Four Jaguars' weaknesses begging to be exploited by Broncos in Week 4

If the Broncos don't exploit these Jacksonville weaknesses, they are bound for an 0-4 start.

The Denver Broncos are returning home at 0-3 on the season, poised to take on a 1-2 Jacksonville Jaguars team. The Jaguars rank 24th in total offense, 16th in passing offense, 23rd in rushing offense and 24th in points per game. 

The Jags have a rookie quarterback, so their struggles are a little bit more understandable. However, this has to be the area for the Broncos to attack — the QB.

For how vaunted their defense is, the Jaguars are ranked 18th in total yards allowed, 18th in passing yards allowed, 17th in rushing yards allowed and 10th in points allowed. Jacksonville is a talented defensive unit with playmakers at all three levels of their defense. There is plenty of speed on this defense so attacking them is going to be difficult for the Broncos.

This is a Jaguars team that plays better than their record suggests, which is the case a lot with teams after the first few weeks. However, after going over their film, there are a few ways that Denver can attack the Jaguars and exploit areas of weakness. 

Let's dive in.

Rookie QB: Get creative on defense

Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Facing off against a rookie quarterback gives the Broncos' defense an advantage, but they need to do certain things to capitalize. The biggest thing is to be creative on defense and make Gardner Minshew's reads difficult. 

Vic Fangio must move players around pre-snap, and don’t just give an easy read with no movement. Show a blitz pre-snap and get creative with who the Broncos actually rush. 

Denver's cornerbacks have to press on the outside to take away the quick throws. Basically the Broncos need to do a lot of things that Fangio isn’t known for, and that really needs to change.

The onus is on Fangio to make things difficult for Minshew. Denver can’t just give him the simple reads. Minshew is a smart quarterback, and knows how to read a defense pre-snap. 

Whatever the Broncos can do to make that more difficult the better. After the snap, the rookie is a little slower to read a defense, which gives the Broncos time to get pressure on him.

Vic Fangio has called some really questionable defensive plays so far this season, and that needs to change. I cannot stress enough that Denver is facing a rookie quarterback, and they need to exploit that.

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Susceptible to being rendered one-dimensional: Take away the run game

Leonard Fournette is a banger between the tackles. He has very few runs that he takes outside of the tackles, so the interior of this Broncos' defense has to step up. They’re going to ram Fournette up the middle and wear you down, so they have to be ready for that. 

If Denver can shut him down up the middle, there isn’t much else to worry about because Fournette doesn’t have the vision or speed to take it outside.

Basically, the Broncos want to force the Jaguars to use an outside rushing game because it plays to their weaknesses. From there, Denver is essentially taking away their rushing attack. Take away that rushing attack, and the Broncos are putting more pressure on the rookie quarterback and putting the game all on him. 

Take away that safety net of the running game, and keep it stifled. The Broncos are a defense that has done decently well when it comes down to shutting down running backs,

Aggressive front-seven: Play-action & quick passes

With the major concern about the defensive line of the Jaguars, and as we have seen in previous weeks, you counter that with quick passes and play-action. The Broncos have used the quick passes with some success, and they need to keep doing it. However, they will need to take shots downfield as well. Play-action will help Denver take those shots.

This year, the Broncos have only used play-action on just 18% of their snaps. Denver really does need to use it more often, because that is below the league average. This offensive system was supposed to incorporate play-action often, but looking at Joe Flacco's history in Baltimore in previous years, he hasn’t really used it much. 

There is a disconnect there, as Flacco has been statistically better when using play-action and his team has been better when they use play-fakes a lot. The year the Ravens won the Super Bowl and Flacco was named Super Bowl MVP, they were a team with one of the highest usage rates of play-action in the NFL.

Even if Flacco is uncomfortable with play-action, the Broncos still need to use it more often than they have. That's how the Broncos coax the best QB version out of Flacco. 

Rich Scangarello doesn't need to roll him out every play-action, but the OC can run that shotgun play-action and let him work from that. From there, Denver can get a little more creative with the play calls. Maybe it can lead to some run-pass options down the road. 

Scangarello needs to watch the San Francisco 49ers and incorporate those play-action plays into the Broncos' offense, as everyone expected when he was hired. Denver has to have a higher play-action rate against the Jaguars. Roughly 25-30% of their offensive play calls should be enough.

Quarter-field reads: Take away quick pass & outside passing game

Watching Gardner Minshew, there are some areas of his game that are very weak. He often uses first read. The next read in the progression is usually a dump-off, and he doesn’t really go through the fullness of his progression. 

OC John DeFilippo has done a great job catering to Minshew’s skill-set but cutting the field into two-ninths, under 10 yards on the left/right outside. Through just over two games of action, Minshew has only targeted the middle o the field 15 times and has only thrown more than 10 yards 16 times.

When Minshew does target outside those two areas, he is clearly less comfortable and his accuracy drops. A good majority of those 31 throws are not well placed, and 13 of them were incomplete because of poor placement. 

Take away those quick strikes to the outside and the Broncos will force Minshew to play a game that he is uncomfortable with. Whenever a defense can force a quarterback to try and beat them by doing something they're not comfortable with, it's an advantage.

Knowing the areas to exploit, which players need to step up for this game?

Andy Janovich: This is a bit iffy. There is no guarantee that Janovich plays, but if he does, he needs to have a big game as a blocker. If he can help in pass protection, the Broncos will have more options in personnel. This is a great game to potentially get Janovich back. While he does make mistakes as a blocker, he brings more there than what Andrew Beck does.

O-Line: If you haven’t picked up on it yet, the Jaguars have a really tough defensive front. That puts a lot on the Broncos' offensive line. Denver's starting five has to step up. Every single one of them needs to play a great game. If even one of them has a sub-par performance, we are likely talking about the Broncos being 0-4 come Monday.

Jeff Heuerman/Noah Fant: With the issues of the Broncos' O-line and the strength of the Jaguars' D-line, Denver should use two tight end sets a lot especially if Janovich can’t go. Have these TEs chip the edge rushers, and help out the tackles, just like we've seen opponents do to Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. After that, the Broncos can have the TEs leak and become a receiver option. The Jaguars have a rookie linebacker that has really struggled on the field, so whichever TE draws Quincy Williams in coverage, that should be the direction Joe Flacco looks with the ball.

Broncos' D-line: Minshew struggles under pressure, so the pass rushers need to show up. The Jaguars' O-line gives up a lot of pressures per game, but they haven’t given up many sacks. A big reason for that is the quick passing game. There is more pressure on the likes of Von Miller, Bradley Chubb and Shelby Harris to finally get home, and get there quickly, after going the first three games without a sack.

De’Vante Bausby/Chris Harris, Jr.: The quick passing game to the outside puts a lot more emphasis on Harris and Bausby stepping up their game. They can’t let them catch short and take it upfield. Additionally, we need to see them really quick and close and get some takeaways. The Jaguars passing game is a direct shot at these two, so they have to step up.

Vic Fangio: Again, we're talking about a rookie quarterback, and Fangio’s defense has given even some big-time veterans fits over the years. Fangio really needs to adjust his scheme and throw a lot more at the rookie than we have seen in previous weeks. This would be a great week to really see the defense play to the potential we expected. 

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