Terrific Denver defense — it had a shutout until 4:08 remaining — strong running by Javonte and Melvin, and superb Bridgewater passing embarrassed the Cowboys.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Funny how it works sometimes when teams lose star players. Von Who?
Or in the case of the Dallas Cowboys, isn’t it strange how a team comes out flat when it gets its star player back. Dak Who?
The Broncos traded away Von Miller, their biggest superstar, to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday in return for draft picks. The Cowboys, meanwhile, won a big game on the road last week with their backup quarterback, Cooper Rush, and returned their star quarterback, Dak Prescott, this week for the game against the Broncos.
It was such a lopsided flip of haves and have nots that the 6-1 Cowboys were deemed a 10-point favorite against the 4-4 Broncos.
Naturally, the Broncos beat the Cowboys, 30-16 here Sunday before a sold-out crowd beneath the roof-closed AT&T Stadium. A good 20 to 30 percent of the crowd roared when the Broncos made positive plays.
This wasn’t just an upset Broncos win. This was a butt-kicking. The Broncos were up 30-0 until Prescott threw two short, garbage-time touchdown passes to Malik Turner in the final 4 minutes.
And so it goes in sports.
Without Miller, the Denver D stepped up and stopped the mighty Cowboys’ offense (459 yards and 32 points per game) on downs in each of their first two series. Denver’s defense stopped a fourth-and-1 running attempt by star running Ezekiel Elliott from the Broncos’ 38 on the game-opening drive and Prescott, who misfired all day in his return from a calf injury, badly underthrew a fourth-and-2 attempt from the Denver 20.
Those two, fourth-down stops put the game on the upset alert.
The Broncos’ offense responded with touchdowns on their next two drives – a 3-yard run by Melvin Gordon III and a perfect 44-yard heave from Teddy Bridgewater to Tim Patrick, who warded off the great cornerback Trevon Diggs for the catch. Heavy run on their first touchdown series; Bridgewater passing highlighted the second touchdown series.
How about that Pat Shurmur play-calling?
All this despite nervous concern in the hours leading up to the game. Backup quarterback Drew Lock was placed in the COVID-19 protocols Sunday morning after he tested positive for the virus, league sources told 9news.
Lock, who is vaccinated, learned Saturday evening upon the team landing in Dallas that a close personal contact to him (not team related) had tested positive for COVID-19. Lock informed the team, then was administered tests Saturday night and Sunday morning. After those tests, it was determined Lock had tested positive and was placed in isolation.
So there went the Broncos’ backup QB for their game against the Cowboys. While it’s clear the Broncos have a COVID-19 issue, it could have been worse. This is where it became a nervous situation for the Broncos: after Lock tested positive, the Broncos worked through their close contacts and starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was flagged for a test Sunday morning. He tested negative and was cleared to play with Brett Rypien as his backup.
As for starters the Broncos did miss against the Cowboys, outside linebacker Malik Reed – who had a monster game last week with two sacks and a fourth down pass breakup in a win against Washington – nose tackle Mike Purcell and left tackle Garett Bolles were all down with injuries and tight end Noah Fant was sideline with the virus.
Two more starting offensive lineman, right tackle Bobby Massie and right guard Graham Glasgow, went down with ankle injuries in the first half and didn’t return. Glasgow was carted off with what appeared to be a serious injury.
And did we say Von was traded away?
Yet the Broncos’ beleaguered head coach Vic Fangio and offensive coordinator Shurmur had their team ready to play its best game.
Special teams failed them as the Broncos allowed a 54-yard return on the game-opening kickoff and McManus missed his first extra point of the offense. Yet, it was by far the Broncos’ best first quarter of the season.
Dallas’ defense was much improved stopping the run as it only allowed 88.3 rushing yards per game entering Sunday, but the Broncos on one drive got 50 on eight carries from Williams and Gordon. Gordon finished their first scoring drive with a 3-yard touchdown drive. McManus missed the extra point.
On their next drive, Williams got the Broncos’ running game going again with a 17-yard burst around left end. Bridgewater then hit Patrick for 11 yards to convert a third-and-10 and on the next play delivered the set up with the 44-yard strike down the left sideline for the touchdown. It was 13-0 Broncos.
Later in the half, McManus delivered redemption with a 53-yard field goal that gave Denver a 16-0 lead.
It didn’t hurt that the Broncos got a huge break early in the second half. Sam Martin had his punt blocked deep in Denver territory but it bounced forward and a Cowboy muffed the bounce beyond the line of scrimmage.
Broncos special teamer Jonas Griffith alertly picked up the ball after the Cowboy muff. Broncos ball. A sensational, tackle-breaking, 30-yard by Williams and a 20-yard completion from Bridgewater to Jeudy helped set up a short field goal by McManus for a 19-0 lead midway through the third quarter.
Bridgewater, Gordon and Williams, along with Fangio’s best coached defense in his three seasons as head coach, took care of the fourth quarter. Bridgewater came through with a huge, third-and-14 pass across the middle to Kendall Hinton, who caught it and ran 40 yards to set up first and goal at the 3.
Bridgewater wound up reaching over from the 1 for the touchdown, then scrambled and hit Courtland Sutton for a 2-point conversion to make it, 27-0.
Bridgewater finished 19 of 28 for 249 yards with a touchdown for a 107.6 passer rating while Prescott, obviously rusty from missing the past two weeks with a calf injury and victimized by receiver drops, was a putrid 8 of 23 for 102 yards with an interception and embarrassing 31.4 rating as the Broncos built a 30-0 lead with less than 7 minutes remaining.
Prescott got some decent garbage-time stats and finished 19 of 39 for 232 yards with a touchdown to go along with his interception, lifting his rating to 73.9.
Williams led all rushers with 111 yards off 17 carries. Gordon added 80 yards on 21 carries.
Patrick had four catches for a team-high 85 yards while Jeudy added six catches for 69 yards.
And oh by the way, rookie Jonathan Cooper, the new left ouside line backer in place of Von Miller? He had 2.0 sacks. Life without Von has begun.
The Broncos are now 5-4 entering their game next Sunday against the 3-5 Philadelphia Eagles at Empower Field at Mile High. Now it’s the Broncos’ turn to not take their opponent lightly.
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