HOUSTON — Can the Broncos get a do-over and this time start the 2019 season with Drew Lock?
Better yet, can the future hurry up and the 2020 season get here with Lock as their quarterback?
The rookie Lock was not only sensational while leading the underdog Broncos to a stunning 38-24 win against the AFC South Division-leading Houston Texans, for most of the first half he was perfect.
At least by the measure of the NFL’s passer rating. After three possessions that carried inside the 2-minute warning of first half, Lock was 13 of 15 for 212 yards with touchdown passes to tight ends Noah Fant and Jeff Heuerman. That computed to a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Following a Denver defensive stop deep in Houston territory, Lock added another touchdown pass, this time to running back Royce Freeman, with 37 seconds left in the half.
“We were ready to rock-n-roll from the get-go,'' Lock said.
The Broncos are 5-8 overall but 2-0 since Lock became their starting quarterback. He is the first rookie quarterback in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) who threw for 300-plus yards and three touchdowns in his first career road start. First.
Which begs the question: Why didn't the Broncos' decision-makers play Lock earlier?
“He’s been on IR for 10 weeks,'' said Broncos head coach Vic Fangio.
Yes, coach. There was that thumb injury on his passing hand suffered during the preseason. Still, the Broncos could have activated Lock after eight weeks -- just as starter Joe Flacco went down with a season-ending neck injury. Instead, they waited until week 13 -- and game 12 -- to play Lock.
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“I look at it another way,'' Fangio said. "I think we played it just right. I think had we played him too early he wouldn’t have been this good. He needed some time.”
Lock, obedient in his youth, agreed with his coach.
“I think the plan that they put together was perfect,'' said Lock, who conducted his press conference at a podium in full Broncos' No. 3 jersey, pads and uniform. "I might have been able to come back and play a little bit, but we might have been forcing it a little bit early, too, early in the process where we talked about coming back for that Chargers game and I thought it worked out.
"Of course now I say it worked out perfect. I thought I was ready physically which is important but more importantly mentally to go out there and fully digest that defense and carry it on week to week. And hopefully keep carrying it to the next game.''
The 31 points at halftime marked the first time the Broncos had scored more than 24 points since week 7 of the 2018 season at Arizona -- a scoring skid snapped at 21 games.
The Broncos were leading, 38-3 after their opening series of the second half before Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson threw for one touchdown and ran for two more to help those who had him on their Fantasy League teams, but did not push the Texans anywhere close to winning.
"Just did not have this team ready to play,'' said Houston coach Bill O'Brien, whose Texans fell to 8-5. "I thought I did, but I thought wrong."
Unlike previous Broncos games, the offense didn't stop after the Scangarello Script was well-executed. Offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello continued to call plays that worked as Lock directed a touchdown drive to open the second half. Running back Phillip Lindsay got his turn with a 1-yard touchdown run to put the Broncos up, 38-3.
"I thought coach Scangarello called an awesome game,'' Lock said.
The Broncos entered the game as 9-point underdogs. Cleary, indisputably, the oddsmakers underestimated the confident swagger of Lock.
“I’d like to think my confidence is contagious,'' Lock said. "I never want to come off as arrogance. I want it to come off as (fiery), I’m having fun with the game that we’ve all dreamed about playing since we were little kids and now that we’re here why can’t we have the most fun that we can with the game that we love?”
In one of Fangio's easiest decisions as a head coach, he gave game balls to Lock and Broncos' safety Kareem Jackson. The locker room exploded with approval in a celebration that showed Lock and Jackson are well-liked by their teammates.
Jackson, a longtime Texan before signing as a free agent with Denver in March, took a handoff from edge-rusher teammate Jeremiah Attaochu, who had picked up a fumble, and ran 70 yards for a touchdown that sandwiched Lock’s first two scoring throws.
>> Listen to Klis' game recap on the Klis' Mike Drop podcast below
The Texans stood around and watched the Attaochu-Jackson exchange as they seemed to think receiver Keke Coutee had his knee down when Broncos linebacker Alexander Johnson jammed the ball loose. Replay showed the ball coming loose just before Coutee’s knee hit.
The handoff was made after the heady Jackson called for it.
“Yeah I did,'' he said. "I saw somebody grab him so I thought he would be tackled. I could see everybody relaxing. It’s one of those plays where they didn’t really know if it was an incomplete pass or a fumble.
