Broncos drop heartbreaker to Jets on Orange Sunday, 20-24

:(

“League’s worst”??? The Broncos have the same record as the Raiders

So we will loose tow the raiders and the 49ers.Thier is no lock wins with this Broncos team to maany rookies and penaltys.Like this is a poor high school team.What a joke come on realy.

McD better step it up. We are stuck in a rut. 2-4 is not good. We are not the Raiders. 4-12 is not gonna cut it over the past 16 games. McD better get things right or he will be ushered out of town….

I would not speak too soon if I were you. We may be the Raiders of the 2010 NFL season. But yeah, Broncos better be winning NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hahaha the raiders will see you donkeys next week I believe the raiders won last time. Don't think it'll be easy donkey lovers

Simple fact, McD is not getting the job done. Meanwhile Shanny has resurrected the Redskins to respectability.

uh oh, Hope's been drinking too much again…

There's no should've in football. Lose 8 games and you're out of contention for the playoffs, unless the rest of your division stinks worse, and lose 7 games and it's iffy at best. You can only really lose 6 and have a safe shot at the playoffs. The Broncos have lost 4, with 10 games to go.

This team has a lot of talent, but they are mistake prone. They have been mistake-prone for several years, and a coaching change and a complete staff turnover has not changed that. The mistakes happen at all levels, across all players.

And at the end of the day, this team keeps losing games because it does not have the ability to stay focused for 60 minutes. Unless the team can change that problem, they are going to keep on losing.

Orton was terrible. Very dissapointing.

I was there yesterday and I haven't heard it that loud since Champ picked Brady in the '05 playoffs.

I'm happy, I'm a Bronco fan that has to live and work among static fans. At least I had a “you lost to the Lambs” comeback to fire at the “LT got you good again” line I heard this morning!

I keep wondering when someone– who can speak freely with Josh McDaniels– has the guts to point out a glaring problem. I already expected that the Jets would penetrate Denver’s backfield around 20 plays to Denver’s combined two or three. That’s because Josh coaches to minimize damage while Rex Ryan coaches to inflict it.

They finally went deep to Lloyd on the first series, and sure enough some rushing lanes were more open for the next three series (until the Jets realized it was simply a one-time occurence).

But the Jets exploited the deep middle of the field in the same way that Peyton Manning did on that pass yesterday to Pierre Garcon. Now ask yourselves, gentle Broncos fans, when Denver has thrown a pass to that area of the field ALL SEASON?

I don’t mean just successfully. I’d even love to hear when they tried and failed to hit a receiver more than 15 yards downfield between-the-hashmarks?

Don’t you know that defensive coordinators have already been scouted on this? That D.C.’s on any team are traditionally afraid that overloaded blitzes will be exploited by the offense in that area? Its the reason we didn’t send any extra rushers on that fourth down pass, obviously (which, of course, allowed Sanchez to buy time and step into his throw, rather than throwing off his back foot). It may have looked like a blitz, but Justin Bannan only began from a standing position before trying to bull-rush (and no Denver linemen are ever allowed to try spin-moves or stunts).

So, please put yourself in the mind of our upcoming opposition’s defensive coordinators. You know that Denver’s passes only go over the middle in dink-and-dunk, territory around the linebackers depth. And that any pattern longer than 18-yards is automatically confined to the 10 inches of space along the sidelines. Knowing that a large part of turf isn’t going to even be attacked must be a HUUUUUUGE advantage when plotting how to deploy your defenders, no?

And knowing this, you simply instruct your CB’s to take away Brandon Lloyd’s favorite high-percentage pattern: the sliding, back-shoulder slant for 17-yards (while not worrying about the double-move, a deep slant or any other pattern that aims for the middle of the field where Safeties normally roam).

This frees up an extra defender for blitzes and also provides confidence to the CB’s that they only have to be concerned with the tiny available area adjacent to the sidelines (where 99% of our over-20-yard passes inevitably head).

