A weekly look at what the Denver Broncos must fix:

As is always the case, “defending" Peyton Manning is a relative thing. Manning finished Sunday’s loss to the St. Louis Rams with 389 yards passing, his third-highest output of the season, but the Rams still felt good about their plan. They sacked Manning twice and knocked down 12 passes -- 22 percent of Manning’s attempts.

The Broncos worked out of a three-wide receiver look much of the time, as they often do and as the Rams expected. “Well, we knew for the most part, they were going to be in just the one personnel grouping," is how Rams coach Jeff Fisher put it. The Rams positioned themselves on defense to force the Broncos receivers to the outside as often as possible.

Others will try to follow suit in the coming weeks. The Broncos work plenty of option routes -- “two-way gos" as Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas often calls them -- in which, depending on the coverage, they see the receivers pick a break to the inside or outside.

The Rams tried as often as they could to give the Broncos receivers a coverage look that would make them cut to the outside. Those are throws defensive coaches believe Manning, in his post-surgical career with Broncos, doesn’t make with the accuracy he shows on throws in the middle of the field.

Combine that with the Rams' ability to create pressure in the middle of the formation and keep Manning from fully stepping up to drive the ball to the outside, and the Rams got the Broncos off track.

The Rams' strategy doesn’t work when defensive backs don’t play with discipline and doesn’t work if Manning has room to fully stride into the throw. The Rams played with discipline and didn't give Manning room, and the result was the Broncos' lowest point total since Manning signed with the team.