The Denver Broncos’ Pass Rush vs. the Minnesota Vikings (7 sacks, 4 Hits)

1-5-MIN 8 (Q4, 14:29) T.Bridgewater pass incomplete deep left to A.Thielen

The Broncos put on a four man rush and the Vikings run a pretty common and simple protection scheme here called “half-slide right”. What this means is the center moves to the right to help out the RG and RT (note that the TE also stays in because there’s the potential for Ware to come in as a fifth rusher) with the pass rushers to that side. This leaves the LG and LT in one-on-one blocking situations. On this play, Kalil is blocking Miller and Fusco is blocking Jackson. Kalil does a solid job on Miller, turning him upfield and taking him out of the play. However, Fusco fails to properly account for Jackson, and he gets a hand on Bridgewater, forcing him to climb the pocket. Bridgewater is able to make a throw, but it is too low and just a bit behind Thielen, who can’t bring in the catch. Jackson’s rush helped cause this incompletion as it hurried Bridgewater into an inaccurate throw.

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2-5-MIN 8 (Q4, 14:22) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass short left to S.Diggs to MIN 15 for 7 yards (B.Roby). FUMBLES (B.Roby), and recovers at MIN 15. S.Diggs to MIN 15 for no gain (B.Marshall)

Even if it didn’t always affect the outcome of the play, the Broncos, as you may have realized, just got pressure constantly in this game. Here, Ware is rushing against Kalil and sets him up to the outside, before ripping back inside. Kalil is unprepared for the inside move, and Ware gets to Teddy just after the ball is thrown. Despite the disruption, the pass is on target and the Vikings pick up a first down.

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1-10-MIN 43 (Q4, 12:05) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater sacked at MIN 35 for -8 yards (sack split by S.Williams and M.Jackson)

On this play, the Broncos stunt their two DTs, Williams and Jackson. The interior of the Vikings’ OL, Fusco and Berger, are unprepared for the stunt and get beaten badly by it. Stunts are used because they’re difficult to block against, and you see that here. Ideally, Fusco would pass Jackson off to Berger and then pick off Williams as he loops around. However, Jackson gets too far into the backfield for Berger to pick him up, and Fusco has to try to stay with him. Fusco is in really bad position to block Jackson at this point, and Berger is in terrible position to block Williams. Williams is the one who wraps Bridgewater up but both players played a big role in this sack.

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2-11-DEN 24 (Q4, 6:33) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater sacked at DEN 25 for -1 yards (C.Nelson).

At this point in the game, Bridgewater has been under siege so much by the Broncos that it’s a rare occasion when he’s had a clean pocket to throw in. On this play, he gets skittish and tries to escape when there’s not a whole lot of pressure. Antonio Smith did do a very good job of pushing Berger back into his lap, but if Teddy had taken a step or two to his right he would have bought himself a significant amount of time, and still have been able to survey downfield. Normally, he’s pretty good at that, but not in this case. LB Corey Nelson has seen Bridgewater take off running, and comes up from his zone to tackle the QB behind the line of scrimmage, which counts as a sack.

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2-1-MIN 29 (Q4, 1:27) (No Huddle, Shotgun) T.Bridgewater sacked at MIN 20 for -9 yards (V.Miller).

Von Miller is very, very good. The Vikings put TJ Clemmings on an island with him here, and that was a mistake. Part of the reason he’s so good is his explosion off the snap. On this play, he gets upfield past Clemmings before he even engages the RT. Now, Clemmings did not do all that good of a job kick stepping to protect against the speed rush either, but Miller engages Clemmings well before his counterpart, Ware, engages Kalil. Then you get to see Miller do what he’s probably the best in the league at: get bend and slide underneath Clemmings as he gets around the edge. He dips his inside arm and shoulder underneath Clemmings’ outside arm, which puts Clemmings directly behind him and with no chance on the block. Bridgewater simply doesn’t stand a chance on this play. Miller is already bearing down on him when he gets to the top of his drop. He tries to slide away from that side, but there’s nowhere for him to go down the field and he has to eat the sack.

