5 Revelations from Broncos' 24-19 Victory Over Browns in Week 9

These are the biggest takeaways from the Broncos' third victory of the 2019 season.

Coming into Week 9, the Denver Broncos were a team floundering in their own misery. Sitting at 2-6 and coming off of their third loss to a game-winning field goal, Denver desperately needed a win if there was any chance of making a Cinderella-esque run towards the postseason.

While odds are still very long on that becoming a possibility, they managed to take a step in the right direction by defeating the Cleveland Browns 24-19 at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium.

Backed by several explosive plays on offense and a stifling showing from the defense in the red zone, Denver held on to win their third game of the season.

There’s still a long way to go if the Broncos want to have a chance at returning to the postseason for the first time since their 2015 Super Bowl run, but there were a lot of positives to take away from their victory against the now 2-7 Browns.

Allen Wins his First Career Game

After seeing Joe Flacco placed on injured reserve with a neck injury, Denver turned to Brandon Allen. The third-year quarterback was solid in his first career action, completing 12 of his 20 attempts for 193 yards and two touchdowns.

Allen looked comfortable with the situation at times and made the necessary throws that lead to the Broncos being able to maintain any sort of consistency on offense. It wasn’t a perfect showing, but Allen did play well in his first career start. Kudos to the young guy.

Young Weapons Lead to Offensive Explosion

While Allen was solid, he was helped out on several occasions by his explosive playmakers. Allen’s first career touchdown pass was brought to be by a Herculean effort by Courtland Sutton, who made a ridiculous body adjustment on a fade route by leaping over the top of Browns CB Denzel Ward. That one will show up on highlight reels for the next couple of days.

Allen was also fortunate enough to have TE Noah Fant break several tackles en route to a 75-yard touchdown, which was the longest play from scrimmage for the Broncos offense this season. Fant turned a 12-yard gain into another explosive play, extending the Broncos lead to 14-3 in the second quarter.

But it wasn’t just the receivers. RB Phillip Lindsay notched a pair of long runs, including a 30-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Lindsay racked up 92 yards on nine carries for a whopping 10.2 yard per carry average.

The young weapons on this offense have started to make their emergence, and their effectiveness on Sunday was helped drastically by my next takeaway.

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Rich Scangarello Opens up the Play Sheet

By removing Flacco from the field, the Broncos offense was helped in a way that cannot be understated. Flacco is very immobile, and getting Allen on the field opened up a plethora of play calls for Scangarello. Allen’s mobility allowed Rich Scangarello to show his best game of the season as a play-caller.

This was the offense that most of us were expecting to see this season. Play-action passing plays, bootlegs and moving pockets in the passing game and creative situational play calling finally showed their face for the Broncos offense on Sunday, and the explosive plays came with it.

There were still some issues at times, but for the most part, the Broncos offense had their way with the Browns defense. Denver averaged 7.0 yards per play, backed by all of the explosive plays from their young playmakers.

If Scangarello’s seat as the offensive coordinator was starting to get hot, Sunday’s showing most definitely cooled it significantly. He called plays that suited his players’ strengths, attacked the weaknesses of the Browns defense, and set the offense up for success.

Hopefully, this continues for the rest of the season.

Broncos Defense Bares its Fangs in the red-zone

Arguably the most impressive development from Sunday’s victory was the Broncos defense standing tall when backed up inside their 20 yard-line. Cleveland marched the ball up and down the field at times, getting into the red zone five times on their own. They were gifted a sixth appearance after WR Diontae Spencer fumbled a screen pass at the 24 yard-line.

But the Broncos defense help up on five out of those six red-zone appearances, holding the Browns to four field goals, a turnover on downs, and one touchdown. At one point in the fourth quarter, Cleveland was only averaging 2.1 yards per play in the red area.

Counting Jarvis Landry's scamper into the endzone in the fourth quarter, Denver's defense has only allowed two touchdowns in their last 16 appearances inside the 20 yard-line. 

Talk about getting feisty with your backs against the wall.

Alexander Johnson has a day

The most impactful player for the Broncos defense was undoubtedly LB Alexander Johnson. Denver’s second-year linebacker led the team with 13 total tackles on the afternoon, and also had a couple of pressures on Browns QB Baker Mayfield when blitzing.

Johnson was all over the field in the running game on Sunday, and also made a couple of open-field tackles in the passing game as well. Johnson’s effort, as well as the rest of the Broncos defense, held Browns RB Nick Chubb to 65 yards rushing on 20 carries. Cleveland only managed 90 total rushing yards on the day.

Johnson has stepped up majorly in his action this season, and is looking like a long term building block for the Broncos defense. He still needs to become a more complete defender in the passing game, but his efforts in the running game have not gone unnoticed. 

Follow Lance on Twitter @SandersonMHH and @MileHighHuddle.