And, in turn, results in Monday stats that will show somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 seconds to throw the ball, since the extra blitzer continually overwhelms Denver’s offensive line.

Josh reads these stats and again comes up with a game-plan that won’t include crosses and deep slants (since he has concluded that our line won’t be able to protect Orton long enough for them to develop…. and the odds are too slight that Kyle can buy himself some extra seconds by stepping away from the rush).

Thus, the vicious cycle continues…as the worst TE corps in football allows Safeties the freedom to roam closer to the line (where Leonhard was inching up to blitz when he scooped up the mishandled shotgun snap on the 44-yard line with 35 seconds remaining).

Compare that with the 100% total absence of our Safeties– Hill and Jones– anywhere near the Jets line-of-scrimmage. That’s because they were worried about TIGHT END Dustin Keller catching 20-yard passes between-the-hashmarks.

But on the Edwards TD catch– to the area between-the-hash-marks– Hill was guarding no-man’s land (which, in an echo of Shanahan’s preferred emphasis of guarding spaces on the field, was utterly pointless and too shallow).

Yes, a blitz on our part will sometimes be beaten deep (and dissected by fans and media alike, who’ll correctly point to the cause-and-effect result). But when no Denver blitzing results in too much time and too much retreating by our defensive backs, no one easily draws the same cause-and-effect conclusion (since its a slow-and-steady defeat that plays itself out a few snaps at a time… like the 3rd-and-8 conversion, on the Jets winning TD drive, when a spinning Perrish Cox basically conceded 9 yards while worried about the deep ball).

Not that I blame Cox (or any Denver CB). They are talented and only playing how they are coached to play in the perennial absence of any front-seven pressure (that, obviously enough, requires them to cover between 4-6 seconds on every play).

But contrast that with what Kyle Orton was gesticulating and pointing about on the last two plays of our final drive. The Gaffney catch that the announcers were debating was really notable for how the ball was snapped with no time left on the play-clock. And that’s because Kyle was concerned with pointing out every last conceivable Jets defender (who may or may not be blitzing).

Then, even after all that time elapsed as the officials reviewed it, Orton again was pointing this-way-and-that (concerned with where the pressure was coming on that final shotgun snap). This is one of the many overlooked and subtle benefits of an attacking defense that intimidates and pressures an opponent into mistakes that aren’t simply restricted to INT’s and hurried looks that fail to notice receivers wide-open (as Gaffney was in week-one at Jacksonville on the play when Orton forced an INT to a linebacker hunting the crowded middle he is known to prefer).

And the contrast with Josh McDaniels approach couldn’t be more night-and-day. For its alll about minimizing damage instead of causing it.

On defense, that means retreating ground and worrying about the long-ball (which happens to us anyway, as Bowlen should have learned from Shanahan’s wasted decade of overly-soft cover-two defenses). And, on offense, it means bypassing the best way to counter-attack a blitz (which is to throw it up to a physical target in the area vacated by the blitzers in the middle of the field).

The lack-of-guts is cannily schemed against by other coaches, even if Dierdolt and the usual announcers don’t notice or even mention it (and also fail to notice how Denver still can’t throw a middle-screen… despite hiring a head-coach from the team that used to master it).

Take the second-to-last Denver drive that ended up with a field-goal, despite facing a second-and-five in Jets territory when Tebow was at QB. Unlike in previous earlier circumstances when Tebow went behind Center, the Jets left Orton uncovered along the right sideline on two plays.

If Denver had any cujones– well, except for the shrewdly-unexpected onside kick earlier in the game– they would have instructed the WR next to Orton to go to his left while dragging the CB covering him away from Orton.

Then, Tebow need only get the snap and take one step before firing the ball to a wide-open Orton (who, despite being a QB by profession, could probably catch the ball 9-out-of-10 times when unguarded).

That would easily have lead to a five-yard gain and a first down to keep the drive going (before gingerly stepping out-of-bounds).

