The Denver Broncos were able to dominate the New Orleans Saints on Thursday. This was in part of good quarterbacking play (starting in the second quarter), the offensive line dominating the line of scrimmage, the backs running how we expect them to, and the ability to chunk yardage against the New Orleans defense.
Here is each of those big plays and what made them possible.
Most coaches consider "big plays" as any run over 10 yards, any pass over 20 yards, and any play that scores a touchdown.
The Broncos finished Thursday with more rushing yards than passing, and when you look at the spread of their big plays, then it becomes obvious why. They had three passes that went 20+ yards, but they had 10 rushes that either went for 10+ yards or for a touchdown.
Javonte Williams collected the bulk of these plays with him making up five of them, gaining an average of 11.2 yards with two touchdowns and a long of 20 yards.
McLaughlin would make up two of these big plays, Estime would make up one, and Nix would be responsible for the other five, with two of them coming on the ground.
Of the 10 rushing big plays, eight of them would come running between the tackles, with the toss by McLaughlin and QB sweep by Nix being the only of these rushes to the outside.
One of the passes would come off of a drop back while the other two big plays came when Nix was outside of the pocket.
Lets go in order through the game and take a look at every big play.
The first play of the game goes for a 14 yard gain on a scramble by Nix and I'll be counting this as a rush. Even though this opening drive would fizzle out, it would set the tone that the Saints would have to respect Nix's mobility, which is also something Denver would use to hurt New Orleans time after time.
This is a really nice pocket made by the offensive line. Good double team on the one tech, Bolles handles the late spin move, Meinerz shows a great ability to post up inside on the three tech, and McGlinchey absolutely buries his guy.
That's a great way to come back from injury.
The first big completion on the night for Bo Nix comes off of a quick play-action pass to Vele.
The offensive line does a great job of selling Duo to the left, gets the entire defensive front moving, and even gets the linebackers to get sucked up to the line of scrimmage, which makes that window to Vele even bigger. And the backers getting sucked up also gives Vele more room to run after the catch.
Good execution by everyone.
The play appears to be Inside Zone Lead given that Forsyth is keeping his hips squared to the line of scrimmage, might be Duo though, those plays can look similar and Payton typically runs Duo at a higher rate than Inside Zone.
But, nonetheless, Forsyth does a great job with his gallop technique on the DT and does a pretty good job picking up the backer, but he gives up just a little bit of space at the end and the backer makes the tackle.
Powers and Bolles do a good job, McGlinchey sinks into his feet well to stonewall the DE, and Meinerz makes a couple of athletic moves to mostly stay in front of the DT. And Williams makes a nice cut off of that block by Meinerz and runs through traffic at the end.
I love this play and haven't seen it before this season. We have Denver running a OG influenced Inside Zone Wham. Powers fakes like he's blocking the DT and then goes to out-block the DE while Bolles goes up to backer. This is awesome.
Forsyth makes a great block on the backer, Meinerz takes a hop step to the inside and sinks into his feet to wall off the DT, and McGlinchey whiffs, but he still forces the DE to go around him to the outside, which is a good enough block as an OT on this kind of play.
Adkins comes across the formation and gets a good block and all Williams has to do is hit a wide open gap with speed and he goes untouched for around 15 yards and has an even bigger play if the defender doesn't grab his ankle.
Another play action pass for the Broncos, this time with a boot action by Nix. It looks like they have Trautman out wide which forces the DE to have to line up over him. The Saints also end up dropping one of their DTs into coverage to take care of the flats which allows for the line to give Nix even more time back there.
Trautman does a good job of working the DE inside to set the edge for Nix while the offensive line makes a massive wall on the left side.
That's a nice pass on the move by Nix as well. A very well executed boot pass that goes for big yards.
The first touchdown of the game comes on the ground by Williams (his first touchdown on the year) and the offensive line absolutely dominated the New Orleans front seven.
The play is either Duo or Inside Zone, I think it's zone based off of the alignment by the back and the offensive line working more vertical than horizontal. Nix carries out the fake to hold the left DE at the line of scrimmage.
Another great pick up on the backer by Forsyth while Meinerz puts the DT into the ground while opening up a massive gap for Williams to run through. McGlinchey again walls off the DE by forcing his hips into the block and sinking his weight into his insteps. Powers forces the DT to the outside and Bolles does enough on the back end.
Meinerz almost gets the Broncos in trouble. His first step is awful because he gains no ground with it. He can't get beat to the inside so he should be taking a step vertically with his inside foot and that would help prevent the DT from slanting inside and beating him. He does just enough to wash the DT across the formation to allow Williams to cut back.
