for 56 yards.
Two of those completions for 24 yards went to tight end Eric Tomlinson, who started in place of Albert Okwuegbunam, who was “promoted” to not playing with the rest of the starters. And two of Rypien’s completions were to slot receiver KJ Hamler, who was in his first action since suffering a torn ACL and hip injury in Game 3 of the 2021 season.
But after moving the Broncos from their own 3 yard line to the Vikings’ 8, first and goal, Rypien tried to fire a pass into the end zone for Hamler. The tight window closed and safety Myles Dorn deflected into the air before floating down in the arms of Luiji Vilain for an interception.
"It was a bang-bang play,'' Rypien said. "I asked the ref if it was pass interference. They said it was one of those that could have gone either way. Frustrating there. You hate to see tip balls get picked but other than that I thought it was a pretty clean half. I thought the guys plays great, especially upfront."
Not only did the offensive line keep Rypien and Johnson clean without a sack through 35 pass attempts, but a collection of backup Bronco running backs combined for 148 yards rushing on 5.9 yards per carry. Devine Ozigbo, signed to the Broncos' roster five days ago, led all rushers with 59 yards on 13 carries.
Broncos’ undrafted rookie Brandon Johnson, who had been working the No. 1 offense the past two weeks, went down on the first play with a left high ankle sprain. While it does not appear to be a major injury, Brandon Johnson could be down a few weeks and it may now be difficult to keep him on the 53-man roster.
"I have confidence in what I have done,'' Brandon Johnson said. "And the decision ultimately isn't mine. I'm at peace with that. I know what I can do and I know what I've done already."
Rypien and Boone went 59 yards on their second drive which ended with a 50-yard field goal by Brandon McManus.
The Denver defensive backups, who were run over the previous week in Buffalo, showed considerably more fight against the Vikings, although Sean Mannion was able to lead a 78-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter to put Minnesota up 7-3.
But again Rypien delivered on his third drive, completing a 45-yard go-route to Seth Williams on the first play. Rypien hit Williams again for 11 yards, setting up first down at the Vikings’ 11.
“I'll tell you, that big explosive play we had down there—we had talked about it yesterday,'' Hackett said. "He thought that all up in his head on how he wanted to handle it, so it's great to see it come alive. But he's doing a fine job. Just wish we took that one turnover out.”
Fifth-round rookie Montrell Washington then came around from his slot position on a reverse and scooted around left end for an 11-yard touchdown run. The Broncos were up 10-7 with 5:48 remaining in the first half.
Agim and Browning made the big play late in the first half, although Mannion came back to lead a final-second drive that was capped by Greg Joseph's 46-yard field goal at the buzzer.
In the second half, Joseph nailed a 58-yard field goal with McManus later answering from 40 and 31 yards.
Broncos' second-round rookie pass rusher Nik Bonitto finished off the Vikings with sacks on back-to-back plays.
"A lot of it was what Randy (Gregory, the Broncos' starting edge rusher) tells me, set up moves throughout the game,'' Bonitto said. "That way, when the third quarter, fourth quarter comes around you have moves you can go to where they've been set up all game and you can end beating those (offensive) tackles."
Bronco Bits
The first-half punting and placeholding duties were performed by Corliss Waitman. Sam Martin dropped a nice punt inside the 10-yard line with his first punt in the second half -- but long snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer brain locked and carried the downed the punt into the end zone for a touchback. ...
Seth Williams had 4 catches for 68 yards at the half, but also a crucial drop on a 15-yard in-route pass from Rypien. ...
Besides his strip sack, Agim forced a fumble earlier in the first half. ...
Hamler surprisingly played most of the first half and had three catches for 18 yards. "I wanted to play that much,'' Hamler said. "There wasn't nothing to it. I wanted to get in the groove of things and you can't always get the groove in the first drive.'' ...
The Viking had a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter but fifth-round rookie safety Delarrin Turner-Yell sacked Kellen Mond on a fourth-and-goal play from the 5.
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