"One of the things we harp on is playing through the whistle. I never heard the whistle. It was great awareness by Jerry to recover the ball and I was just right there. He heard me and I was able to score with it.’’
Attaochu, starting for the injured Malik Reed, also had two sacks. The Broncos lost rookie defensive lineman Dre'Mont Jones to a serious ankle injury during the game's opening series. 9News later learned Jones suffered a high ankle injury, the full extent of which won't be known until after an MRI exam Monday morning.
Sticking it to his former team, Jackson alertly ran it back and high-stepped his way into the end zone from about 10 yards out. Jackson also had an interception and a vicious hit that separated DeAndre Hopkins for a first-down catch.
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"They came out with a great game plan,'' said Texans' safety Justin Reid. "Denver, plain and simple, played better than us. I think they just did a great job scheming us. They came out well-prepared, they played better than us. We didn't come out and start the way we wanted to. I think guys were prepped and ready to go. They came out with a better sense of urgency than we did. A little bit deflating.''
The Broncos’ splendid defensive game plan by Fangio against Watson, Houston’s fine quarterback, was secondary, though, to Lock’s incredible performance.
Not only is Lock a rookie, this was just his second NFL game and first on the road. He opened by zipping a completion along the right sideline to Fant. Texans’ cornerback Johnathan Joseph went for the interception, missed, and Fant took off up the sideline for a 48-yard gain.
“Technically the first play of the game was going to be a shot to Courtland (Sutton),'' Lock said. "And then I think it was (former Broncos cornerback Bradley) Roby who fell off late on it. He was kind of doubling up Courtland and he wound up falling off late to where Noah made that good catch.He put (the defender) behind him and taking the front.’’
Joseph whiffed because Lock zipped a fastball to Fant's inside hip while the cornerback was setting on the outside hip. You want a quarterback who can throw it into a small window? The Broncos appear to have found him.
Two plays later, Lock hit fullback/tight end Andrew Beck for a 29-yard gain. To finish the drive, Lock threw two touchdown passes. The first was a 12-yard catch-and-run by running back Phillip Lindsay that was called back by Garett Bolles’ block-in-the-back penalty.
Three plays later, on third-and-12, Lock fired a 14-yard touchdown to Fant, who ran a post into the end zone. Fant had four catches for 114 yards through three quarters.
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Lock threw for 96 yards on the first road series of his career.
He went 80 yards in eight plays on his second road series.
On third-and-9, he dropped a dime to receiver Tim Patrick, who was sprinting down the left sideline with a defender on him for a 37-yard gain. Then came a 25-yard dump off to running back Devontae Booker, who was wide open across the middle.
Lock finished with an 8-yard scoring pass to Heuerman, again off third down.
On his third series, Lock connected with Fant, who again was running open in the middle of the field, for 28 yards. The drive stalled into a Brandon McManus’36-yard field goal.
The Texans’ defense, ranked No. 27 in the league coming in, was worse than that in this game, especially in its secondary. But that shouldn’t diminish the tremendous passing display of Lock, who was 16 of 19 for 235 yards with the three touchdowns at halftime -- although his passer rating slipped a notch from perfect to come in at 157.8.
Lock finished 22 of 27 for 309 yards but the pick dropped his rating to a still impressive 136.0. The Broncos just may have themselves a quarterback. With Sutton held to only 34 yards receiving on five catches as he was often double-teamed, Lock completed passes to 10 different receivers.
"I'm happy for him, man, he's doing great,'' said cornerback Chris Harris Jr. "He can throw, he can run, he can rollout. Got to keep building on him, Lock is nice. We've been saying he's nice. Glad he got an opportunity. He's comfortable and he's going to get better.''
Lock had his first bad pass late in the third quarter when from the Houston 25 his pass intended for receiver Courtland Sutton in the end zone was picked off by safety Tashaun Gipson, who floated over from the middle of the field.
Houston finally scored a touchdown when star receiver DeAndre Hopkins got loose amid a busted coverage to haul in a 43-yard touchdown pass from Deshaun Watson, who was otherwise frustrated. Watson added a 6-yard touchdown run off a scramble early in the fourth quarter to make his team's deficit a little more respectable at 38-17 with 13:34 left in the fourth quarter.
Watson then scored on a 3-yard run in the final seconds.
The Broncos play next Sunday at Kansas City, where Patrick Mahomes and the AFC West-leading Chiefs no longer appear so daunting.
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