But the risk-taking Jets understood McDaniels mentality and his aversion to rolling-the-dice. And, as happened so many times under Shanahan, it led to the unfortunate result.

Yes, we would’ve won if Renaldo Hill hadn’t minutely interfered with the QR and if we didn’t leave 6 points off-the-board through atypical field-goal mishaps. But there will always be inevitable execution errors to point to.

The coaches job is to try forcing these errors on the opposition by making the opponent do what they are most uncomfortable doing.

In the Jets case, that would mean keeping Jim Leonhard deep down-field instead of cheating up like an extra linebacker (which he was free to do once the Jets realized that Denver would only try throwing to Lloyd deep on that first series… and maybe once more).

This was a perfect opportunbity to turn around the season. The orange-clad fans looked and sounded like an actual home-team advantage, as Woody Paige’s column had exhorted them to do. The players were fired up and the disparity in talent that results from a higher payroll and better front-office was basically leveled.

By that, I refer to the following names acquired by the Jets ownership and management in the past three years: Tomlinson, Pace, Taylor, Woody, Scott, Leonhard, Cromartie, *Faneca, Edwards, Holmes, **Jenkins and utility Tackle Wayne Hunter (all expensive, high-profile acquisitions through F.A. or trades).

Compare that with the following Denver signings over a twice-as-long period of time: Lloyd, Orton, Graham, Hill, Goodman, Jason Hunter, Haggan, Jarvis Green, Bannan, Gaffney, *LeKevin Smith and this year’s required over-34-year-old DT Jamal Williams. I obviously left out Shanahan-signed gems like Simeon Rice, Kenard Lang and Alvin McKinney (but you should have already seen the disparity).

Bowlen never changes the core philosophy of under-estimating the importance of attacking defenses. He just changed the coaches running the show (who are only truly different in their divergence about the zone-blocking approach that Shanahan favored).

Otherwise, both Head Coaches are over-enamored by their supposed offensive acumen/genius and both coaches refuse to take a lesson when their approaches accrue less and less dividends in terms of wins-and-losses.

And the occasional success only reinforces their determination to continue doing what they prefer (like our ridiculously-ineffective two blocking TE approach that NE never relied upon so predictably). No, Tom Brady tested the seams with Ben Watson 3-4 times every game and their stable of Tight Ends actually caught the ball between 5-7 times a game (while keeping LB’s and Safeties honest).

McDaniels, on the other hand, passed up a TE-rich draft and refused to bring in a replacement for Tony Scheffler (who, even when a Bronco, was never given early passes to get him involved in the game-plan).

I can grudgingly see McDaniels not wanting to boost his stats, to make his removal easier PR-wise (even though you’d think that inflating their stats would be much smarter… in terms of attaining a better bounty in return for guys like Scheffler and Hillis). But by not replacing Tony at all, while arrogantly assuming that his supposedly-wondrous three-WR looks would provide all the offense we needed….

….Well, now we are seeing the result of this (even in a game when the injury-ravaged defense performed about as good as could be expected without a pass-rush).

I just wish I rooted for a team that understood the subtle benefits of attacking a QB (and all the wonderful benefits that come to teams that force quick and hurried decisions). Unfortunately, I knew the moment that Sanchez made two early unforced-error INT’s that McDaniels would rely on more such luck (rather than forcing Mark’s hand with the occasional and unforeseen blitz).

Like a QB overly concerned with pointing out potential blitzees while the play-clock goes to zero (which, of course, allows the defense to know exactly when the ball is being snapped). Like having a distracted QB lose sight of the ball and surrender it to a charging Safety (who would be 30-yards down-field if it was Denver on defense). These outcomes aren’t as easy to create a paired-example around– as a failed blitz can sometimes be– but the consequences of such passivity are just as reliable nonetheless (and should be well-known to anyone who’s helplessly watched our defenses give opponents more time to throw than any team in the NFL for over a decade).

