Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater entered concussion protocol after several big hits on Sunday. The veteran’s availability is now in question for Week 5, pending his recovery. 
The Broncos’ undefeated start was brought to a halt by the Ravens on Sunday, who topped them 23-7. Bridgewater was knocked out early on, after completing seven of his 16 throws for 65 yards and a short-range touchdown. He was relieved by Drew Lock, who went 12-of-21 passes for 113 yards with 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,” head coach Vic Fangio said of Lock (via NFL.com). “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.”
At minimum, Bridgewater will be withheld from practice for the next few days. It’s a frustrating setback for the 28-year-old (29 in November), who was off to a stellar start in 2021. Ditto for the Broncos, who have been eager to stabilize their QB situation. The Broncos have started ten players under center since Peyton Manning‘s post-2015 retirement. They’ve tried all possible avenues: free agency (Case Keenum, the second Brock Osweiler acquisition), the trade market (Joe Flacco, Bridgewater) and the draft (Lock, Paxton Lynch). After all of that, they’ve done no better than 9-7 since Manning left.
The 3-1 Broncos – potentially led by Lock — will face the Steelers in Week 5.
Yeah, this may end up really crashing Denver’s hot start. When Bridgewater was in the game, the Broncos were very much in it, and played evenly with Baltimore. When Lock came in, the offense completely stopped. The defense played mostly well, despite the yardage numbers (not just talking about the low call by Harbaugh at the end to cheaply preserve the rushing record).
I realize Lock has not been taking reps with the receivers for the most part, and that Denver has suffered an incredible amount of injuries there, but he looked absolutely hopeless under center. It was really, really bad. We’ll see if a week of practice can help, but Lock just completely stopped the offense’s momentum. Denver’s receiver injuries (they suffered a few that won’t result in missed time, in addition to the ones that will) are bad enough, but having to start Lock will completely shut down the offensive progress that they’ve made so far this season.
That call by Harbaugh might have been cheap, but considering it was a Steelers record they’re attempting to break, I’m all for it. However, it does open up an injury risk to his players going forward, because it sets the precedent that the Ravens won’t necessarily kneel the ball if they’re winning. An opposing team now has free reign to attack them even if they’re in ‘victory formation’.
To be honest Denvers running backs were both averaging over 6 yards per carry and it’s hard to put the blame on Drew Lock when he didn’t have the reps and even more importantly he was set up to fail in the 2nd have with their running backs only carrying the ball a total of 4 carries. The real question should be what was Shurmer thinking? Set up Lock to fail so that the fanbase doesn’t get divided if Lock does well? Makes me wonder.
Lock missed some very easy throws. Very easy. He’s started games before-for Shurmur, with these personnel-he should know who is his hot read when he’s pressured. He should know not to throw off his back foot. They were down, so the throws were unfortunately going to pile up. Lock really looked very bad.
As for the Ravens…rct, I don’t know if you saw the play, but there were three seconds left after Denver had just turned the ball over due to a red zone interception. The Ravens had the ball for one play, which was to be a kneel down most of the time. Instead, Jackson hiked it, had a convoy, and ran four yards or so before sliding. There really was no strategic value to the play for the future, and it wasn’t any hard earned yardage as the game was completely over. So, yes, the yardage was cheap, and i 1000% understand Fangio’s anger at the call. Baltimore had won, Denver was just lining up for the victory kneeldown. If Lock hadn’t thrown that pick to end the game in endzone, the clock wouldn’t have even given them time to do it, which I imagine only added to the frustration. It was like kicking a field goal with the lead and two seconds are left on the clock.
Whine much dude?
And you’re a troll. So, thanks for your input, it was really valuable.
Punting 10 times in a game is a sure sign your offensive coordinator had a bad game plan.