Pros
- The Denver Broncos will have a new play-caller this season in head coach Nathaniel Hackett, and THE BLITZ projects their pass/run mix to skew 4.4% more towards passing than it did last season (in a neutral context).
- The Broncos are a 4-point underdog in this week’s contest, likely leading to a passing game script.
- THE BLITZ projects this game to see the smallest volume of plays run on the slate this week at 132.8 plays, given the tendencies of each team and game dynamics.
- Eric Saubert has accumulated significantly more air yards this season (24.0 per game) than he did last season (3.0 per game).
- Eric Saubert’s 16.9 WOPR (Weighted Opportunity Rating—a volume statistic that measures high-value offensive involvement) has been notably higher this year than it was last year at 4.0.
Cons
- THE BLITZ projects the Denver Broncos as the least pass-heavy offense among all teams this week with a 61.2% pass rate, based on their underlying tendencies and matchup dynamics.
- Eric Saubert’s receiving reliability have diminished this season, with his Completion% falling off from 71.5% to 56.2%.
- The Los Angeles Chargers have stacked the box vs. opponents on just 13.8% of their plays since the start of last season, 8th-least in the NFL. Choosing not to keep an extra defender near the line of scrimmage improves pass defense at the expense of run-stopping.
- The Denver Broncos have gone no-huddle on a lowly 3.8% of their plays outside the two-minute warning since the start of last season (least in the NFL). This deadens the pace, leading to less volume and stat production.
Projection
THE BLITZ
22
Receiving Yards