The Denver Broncos are heading into a familiar kind of test this week, even if the details look different.
Last season, Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars walked into Denver and snapped the Broncos’ 11-game winning streak. That game was its own kind of gut punch, but it wasn’t the same as the one Denver took on Monday night against the Kansas City Chiefs. This time around, the challenge is less about a single collapse and more about whether the Broncos can find their pass rush in time to matter.
Lawrence already showed Denver what happens when he gets rolling. In that 34-20 Jaguars win last year, he finished 23-for-36 for 279 yards with three touchdown passes and added a rushing touchdown. He started slowly, but after Jacksonville failed to score on its first two possessions, the Jaguars scored on six of seven drives, and Lawrence did his damage on third down and in the red zone.
He’s doing it again early this season, and that’s notable because September has usually been his roughest month. Michael DiRocco of ESPN noted that Lawrence has won only 33 percent of his games in September and has completed just 60 percent of his passes in that month, with a quarterback rating of 47 that was the lowest of any month in his career.
But this September looks different. Last week against the Cleveland Browns, Lawrence went 18-for-23 for 245 yards, four touchdown passes and no interceptions for a 150.6 QB rating.
Those weren’t all easy throws, either. Per DiRocco, he completed 10 of 11 attempts for 179 yards and a career-high three touchdowns, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
Jaguars coach Liam Coen pointed to excellent protection, spreading the ball around and mixing in the run game as the reasons for the blowout over Cleveland.
There’s also a name Broncos fans should remember from last year’s meeting: Parker Washington. He had six catches for 145 yards and a touchdown against Denver in that win, and he followed it up with five catches for 83 yards and a touchdown in last Sunday’s victory.
So the question in Denver is a simple one: will the pass rush show up against Jacksonville? It’s a different problem than the one the Broncos faced against the Chiefs, when the question was whether they could stop Kenneth Walker III, but slowing Lawrence down may matter just as much, if not more.
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