Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur has been criticized by fans this season for an underwhelming offense that features questionable play calling, bad red zone results and underutilized running backs.
Shurmur was unavailable for Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles due to COVID-19 protocol, so quarterbacks coach Mike Shula filled in as the team’s offensive play caller in Week 10.
Fans hoping for a revamped offense were disappointed.
Shula, who has coached under Shurmur since 2018, called a game that looked a lot like his mentor’s. The Broncos threw the ball inside the five-yard line, underutilized their running backs and were terrible in the red zone.
New play caller, same bad results.
Denver entered the red zone five times against Philly and netting just six points from those five possessions.
Javonte Williams received just eight carries and Melvin Gordon got nine. That’s just 17 total carries for a pair of backs that were averaging 6.0 and 5.0 yards per carry, respectively, on Sunday.
This seemingly confirms that making an in-season change at offensive coordinator doesn’t make much sense for the Broncos. Shurmur’s offense hasn’t been good enough, but Denver doesn’t seem to have an in-house candidate who could replace him and improve the offense.
Broncos fans hoping for better play calling will likely have to wait until 2022.
