Team Notes week 5 2021

Starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffered a concussion in Sunday's 23-7 loss to the Ravens.

"He says he's getting better as the day goes on, so we'll see," head coach Vic Fangio said after game.

The veteran quarterback took a helmet-to-helmet hit from Odafe Oweh just before halftime.

Drew Lock started the second half with Denver trailing 17-7. He wasn't able to advance the offense past midfield in either of his first two drives. It was a continuation of things for the Broncos, who punted six times in the first half and were held scoreless in Bridgewater's absence. Lock's day ended completing 12 of 21 passes for 113 yards and one interception.

"Well, I think his performance was, you know, just like the rest of the offense -- we just weren't good enough today after the one touchdown drive," Fangio said of Lock's day in relief. "We really could get nothing going. We weren't getting it going with Teddy either after the touchdown drive. So, I think it's more of a collective thing offensively than a quarterback thing."

Bridgewater, off to the best start of his career, completed just 7 of 16 passes for 65 yards before exiting. His 3-yard touchdown pass to Noah Fant gave Denver a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter. It was short lived, as the Ravens scored on three of their next four drives to take a 10-point lead into the break.

Lock made his 2021 debut after losing a training-camp battle with Bridgewater. The third-year QB tied for the league lead with 15 interceptions in 2020 while Denver went 4-9 in his 13 starts.

That opened the door for Bridgewater to take his job this offseason. Once thought to be the future for the Vikings and a free-agent prize for the Panthers, Bridgewater has quickly made a home for himself in the Denver. He came into Week 4 ranked in the top five in passer rating (116.4) and completion percentage (76.8) while guiding the fifth team of his eight-year career to a 3-0 start.

Whatever the case, as the Broncos approach their Week 5 game against the Steelers, Bridgewater's status remains uncertain.

"We'll have more information by Wednesday, and that will have more of a determining factor," Fangio said.

Fangio said it's possible Bridgewater could return to practice with limitations earlier than Friday -- but he was not cleared to work on Wednesday.

"He can't go out and full practice, but he may be able to do some stuff," Fangio said.

Fangio did not rule out the possibility that Bridgewater could start against the Steelers without practicing.

Diontae Spencer, who suffered a chest injury one play before Bridgewater took a hit to the head, will be day to day this week. Pat Surtain II is also day to day with a "midsection" injury.

Fangio said the hits on both Spencer and Bridgewater "should have been called, obviously." Neither play was flagged, despite the apparently illegal hits.

"I sent a video in to the officiating office during the week showing similar hits that they've had and gotten away with, and it continued," Fangio said. "So, you can see sending videos in to the officiating office can be fruitless at times."

Guard Dalton Risner will "probably" be able to return this week, but Fangio remains unsure about guard Graham Glasgow's status. Fangio said Risner was "not close enough" to being able to play against the Ravens after being listed as questionable. Cornerback Ronald Darby is also eligible to return from injured reserve this week, and Fangio said the Broncos will "see where he's at come Wednesday."

Rookie cornerback Patrick Surtain II is expected to be OK after leaving Sunday's game against the Ravens with a chest injury, per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero and Rapoport. Fangio said Surtain is day-to-day.

I'll be following Bridgewater's progress closely in coming days; watch the Late-Breaking Updates section for more.

What if Bridgewater misses time?

According to DenverBroncos.com's Aric DiLalla, the answer was probably seen in Sunday's loss.

Javonte Williams carried a defender on his back and broke a 31-yard run. Melvin Gordon III picked up gains of seven, eight and 14 yards on the Broncos' first three drives.

The Broncos seemed to find early success in the run game against the Ravens, as Denver averaged 8.1 yards per carry in the first quarter as the team rushed nine times for 73 yards.

The struggles, though, were also evident to Fangio -- and that early success, which helped push Denver to a 7-0 lead, could not be sustained throughout the rest of the game.

"It got bottled up there pretty good as the game wore on," Fangio said Sunday.

After the end of the first quarter, the Broncos ran the ball just eight times for 33 yards. As Fangio explained Monday, the Broncos' lack of plays after the first frame contributed to the pass-heavy offense. Through the final three quarters, the Broncos ran eight times and dropped back to pass on 33 occasions.

"Part of that is when you're going three-and-out, you don't have many plays," Fangio said. "It's hard to get anything going when you're going three-and-out as much as we did, or one first down and out. You just don't have plays, and it just skews everything."

And when the Broncos did have first downs, it's not hard to understand why the team was more comfortable throwing the football. During their 15 plays on first down in the first half, the Broncos ran the ball seven times and dropped back to pass on eight occasions. The Broncos averaged 7.43 yards per carry, but that number drops to 3.5 yards per carry with Williams' outlier of a run removed.

When Bridgewater dropped back to pass, he completed 4-of-7 passes for 56 yards, which was good for 14 yards per completion and eight yards per attempt. Bridgewater also scrambled once for two yards, but he drew a 15-yard penalty on the play.

That first-down success throwing the football helps explain Denver's decision to rely on its passing attack.

Fangio also noted that the team's 8.1 first-quarter yard-per-carry average was not an accurate indicator of the run game's performance.

