Written by Jared Dubin at CBSSports.com
Brock Osweiler made his return to Denver on Monday evening, playing against the Broncos for the first time since bolting to the Houston Texans during the offseason. His performance probably made the Broncos glad they did not pony up the cash to keep him.
Osweiler had rushers in his face all night long, with Von Miller, Shane Ray,Derek Wolfe and the rest of Denver’s defensive front absolutely demolishing the Texans offensive line. But even when the rush wasn’t in his face, Osweiler did not seem like he stood a chance against the Broncos’ elite cornerbacks, either.
With their passing game cut off at the head, the Texans struggled badly to get any traction all evening. The Texans had 12 drives, only four of which gained 30 yards or more. (The average NFL drive has gone 31.1 yards in 2016.) They averaged just 4.0 yards per play overall, over a yard-and-a-half worse than the league average this season. Denver’s defense makes every offense look ordinary, but the Texans offense simply looked inept.
On the other side of the ball, the Texans’ run defense was gashed repeatedly by the combination of C.J. Anderson and Devontae Booker, who combined for 190 yards and two scores on 33 carries. All Osweiler’s successor Trevor Siemian needed to do with his throws was avoid turning the ball over, and he did just that. Siemian was not explosive, but he was relatively efficient in the short passing game and found Demaryius Thomas for a score early on.
It was all the Broncos really needed, what with everything else going their way.
Here are four more things to know about Denver’s convincing 27-9 win:
2. Brock Osweiler and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad game
We mentioned it above, but holy cow was Houston’s passing game a mess. Osweiler was alternately under pressure or throwing the ball to nobody all night long, and the Texans never seriously threatened the Broncos through the air. At one point midway through the fourth quarter, Osweiler was averaging 2.8 yards per attempt.
Osweiler subsequently added 24 yards on seven additional attempts. He ended the evening averaging only 3.2 per attempt, which is just as bad as it sounds. It actually is the third-worst figure for any player with at least 40 pass attempts in a game.
He especially struggled to connect with DeAndre Hopkins (five catches for 36 yards on 12 targets), who saw tight coverage from Aqib Talib for much of the evening and bracket coverage on the other side on the snaps where Talib wasn’t on him. None of Osweiler’s deep shots had a chance and he routinely was not on the same page as his receivers on option routes.
Osweiler also mishandled a shotgun snap when he took his eye off the ball before beginning his drop back (he recovered the ball, but the drive ended in a field goal rather than a possible touchdown), then later fumbled the ball away to the Broncos with absolutely no pressure in his face.
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