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3-10-MIN 20 (Q4, 1:20) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater scrambles up the middle to MIN 30 for 10 yards (C.Harris)

Miller notches another pressure on this play, but it actually ends as a positive for the Vikings as Bridgewater is able to pick up significant yardage on the scramble. The play itself looks fairly similar to the previous one. Miller is able to beat Clemmings around the edge. Unlike the last play, Clemmings does just enough here to prevent the sack. The main difference is where on the field Miller is able to turn the corner. On the last play, he was actually three yards ahead of Bridgewater when he turned the corner (that is to say Bridgewater was 3 yards further behind the line of scrimmage than Miller was). On this play, he is about level with Bridgewater when he turns the corner. This allows Bridgewater to step up in Miller’s direction, which he was unable to do last time. Because the Vikings are trying to execute a two minute drill, there’s not a lot of underneath coverage and Bridgewater is able to pick up a large chunk of yards on the scramble.

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1-10-MIN 30 (Q4, :50) (No Huddle, Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass short right to M.Wallace ran ob at MIN 47 for 17 yards.

TJ Clemmings did not have a good game for the Vikings. The Broncos have subbed Barrett in for Miller here, and although it’s a different player they get the same result. Barrett uses a bull rush and just puts Clemmings on skates back to the QB. Barrett got much lower than Clemmings, which gave him the leverage on the big RT, and it enabled him to push Clemmings back into Bridgewater. Bridgewater got the throw off and completed the pass to Wallace for a nice pickup, but the Broncos’ pass rush once again showed itself as relentless.

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1-10-MIN 47 (Q4, :44) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater pass incomplete short left to A.Peterson (S.Barrett).

Clemmings got picked on by Barrett once again on this play. Throughout the game the Vikings gave Clemmings, a 4th round rookie who was pressed into duty be a season ending injury to Phil Loadholt, a ton of help, but they couldn’t afford to do so on the two minute drive, and Clemmings’ inexperience showed in a big way. The Broncos edge rushers fed off of him. Barrett tries an inside move this time, and flashes in front of Bridgewater, which forces the QB to move to his right. Clemmings overpursues trying to make up for his mistake, and Barrett comes free on the other side of Clemmings. Now, Bridgewater had enough time to get the pass off on this play, but no one was really open downfield. With Barrett in his face and a couple of other Broncos free, Bridgewater has no choice but to throw the ball away.

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2-10-MIN 47 (Q4, :35) (Shotgun) T.Bridgewater sacked at MIN 42 for -5 yards (T.Ward). FUMBLES (T.Ward), RECOVERED by DEN-V.Miller at MIN 42. V.Miller to MIN 42 for no gain (B.Fusco)

Fittingly, the Broncos defense ended the game the way it started it: by blitzing TJ Ward. They back off the LDE, and have their three players on the line of scrimmage crash to the left. They then loop ILB Brandon Marshall around to the right, as well as send Ward on the safety blitz. Clemmings, who initially went to block the crashing DE, did not see Marshall until it was too late, and he whiffed on that. It didn’t even really matter, though, because Peterson decided to run a hot route instead of block Ward. You can see Bridgewater looking directly down the middle of the field, instead of towards Peterson, so it’s clear the RB and QB were not on the same page, and Peterson probably should have stayed in to block. As Bridgewater was looking to throw, Ward hits him in the arm and knocks the ball loose. Marshall and Clemmings both dive for it and miss, and Von Miller is then able to pounce and recover the ball to seal the game for the Broncos. The Broncos defense has made a living this season off of forcing big turnovers, and here they caused Teddy to lose the first fumble of his career.

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As you can see, the Broncos got pressure early and often against the Vikings, with the seemingly their entire defense contributing to the assault. They won a number of different ways, picking on TJ Clemmings but also confusing the Vikings offense with a number of shifting defensive looks to players into trying to block the wrong guy. The team has had similar levels of success rushing the passer in the team’s three other games, and shows no sign of letting up any time soon. It will be interesting to see how they perform against better OLs, and the Raiders this week will be a great test. So far, Oakland has done an excellent job of keeping Derek Carr on his feet. If there’s a team in the NFL that can make Carr’s life miserable, it’s the Broncos, so it should be an interesting matchup to keep an eye on.