Forsyth does a great job displacing the DT but the backer almost beats him to the gap. Forsyth using his right hand on the block on the DT allows this to happen, but he does recover enough, like Meinerz, to wash the backer down and Williams makes another great cut. Powers plays it smart by laying on/ in front the DT to give Williams more room to run off of.
This play is a great example of everyone doing their job well.
Crack Toss Right is a fun and sort of old-fashioned play but Jaleel McLaughlin is a great back to have for this. His cuts were perfect, McGlinchey hit two guys, and the blocking by Meinerz and Forsyth downfield were money. And let's note the PERFECT release Forsyth had, bullying the DT at the snap and getting upfield.
This is such a well-executed play and I would love if they ran this more. They have the speed for it and the receivers have been doing a pretty good job blocking this season. The tight formation helps the Broncos even more by bunching up the defense and giving McLaughlin more open space on the sideline.
Also pay attention to the fake Nix carries out and remember it for later.
The first drop back pass of the game for chunk yardage goes to TE Lucas Krull in the middle of the field.
The Saints don't do anything fancy up front. The DT on the left slants inside but that's about it. McGlinchey does a good job of staying patient following the TE chip on the DE and locks him up, Meinerz and Forsyth easily handle the DT, and Bolles does a nice job getting his hand on the back of the DE and riding his passed Nix.
Powers shows good technique of how to handle the bull rush by sinking his hips and putting all his weight on his insteps, he does start to lean a little though which allows for the DT to shed him, but it ends up being too late. Nix has a nice pocket to step up into and deliver the pass to Krull.
Later in the game the Broncos run QB Crack Sweep that had the same look in the backfield and motion that the Toss by McLaughlin had but this time the line is pulling around to their left to serve as protection for Nix on the edge.
The receivers do a great job on their down blocks on the edge, Powers makes a good block, Bolles serves to screen the DB a little, and I really want to highlight the effort by Forsyth to get all the way down field and get an extra block for Nix at the end.
Nix's speed is such a weapon and it makes his seemingly lack of passing yards and touchdowns less of a concern given what he is doing on the ground.
The offensive line doesn't even do that good of a job on this play but they create just enough space and Williams does the rest.
All McGlinchey is able to do is hold the line of scrimmage, and he does do an alright job of trying to angle the DE out a little. Forsyth handles the backside DT, and what allows this play to happen is that Meinerz gets the DT about a yard off of the line of scrimmage, which isn't much, but it allows for him and McGlinchey to not be at the same level, and gives Williams enough of a gap to run through.
Williams does a great job of keeping his feet and getting into the endzone.
The Broncos run Wide Trap with Powers kicking out the DE, the right side of the line blocking down, and with Bolles attempting to block out on the DE. But what happens is that the DE over Bolles slants inside hard in an attempt to get across the face of Bolles and follow the puller, but Bolles does a good job at stopping the penetration and then walling the DE in.
It's this exchange that McLaughlin sees, which is why he cuts to the back side of this play because he sees the space that this creates. It's a fine decision and one that makes a lot of sense.
The blocks on the playside are good though, to their credit, and Trautman does a good job of walling out the backer.
Unfortunately, Estime would fumble the next handoff he gets, but I really like the flashes that he has shown. He reminds me of a rookie Javonte Williams with his ability to run through traffic. He Just needs to fix his fumbling issues.
The Broncos run another Inside Zone with Burton faking the Wham and going to block an outside defender and you can see Nix fake as if he was going to follow Burton. Be on the lookout for a play like this but with Nix keeping it in the future.
The offensive line does a good job in the middle with Powers getting a good base block and Forsyth getting to backer, but Meinerz needs to do a better job of keeping his keep on the ground and not getting caught in the manner that he did.
Estime makes a nice cut between Bolles and Powers and carries the Saints defense for about five yards.
This is exactly what you want to see if you're a fan of the Broncos. Their offensive line is getting better each week and the young guys, like Forsyth, continue to impress. They were why Denver was able to dominate the way that they did. The ground game was nothing short of dominate and the Saints front seven hardly stood a chance.
Bo Nix made good plays with his arm and with his feet and that helped to keep the Saints even more off balanced.
Javonte Williams continues to climb closer to where he was at before his surgery and McLaughlin is turning into the speed demon that can make defenses pay out on the edge.
Estime is good and I am a fan of the rookie. They guy just needs to hold onto the ball.