INDIANAPOLIS — His first try at a comeback in Orange & Blue didn’t go as planned.
But Brock Osweiler wasted little time sweeping his team, his fans and the national audience off their feet the moment he got his second opportunity to lead the Denver Broncos in 2017.
One series after “settling in” to the game, after taking over for an injured Trevor Siemian at the beginning of the second quarter, the Broncos’ second-round pick in 2012 took over the game like he, nor any other quarterback in the prized Broncos organization, has ever done.
After his first pass of the game sailed incomplete, the $16 million quarterback lived up to every penny of his massive paycheck, at least for the final three quarters of the Broncos 25-13 win over the Indianapolis Colts.
“I mean, come on—let’s not act like we don’t know who Brock Osweiler is. He’s done incredible stuff for us. He’s done incredible stuff in the past. He’s done incredible stuff for us this year,” Broncos’ star pass rusher Von Miller said, giving the utmost praise for the second-string quarterback entering Thursday night’s game. “When he comes in and has success, it’s not really a surprise. It’s Brock Osweiler; it’s our guy.”
Yet Thursday night, in front of the national spotlight, Brock had success like he’s never experienced in the past. Outside of a game in which he threw two passes in 2014, Osweiler’s 147.7 passer rating was the best in his six-year professional career to go along with a magnificent 70.6 completion percentage.
“He played well. Three touchdowns—two passing, one rushing,” Broncos’ head coach Vance Joseph said after the game, assessing Osweiler’s performance moments after handing him one of three game balls on the night. “He played with great poise. He played clean, smart football for us and the result was a win.”
What made his performance even more remarkable was this was the first time he had ever taken game-reps in offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s new offense. In all three of Osweiler’s starts earlier in 2017—Weeks 8, 9 and 10—he was playing under the direction of then-offensive coordinator Mike McCoy. Since McCoy was relieved of his duties, up until Thursday, Osweiler hadn’t taken the field with the first-team offense.
“This is my third offense this year. Started with Hue Jackson in Cleveland,” Osweiler said refusing to wipe away an ear-to-ear smile permanently radiating off his face. “A lot of things tonight were the first time I’de ever ran them, or even called them.”
For Brock on Thursday, experience in an offense was overrated. Not only was it a career night for him personally in many ways, he re-wrote the Broncos record books. Up until Week 15, the Broncos never had a quarterback throw for two touchdowns and rush for a touchdown in a relief role. Brock changed that on primetime with touchdowns of 18, 22 and 54 yards.
“I was a little kid having fun tonight. That’s really what it was,” the 27-year old kid said as he divulged his true feelings to the media. “You guys know I’ve been on a little bit of a rollercoaster ride for about two years. Just to go out there, Thursday night football with my teammates who I love—I was just having fun. That was simply it. I was going to lay it all out there. We always talk about around our building, you never know when it’s going to be your last play, your last game in this business, so just enjoy every moment. That’s what I was doing tonight.”
On his first touchdown of the night, the 6-foot-7 quarterback truly did “lay it all out there” as he finished off an 18-yard scramble with a head-first dive into the end zone.
“It took him eight hours to get there,” running back C.J. Anderson joked about his long-striding quarterback’s touchdown jaunt.
From that score on, Brock and the Broncos’ offense never looked back—outscoring the Colts 25-6 after Osweiler took over the game down seven points.
“Brock, he was on fire,” Von said nonchalantly after the team’s second win in a row.
It was Osweiler’s third and final touchdown on the night, however, that stole not only the show, but potentially Denver’s disappointing season. With just under three minutes left in the third quarter, only leading by one point, Brock did what no Bronco has done this season: Scored a touchdown on a play that began in Denver’s own territory.
On second-and-eight from Denver’46-yard6 yard line, Brock found a wide-open Jeff Heuerman in the middle of the field, connected with him, and the tight end took it to the house for his first-ever career touchdown. Not only was it the Broncos’ longest touchdown on the season, it was their longest play of the season.
“I could have caught that with my teeth,” Heuerman said of Osweiler’s touchdown throw. “No, really, it was a perfect pass. I am just happy I didn’t trip over my feet.”
Along with his brilliant individual night, Brock led an offense that put up a season-high in total yards (462) and rushing yards (213), while putting up the second-most points all season and the most since the team’s season-high (42) in Week 2. After the game, Heuerman credited Osweiler’s pre-snap work—checks and calls—for the offense’s success in not only the passing game, but the running game as well.
