Broncos should take advantage of Teddy Bridgewater’s accuracy against historically bad Eagles pass defense – The Denver Post

Playing pitch-and-catch against a four-man pass rush and cover men providing too much cushion, Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert broke out of his mini-slump in last week’s win over Philadelphia.

Herbert had completion streaks of five, 11 and 13 passes while completing a career-best 84.2% of his attempts (32 of 38).

Excitement should have overwhelmed Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater as he reviewed the video earlier this week.

Bridgewater enters Sunday’s game against the Eagles third in the NFL with a 70.2 completion rate and Philadelphia’s defense is last in opponent’s completion percentage (75.5%).

“(Bridgewater) is a very accurate guy,” Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said. “He understands concepts, he understands when he can drive the ball down the field when it’s clean and then (he understands), ‘OK, I can’t get it there, let me check it down.’ That’s just who Teddy is.”

Who the Eagles are is historically bad at forcing incompletions.

Philadelphia’s opponent completion rate is the highest in NFL history, ahead of 2016 Detroit (72.7%), 2021 Jacksonville (72.6%), 2018 Tampa Bay (72.5%) and 2011 Indianapolis (71.2%).

“We definitely have to get that completion percentage down and there are a number of ways to do that,” Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon told the Philadelphia media. “It starts with us as coaches to detail out some things and change some looks. And rush and cover, cover and rush have to get a little bit better.”

Gannon said the Eagles’ issues are “definitely fixable, absolutely.”

So far, though, nothing has worked.

Five quarterbacks have dissected the Eagles for a completion rate of at least 80% this year, including Herbert last week. To put that in perspective, the Broncos have allowed only 14 games of at least 80% completions in franchise history.

Time for Bridgewater to throw the Broncos into an early lead before leaning on the running back tandem of Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams? The Chargers came out throwing.

Herbert was 9 of 12 for 115 yards in the first quarter and 6 of 6 for 46 yards in the second as Los Angeles built a 14-10 halftime lead.

Herbert adopted a take-what-is-there approach. He was 7 of 9 on passes behind the line of scrimmage and 13 of 14 on attempts that traveled 1-5 “air” yards. When he went downfield, he had success — 3 of 3 for completions of 17, 19 and 49 yards.

That kind of passing map is right in Bridgewater’s wheelhouse. The veteran is willing to throw downfield, but is accurate on underneath passes — 18 of 22 on attempts of 1-10 “air” yards in wins over Washington and Dallas.

“We think highly of (Bridgewater),” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “I think he’s really smart. He knows where to go with the football vs. different looks. He’s accurate. I’ve just got a lot of respect for him so we know we got our hands full.”

The return of Jerry Jeudy to join Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick produces another headache for the Eagles. Philadelphia’s goal should be to probe a makeshift Broncos offensive line with extra rushers and twists/stunts to challenge the group’s communication.

What the Eagles can’t count on is Bridgewater turning it over; he has five interceptions in 285 attempts this year.

“I think Teddy has played consistently well for us,” coach Vic Fangio said. “I think the games that you would say weren’t his better games, we didn’t play well as a team, either. But we’ve all been very pleased with Teddy’s play.”

A quarterback’s delight

Philadelphia currently ranks last all-time in opponent’s completion percentage:

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