"Statistically, it wasn't [very good]," Fangio said. "You're just looking at yards per carry -- which [is boosted] when you throw in a 31-yarder, and then we had two other good runs there by Melvin. But by and large they were winning the running downs. When you look at yards per carry, that's probably the worst thing to look at."

In all, Denver had just two runs longer than five yards from the end of the first quarter until the waning seconds of the game.

Fangio did note that he was impressed with Williams' first-quarter run that set up Denver's lone touchdown of the afternoon. Williams bounced off several tacklers and then carried cornerback Marlon Humphrey on his back for a big gain.

"It was tremendous, but that's why we traded up to get him in the second round," Fangio said. "We knew if we waited, he wouldn't have been there, and he's proven us right. He's a really good back and we've been very pleased with his play."

As the Broncos move ahead toward Week 5 -- still without wide receivers Jerry Jeudy and K.J. Hamler -- Fangio knows finding a more even approach will be critical.

"It's important," Fangio said Sunday. "Any time you can have balance, you're a better offensive football team."

Lock, who entered the game after halftime and handed the ball off just four times, agreed with Fangio's assessment.

"You know, [the] run game in the NFL is No. 1," Lock said Sunday. "It's undefeated. You got a good run game, you can do a lot of things. So being able to feed Melvin, being able to feed Javonte, keep them in the game, keep them rolling, keep them warm, I think that will always help us out. Whenever you get into a game, especially like this one where both defenses are playing well … it's about controlling the ball, staying on the field, converting third downs."

Fant also believes that an increased commitment to the run should help against the Steelers and beyond.

"I think we just have to keep on it," Fant said Monday. "Sometimes those big plays don't bust all the time. You just have to keep on it and keep pushing forward with those. Sometimes you're only going to get three yards on each play, but you just have to keep grinding it. That's what I expect us to fully do. I think we have a good running game, and we can make a lot of yards in that area. [We] just have to keep doing it. ..."

For what it's worth, Fant also said on Monday that the team is used to Lock if he has to play.

"It's the same approach we had in camp," Fant said, via Ryan O'Halloran of the Denver Post. "We didn't know who the quarterback was going to be. We're comfortable with both of them. … We ran the same game plan [Sunday with Lock]. That's the game plan we prepared for during the week and we just kind of kept with it. Obviously, we have to improve and try to put some more points on the board."

Fant caught 6-of-10 targets for 46 yards and a touchdown. While the touchdown came before Bridgewater left the game, half of Fant's catches came with Lock on the field in the second half. Given his 10 targets, Fant remains a valued component in this offense and fantasy managers should view him as a solid TE1 against the Steelers.

Courtland Sutton caught 3-of-7 targets for 47 yards against the Ravens. Sutton appeared to struggle a bit when Lock took over for Bridgewater. Even with Bridgewater at QB, Sutton has come up short in the two games since his huge nine-catch, 159-yard outing in Week 2.

Tim Patrick caught 3-of-6 targets for 39 yards as he continued to play his usual role. Patrick was on the field for 92 percent of the team's offensive snaps. It's been two games since he's been in the end zone (after scoring in each of the team's first two games), but Patrick remains a viable flex play in deeper leagues.

For what it's worth, Fangio told reporters on Wednesday that Jeudy’s progress the past week or so has been “very good."

Fangio added there's hope Jeudy will only miss six total weeks. That timetable would get the wideout back in the mix around Week 7 or 8. ...

And finally. ... A day after the Ravens chose to run the ball with three seconds remaining rather than take a knee, Fangio addressed Baltimore's decision to forego the NFL's common practice.

"Yeah, I thought it was kind of [expletive], but I expected it from them," Fangio said. "Thirty seven years in pro ball, I've never seen anything like that, but it was to be expected and we expected it."

Fangio said he knows "how they operate" and that "player safety is secondary."

Fangio added that his displeasure with the decision stemmed from both the risk of injury and the lack of sportsmanship.

The Ravens gained five yards on the play, which pushed them over 100 yards on the afternoon. With the rush, they tied an NFL record for the most consecutive games with 100 rushing yards.

"That was one hundred percent my call," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said Sunday. "That's one of those things that's meaningful. It's one of those things that I think as a head coach you have to be mindful of your team, your players and your coaches and what it means to them. It's a very tough record to accomplish and it's a long-term record. I'm not going to say it's more important than winning the game. As a head coach, I think you do that for your players, and you do that for your coaches, which is something that they'll have for the rest of our lives."

Not every Bronco was peeved by the Ravens' decision.

Defensive back Kareem Jackson was more annoyed with the plays the defense didn't make during the course of the game rather than focusing on the final play.

"Honestly, I don't give a [expletive] about that last play. More so care about the plays throughout the game," Jackson said. "It's our job to stop them. They ran it to get their 100 yards or whatever they was trying to do. But as a whole defense, I feel like we didn't play up to the standard that we've set for ourselves. We've got to execute, even on that last play. So it is what it is. ... As a whole, we've got to be better."

DEPTH CHART
QBs: Russell Wilson, Jarrett Stidham
RBs: Javonte Williams, Jaleel McLaughlin, Samaje Perine
WRs: Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, Marvin Mims Jr., Lil'Jordan Humphrey, Brandon Johnson
TEs: Adam Trautman, Chris Manhertz, Greg Dulcich