Even with all of this—including the best performance by a Broncos’ quarterback all season—Joseph wouldn’t commit to Brock for the future, responding, “I can’t say that right now” when asked if it’s safe to say Osweiler would be the starter next week against the Washington Redskins in Week 16.
One thing that is certain moving forward, however, is No. 17’s dedication, commitment, and love that the kid at heart has for the organization he plays for.
“Unfortunately that’s not up to me to decide,” Brock said when asked if he believes he did enough to start moving forward. “But certainly I would love to be the starter of this football team… I love being a Denver Bronco.”
0 Comments (1 conversation)
hockeyhacker5
Joseph knows that an injured Siemian gives Denver the best chance to win…a higher draft pick. Osweiler has been through incredible adversity (sometimes of his own making) but he still comes into the game with more enthusiasm than Trevor has ever been able to muster up. Let’s see what Musgrave and Osweiler can do against a somewhat better team like Washington. Let’s not forget that Brock is only 13 months older than Siemian when it comes to deciding which one to keep next season.
This was against the Colts with one of the worst defenses in the NFL. A
team with two rookie CBs. A team that only has the Browns to look down at as more
downtrodden. The real Brockweiler is how he played against the
Eagles, Patriots and Bengals. We’ll get to see him against other good teams in the Redskins and Chiefs. I hope I’m wrong but I’m expecting him to return to his old ways in the next couple weeks.
His teammates say that Siemian is
very enthusiastic as a player and leader. He has a poker face during games because he grew up
with parents who are an emergency room MD and nurse. When you work in that sort of environment you can’t show a lot of emotion. It’s life and death. Like most people, he models his parents but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to win in a very big way.
hockeyhacker5
Perhaps. But we also have never seen Brock with Musgrave as the OC, either. I’m willing to see how he does against the Redskins before attributing it all to the Colts. He still made a great throw to Heuerman, and had a nice completion on the pattern that Trevor threw right to the DB. I’m not anointing him as a starter for next year or anything, but I think he deserves a chance to be the backup next year if he plays well next week. Trevor wants to win, but since the bye, he hasn’t been playing like the Broncos can win with him, throwing six TDs and 12 INTs. That’s why he has one win in that time, and he was heading for a loss last night until Brock saved the day (and hurt the draft position).
He’ll get his chance with the Siemian injury. I just think his body of work indicates he was playing better than usual last night. The Colts terrible defense was a big reason. As the old saying goes, “Even a blind dog finds a bone once in a while.”
Also, there was nothing particularly special about Musgrave’s play calling. It’s mostly McCoy’s offense. If anything, the fact the he called fewer passes may have helped the Brockweiler. The actual plays were plain vanilla. That’s all they had to be against the Colts.
I’m not arguing that it wasn’t good for the Broncos that Siemian couldn’t finish the game. I agree that he was off to a terrible start AGAIN. I’m arguing that casual fans think Siemian doesn’t want to win because he’s not all emotional out there. That is simply not fair to him. Peyton was seldom emotional either (unless someone really screwed up). Siemian is much more forgiving of bad plays around him. He is very good at moving on to the next play.
hockeyhacker5
I basically agree with you, but an OC/QB connection makes a difference even if the offense is basically the same. Just the fact that they seemed to be on the same page was a plus. Tebow proved that making a throw to a wide-open receiver is part of the challenge, and Brock passed that test yesterday.
I’m more than a casual fan, and I know Trevor is driven, motivated, etc., but it hasn’t worked since the bye except for the Jets game, and he wasn’t overly spectacular in that one, just solid. I don’t think he has a future in Denver.
As I said, the plays were pretty simplistic. Not a lot to point to as to Musgrave being that special. I think the difference was that the Brockweiler saw the field so much better than the past. That may have been because there weren’t a lot of tricks being played by the secondary and/or it may have been that the defensive line was not getting any pressure on him. This is an outlier game and the Brockweiler didn’t pass any tests, IMHO. He beats the Redskins and the Chiefs playing the same way he did last night and we have something.
My comment re: Trevor’s enthusiasm had to do with your comment that the Brockweiler is more enthusiastic. He may show more emotion but he is not more enthusiastic that Siemian. Trevor has many, many shortcomings but desire to win and the love of the game are not failings for him.
hockeyhacker5
Alfred said a lot of the same stuff about Brock today, so I’ll side with him. 🙂