If we win the next two games, it will only reinforce McDaniels stubbornness that his approach still works (just like Sanchez’s early INT’s bolstered McDaniels hopes that pressure wasn’t necessary for producing turnovers). And if we lose, we may see him finally deploy our defenders more aggressively (at a point in the season when its far too late to allow these changes to benefit us). And, on offense, nothing short of sending Thomas or, maybe, Decker over the deep middle will take away this huge advantage that defensive coordinators are doubtlessly scheming around (even if nobody in the local media has written a word about it).

But I wonder what Josh actually sees when he looks at film of the Jets 1st half run-blitzes (that consistently drew contact with our runners three yards behind the line-of-scrimmage)? He probably thinks about how he blamed our faltering run defenses’ late-season collapse against the Chiefs on Mike Nolan’s run-blitzing and– as this contradiction may trouble him– quickly switches his thoughts to more-pleasant matters.

Which is why I wish we had an independent football mind like Bill Parcells in the front-office (as the not-exactly football-savvy Bowlen and Joe Ellis would never dare to point out such things to a head-coach who’s lost 8 of the last 12 games he’s coached and I doubt Brian Xanders would dare this too). Maybe someone in McDaniels family can point out how the deep middle of the field has been ignored by the offense the way that…

A) Kyle Orton was as a receiver yesterday on the second-to-last drive
B) The way that lining up a TE, H-Back or FB as a receiver that can catch has been abandoned
C) The way that supplementing our injury-ravaged-but-meager pass-rush has been abandoned.
D) And that Tim Tebow’s potential to actually throw or lateral has been ignored thus far.

But, considering that it took four whole games before Tebow was finally utilized in the red-zone, I’m afraid that Josh is battling a Shanahan-sized case of coach’s ego-driven tunnel-vision (that is so distracted by fan criticism that he doubles down on philosophies that everyone around the league is already gleefully expecting).

Although I supported his hiring– among the actually-interviewed candidates– I hoped this wouldn’t happen so quickly or so destructively. But that’s the quandary for fans like me.

A win makes them more bound-and-determined to continue their unnecessarily-limited approach. And a loss only makes changes too late and too begrudging (and, by the time of the next season’s fresh-start, barely remembered).

Does he not see that passivity– when we utterly need to supplement our injury-ravaged non-existent pass-rush– isn’t getting the job done? And does he have any better idea on how to keep defenses worried about the deep middle besides lining up Demaryius Thomas at TE?

Sure he did technically touch the facemask as the ball was approaching, but the receiver also grabbed the jersey of the defender as the ball was already in the air. Only a Big Apple born zebra would make that call in that situation.

I have been asking them to Ban hope from the site… He never has anything constructive to say. All he does is Bash them no matter if they win or lose. Not to mention he makes my brain hurt to read is posts. He should really go back to school. He thinks that he is pissing everyone off, but really he is making a laughing stock out of him self.

As a Bronco fan, why do we have to settle for a rebuilding year? Haven't had one in in 30 years.

When Shannahan was let go, Denver was easily one of the top jobs in the league.

Front office and head coach are bringing this organization down.

They do look sharp in orange. I want to see them in there throw backs with the orange helmets and white bucking bronco. Loves those

I don't really know how much talent we actually have. Our WRs are playing great but how much of that is the coaching and system? Eddie could play slot for most teams but I can't see Jabar or even Brandon being more than #3's elsewhere.

Totally agree with you about the lack of focus and mistake proneness though…ugh always so many questions after a loss.

They're only allowed to wear those unis twice a year. Until Bowlen decides that the orange unis should be the primary, that's all we're going to get. It's time for a complete uni redesign anyway. 13 years is enough.

Great name, dude.

We need to play Joe Mays more .he will bring toughness.O-line should

keep improving and gel for strong finish.

Great name, dude.

We need to play Joe Mays more .he will bring toughness.O-line should

keep improving and gel for strong finish.