ATLANTA — Next year, Broncos cornerbacks A.J. Bouye and Bryce Callahan have salary-cap charges of $13.375 million and $8.715 million, respectively. They may be underpaid.
After watching their secondary get chewed up by Atlanta in Sunday’s 34-27 loss, Bouye and Callahan need to call Broncos general manager John Elway and ask for contract extensions … that include hefty raises … and maybe even induction to the team’s Ring of Fame.
The value of Bouye and Callahan has never been more apparent or higher after Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan dissected the Broncos.
“Our pass defense wasn’t good enough and that includes the pass rush, that includes me making the calls,” coach Vic Fangio said. “We have to do better.”
Each time this year we think the Broncos are ascending, they take a step back. Consecutive wins over the Patriots and Jets? The Broncos were routed by Kansas City. An improbable win over the Chargers? The Broncos didn’t put that momentum on the charter flight to Georgia.
The Falcons never trailed and spent the first half working over The Cornerback Replacements — rookies Michael Ojemudia and Essang Bassey and veterans Davontae Harris and Kevin Toliver. Ojemudia and Bassey are experiencing on-the-job training and Harris/Toliver entered without a defensive snap to their ledger in the first seven games. In reality, the results were expected and may have been worse had Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley been active.
“We knew it was going to be a big game for us (defensively) and we didn’t compete nearly as much as we should have and could have,” safety Justin Simmons said.
The offense didn’t do much competing early, either, and the Broncos hit the season’s halfway point at 3-5, and, really, that’s where they probably should be. Seventeen teams, including nine in the AFC, have more wins.
Good enough to beat below. 500 teams (Patriots, Jets, Chargers). Not good enough to beat the elite teams (Titans, Steelers, Buccaneers, Chiefs). And if they’re not on their P’s and Q’s and/or banged up at one position group, uh-oh.
But the Broncos need to be on their game to beat anybody. Two things don’t work in the NFL: Putting Band-Aids on the depth chart and thinking the previous week will repeat itself.
Last Sunday, the Broncos spotted the Chargers a 24-3 third-quarter lead and rallied for a 31-30 win.
This Sunday, the Broncos spotted the Falcons leads of 10-0 (first quarter), 20-3 (halftime) and 27-6 (late third quarter).
The Broncos started chipping away at the deficit via touchdowns by receivers Jerry Jeudy (20 yards) and Tim Patrick (nine yards) and a 10-yard scramble by quarterback Drew Lock. Their final chance came with 44 seconds left, but they weren’t able to gain a yard from their own 20.
The empty calories of the fourth quarter shouldn’t gloss over the wreckage of the first three quarters. If Atlanta needed five yards, it got six. If the Broncos needed seven yards, they got three. The Falcons marched down the field and the Broncos punted.
But that first half? Inefficient and unsuccessful.
“We definitely have to get it remedied, that’s for sure,” Fangio said.
Said Lock: “We have to change something during the week. Not just myself, but everybody — an extra 10 minutes of film, an extra 10 minutes on the field. We’re going to go back and watch it and do some brainstorming. We’ll figure it out.”
Find the solution or more games will follow the Falcons’ script. Lead early. Lead big in the middle. And hold on at the end.
The more often the Broncos fall behind by a fistful of points, the more often running backs Phillip Lindsay and Melvin Gordon will be neutralized (combined 14 carries for 41 yards) and Lock will need to carry the attack (48 attempts; his previous career high was 41).
It’s not unfair to criticize the defense for their first-half showing even though they were without Bouye, Callahan and starting defensive end Shelby Harris (on COVID-19 reserve list). It was going to be a struggle, but it shouldn’t have been a sleepwalk.
“We just didn’t make enough plays especially in the first half — not even close to enough,” Simmons said. “That’s on us. That first half was just terrible by us.”
Atlanta’s first drive (field goal): Ten plays for 41 yards.
Atlanta’s second drive (touchdown): Eleven plays for 85 yards, capped by Davontae Harris getting beat for a 51-yard score by receiver Olamide Zaccheaus.
Atlanta’s third drive (touchdown): Nine plays for 75 yards, capped by Simmons losing track of receiver Brandon Powell on a nine-yard score.
Atlanta’s fourth drive (field goal): Twelve plays for 67 yards. Toliver, having replaced Harris, was beat for a 21-yard play on second-and-12.
As Simmons said, terrible.
See the pattern? The Falcons stayed on schedule, a product of a missing-in-action pass rush. Where was Bradley Chubb? What about Malik Reed? This was the game for the edge rushers to rise up and help the inexperienced cornerbacks. Instead, the two sacks were by defensive ends Dre’Mont Jones and DeMarcus Walker.
“It was a struggle, obviously,” Fangio said. “I never did find the right combination there in the first half. We had some good pressures, but when we were rushing four, our pass rush wasn’t good enough. At times, when we pressured, the coverage wasn’t good enough.”
Ojemudia will be a good player and Bassey knows how to stick his nose into the mix to stop a running back. But this was a tough ask. With Bouye and Callahan, Fangio can pretty much run his stuff. Minus both and the Broncos are in trouble.
Trouble is on the horizon if the Broncos can’t win at Las Vegas next Sunday because that would put them three games under .500 and even with a seventh playoff team, it will require 8-9 wins to qualify.
“I do think we’re getting better, although it’s hard to see that when you have a game like (Sunday),” Fangio said. “We just need to become a more consistent, efficient team, particularly on offense and we need to cover better and rush the passer better on defense. And I need to be a better job of calling the defense.”
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