ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — There are two explanations for the Broncos suffering their first loss of the season last Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.
One, the Broncos’ offense had a serious problem with pass protection. Two, their defense didn’t get a pass rush.
While the pass protection needs to be fixed and fixed immediately as they play the every-aggressive blitz-happy Pittsburgh Steelers – BlitzBurgh has been an apt nickname in years past – this Sunday morning (11 am MDT) at Heinz Field, the Broncos pass rush didn’t rush on purpose.
Seriously, because they were playing one of the greatest-ever running quarterbacks in Lamar Jackson, the Denver D was often assigned to hold its ground. Mush rush, if the opportunity presents itself but don’t rush up field at the quarterback and have Jackson step up and take off.
“You do what you’re asked to do,’’ said defensive lineman Shelby Harris. “No one is bigger than the defense. It’s all about trying to set the team up in the best way to get a win. Our game plan was stopping the run, and then we kind of tried to stop everything else as it came. Obviously, we didn’t win, but we tried to stick to our game plan. We tried to execute as well as we could.’’
It worked and it didn’t. Jackson only rushed for 28 yards on seven carries. And has it been mentioned the Denver D came within 3 seconds of holding the Ravens to less than 100 yards rushing for the first time in 43 games?
But without a pass rush, Jackson torched the Broncos’ secondary for five completions of 20-plus yards, including a 49-yard touchdown heave to a wide open Marquise Brown, and 316 passing yards total. Jackson was sacked three times, but two were by blitzing rookie safety Caden Sterns.
Von Miller is the best pass rusher in Broncos history and one of the best the NFL has seen. He was asked if it was frustrating to purposely not pass rush.
“At the beginning of the week, one of our keys to win was we have to play unselfish football,’’ Miller said Thursday. “We’ve got to play team ball. And I knew that if I took my normal rushes and got behind Lamar it would create lanes that we wouldn’t be able to recover from. I was still able to get a half-sack so it was all good. But I just didn’t want to give him the lane, especially since I have Shelby Harris and Dre’Mont Jones inside of me, I didn’t want to give him a lane where he could run outside of me and buy time to throw the ball. Or even worse give him a lane where he could run up the field and get 45 or 50 yards. We’ve all seen him do that.
“It’s good to go back to playing normal football (smiles) versus a team that’s going to drop back and pass the ball normally. They still do some things that are a little unique that other teams. Big Ben is the master of the RPO. … They have some unique plays and they still have a unique style but it’s not like the Baltimore Ravens.’’
The chatter spreading through the NFL is Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger may nearing his end. His arm strength is still there but his legs may be shot. He is 39. The same age Peyton Manning lost his legs and threw 9 touchdown passes against 17 interceptions in his final season of 2015.
Four games into the season, Roethlisberger ranks 27th in the league in passer rating as he has many interceptions as touchdown passes (four). But just as a broken-down Manning was still able to guide the Broncos to the Super Bowl 50 title in his final season, the Steelers believe Roethlisberger can still play winning football.
“The only thing that is not correctable is straight-line speed,’’ Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said in a conference call Wednesday with the Denver media. “I don’t think any of us are going to recapture past straight-line speed, him included. All other aspects of quarterback play—mechanics, footwork, eyes, etcetera—he has no deficiencies in terms of arm strength or arm accuracy and things of that nature. I haven’t seen any of that. We’re excited about having an opportunity to work this week and seeing the result of that work at the end of the week in the stadium.”
Nothing against Big Ben. He’s been a top 5 to 8 quarterback for the bulk of his NFL career. It’s just that because he’s not Lamar Jackson, the Denver defensive front gets to pass rush again.
“No, I really haven’t been part of that type of game plan,’’ Harris said about last week’s strategy against Lamar Jackson. “You have to think about it. We’ve had players like Michael Vick, and we’ve had to go through things like that and say, ‘Let’s just try to contain him and make him throw it.’ The thing that people don’t realize is Lamar Jackson throws. He’s a quarterback. He’s a hell of a player, and you have to respect everything that he does. Our game plan and our goal was trying to stop him from running.”
People realize now Jackson can throw. On to Big Ben.