Analysis

Analysis of the Denver Broncos Offense

If one wants to be successful, one has to have more than just a simple approach to achieving that certain level of success.  Not only should there be various ways of getting around obstacles in life and moving past rough patches, but there should also be back up plans when you fail at something.  Plan A, B and C should be there, but to really go over the top, D, E and F wouldn’t be a bad thought to have either.  The tougher and tougher your journey becomes, the more intricate and bountiful your plan of attack should be and/or become.  With all of this you become harder and harder to stop as you try and reach your personal definition of success.  There is no greater example of this than in the 2013 Denver Broncos football team. 

The Broncos have started off their 2013 campaign to a fast 6-1 start (six wins, one loss), and are widely viewed as one the best if not the best team in the National Football League (NFL).  The key to their success is all revolved around their offense, an offense led by arguably the best quarterback in the NFL today, Peyton Manning.  Not to be outdone though, is the rest of his superstar offense which features the likes of receivers Demaryious Thomas, Eric Decker, Julius Thomas and the newly acquired Wes Welker.  Outside of the pure talent that Denver possesses on offense, what helps makes them special is the amount of offensive formations that they shift into or call during the course of a game to put their players in the right matchups and in the best position to succeed in any given game. 

This all starts with Manning, for he is a master at the line of scrimmage and at reading what play the opposing defense has called.  Manning time and time again checks in and out of plays to put his offense in the best possible position to succeed.  Manning scans the line of scrimmage as he tries to figure out what the other defense has called, and if he either doesn’t like what he’s seeing on the opposing side of the ball or doesn’t think his offense is in the best possible situation, he will simply just call a timeout.  Most of the time throughout a game though, Manning seems to like his odds against the other defense as he doesn’t call timeouts too often.

Looking at the Denver offense, you’ll see there is a fairly good amount of formations that are utilized throughout a single game.  For every situation, the Broncos offense puts itself in great position to succeed with every formation.  Whether it be a goal line situation or backed up into their own endzone, Manning and co. almost always matchup up better than what the defense can do to stop them.  To go hand in hand with formations, the routes that the receivers run are just as important.  The Broncos like to utilize all sorts of routes game in and game out.  They like to run three wide receiver sets with a tight end to match so they can spread the defense out and create big plays off of small ones.

Speed on offense has also shown true to be one of the biggest keys for the Broncos this season.  They want to push the pace of the offense for many reasons.  Rushing to the line and calling play after play tires out a defense and you’re able to catch them out of position and possibly find yourself in position to make a big play.  The Broncos want the game to go at their pace for majority of the game if not for all four quarters.  Denver has scored the most points in the NFL thus far and their fast paced offense is a big reason why.

While breaking down Denver’s offense even further, you’ll see the gritty, hard-nosed part of it, their offensive line.  This will arguably make or break Denver’s season this year and it has showed in recent games that that could be exactly the case.  So far, their offensive line has performed well enough, but injuries and inconsistent play has plagued Denver in recent games.  Losing their starters for the season in J.D Walton, Dan Koppen and Ryan Clady should have crippled the Denver offense but somehow, someway, Denver has been able to move past such problematic issues.  The Broncos even lost another starter in Orlando Franklin, though, he’ll be back in a couple of weeks instead of being out the whole season.

There is final part of Denver’s offense that seems to get lost in the shuffle and it’s what could be the key to getting them through the rough terrain that is the playoffs, and riding that all the way to the Super Bowl.  Runningback Knowshon Moreno has been carrying the majority load thus far for the Broncos without much help from backups Ronnie Hillman and Montee Ball, and that has been hurting the Broncos.  Change of pace backups at the runningback position are always wanted and without that, the Broncos have become fairly one dimensional at the position.  Moreno has been playing very well through the first seven weeks but Hillman and Ball have had severe fumbling problems and that has resulted in a major loss of playing time for both backs.  This hurts Denver when it comes to depth at the position but Denver could live with lack of production from the two players, it’s the turnovers that hurt in the worst way. 

While it’s clear any team can be beaten and/or stopped, the Broncos have certainly set the bar high for anyone hoping to defeat them.  There’s very few holes in this offense and it’s going to take perfect defensive performances to take the Broncos down.  The sheer amount of layers and elements to this offense makes them hard enough to game plan for let alone play against.  As long as Denver limits their turnovers and can remain healthy on the offensive side of the ball, they should keep rolling along, successfully.