PHILADELPHIA — Since last Thanksgiving, the Denver Broncos have had the league’s best defense — at home.
If you take solely the Broncos’ form in games played at Empower Field at Mile High in that span — including postseason — Denver ranks No. 1 in total defense, pass defense, and yardage per play allowed, sack rate, pressure rate and first-down rate and No. 2 in rushing defense.
The Broncos are undefeated in these games. All but one were decided by multiple scores.
Now, it must be noted that the opposing starting quarterbacks in those games were Jameis Winston, Anthony Richardson, Carson Wentz, Cam Ward — in his NFL debut — and Jake Browning.
On the road, against passers of a higher standard … it’s a different matter entirely.
THREE NUMBERS FOR BRONCOS-EAGLES
32
That is where the Broncos defense would rank since last Thanksgiving in total defense, passing defense and third-down percentage if you took ONLY their work in road games over that span.
And if considering only away games for all NFL teams, they would still rank dead last in two of those categories and 29th in third-down defense in that span, so it’s not a matter of a sample skewed by taking only Broncos road games compared with all contests for everyone else.
The Broncos would also be 31st in passer rating allowed, 30th in average yardage allowed per play and first-down rate, 29th in rushing defense.
The opposing teams and quarterbacks in those games: the Los Angeles Chargers and Justin Herbert (twice), Cincinnati and Joe Burrow, Buffalo and Josh Allen and Indianapolis with Daniel Jones.
And at that point, one must consider whether infamous Fox Sports bloviator Nick Wright has a valid criticism when he speaks of how this iteration of the Broncos lacks wins over teams with heft.
Cue the “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point” meme.
Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point
The team has something to prove.
And while the spotlight is on Bo Nix on the offense, it’s truly the case for the defense, which has has flattened foes at the foot of the league … but needs to show the same kind of punch against the type of opponent that has given them fits in recent years, one with an array of quality skill-position targets.
That said, the Eagles offense hasn’t taken flight this year. Saquon Barkley carries a meager per-carry average of 3.1 yards so far this season. The Eagles haven’t hit 300 yards of total offense since Week 1.
On the one hand, Philadelphia is due for a breakout. On the other, here’s an opportunity for Denver to take a foe with plenty of weapons, keep them neutralized and deliver the type of performance last seen at Kansas City in Week 10 last season.
17
That’s the number of non-kneeldown drives Philadelphia has finished without a first down this season, including a whopping 13 in the last two games.
The Eagles have more such possessions in those two contests than the Broncos offense has in the entire season to date (12).
18
That’s the number of consecutive games Philadelphia has won with quarterback Jalen Hurts playing from start to finish.
Now, there’s a magic number of note for Hurts: 55 percent. The Eagles are 1-11 when opponents hold him below that completion rate. When he exceeds that figure, the Eagles are 55-12.
Here’s the problem, though: Hurts has failed to reach that threshold just three times since the start of the 2022 season — and one of those games was last December at Washington, when he was injured and threw just four passes.5yj
Not coincidentally, that’s the only game Philadelphia has lost in the last calendar year.
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