Denver Broncos blog, news and rumors


FB

[hype it up!]
[Share with Yardbarker]

Published on 11/01/2007 at Thu Nov 01 06:39.



What is Wrong with the Broncos Offense?

Posted Thu Nov 1st by

Mike Klis of the Denver Post wrote a great article exploring the numbers for this 2007 Broncos offense of ours. As far as yards per play are concerned, the Broncos are on pace to set a franchise record. That’s right, we’re more efficient gaining yards than the final years under Elway thus far. Yet we’re scoring an average of 17.0 points per game, worse than last year under Jake Plummer (remember Coach Shanahan always mentioned Plummer’s 17.7 points per game as the main reason for his benching). So what gives?

Selvin Young tries to break a Packer tackleKlis’ article explores the question without offering an answer, but it seems obvious to me there are several reasons behind the struggle to score points. First and foremost, the injuries have to be mentioned. We’ve been bit harder than normal this year with the injury bug.

Second, and this ties right into the injury bug: we are a brand spanking new unit, position by position. Here’s a nugget for you: the Broncos did not feature a single starter on offense last week that started in that position in week 8 of last year.

Think about that for a minute. Go through the offensive line… Matt Lepsis was hurt by then, Hamilton and Nalen are now on IR, and the right side is new (Pears was Lepsis’ backup, so he wasn’t playing right tackle). The starting tight end was Stephen Alexander, now on IR and likely retiring. Plummer was the QB, Tatum Bell was the runner, both were traded. Rod Smith and Javon Walker are both down with injuries. FB Kyle Johnson was released. That’s everyone! Not a single returning starter from 2006 to 2007 in week 8, a 12 month turnaround.

Third, we’ve played some damn good defenses. Jacksonville, whose big DTs completely shut down our running game; Indianapolis, featuring the frontrunner for defensive MVP Bob Sanders; San Diego in their first bounce back game; Pittsburgh was ranked #1 when we battled them; Green Bay’s defense is underrated. Every team in the NFL would struggle against that five game stretch.

All things considered, I would argue that the surprise isn’t the lack of points. When you consider the injuries, that turnaround, and the defenses we’ve played, the real (pleasant) surprise is that we’re churning up yards in the first place.

How to Fix It

Brandon Marshall is so close to a touchdown, a microcosm of our season

The offensive playcalling, in and out of the red zone, is pretty brutal at this point, and deserves to be called out. Question 1: What happened to the big play? I don’t want to hear about protection issues – Cutler has been one of the least hit quarterbacks in the 2007 NFL. How hard is it to keep Daniel Graham inside to help Erik Pears in the edge rush when you’re planning a big play with three wideouts? Everyone knows the protection has to be there for the big play to happen, and I think it can be if the coaches just try! The Packers didn’t score a single touchdown from inside enemy territory — two big throws did the Broncos in! Why didn’t we at least try the same back at them?

Question 2: 3rd down, 22 seconds, no timeouts, and you call a quarterback sneak? Maybe that wasn’t the call (maybe it was a passing play that Cutler just ran with), but it seemed like it was set up that way to me. Conservative to say the least, and borderline stupid. Throw the damn ball! Incomplete, the clock stops, you’re not rushing your field goal unit for the second time this year. Pass complete, touchdown, we win! If you’re worried about the interception that would have lost the game, well… we lost anyway. Conservative playcalling in the red zone has been plaguing us all year, and it’s time to let Cutler and company air it out. If anything this will force the opposing defense to have to respect the pass, which could set up the run in those crowded areas. The quarterback running play that was called hasn’t had a high success rate all year — sometimes I think the coaches have lost their killer instinct and are more concerned with not losing instead of winning.

Question 3: Can we get a turnover please? Quick stat for you (consider this a preview of a bigger post I’m planning for later this afternoon or tomorrow) – we have a mere 11 drives that began beyond our own 35 yard line. I’ll call that “good” field position. 4 of those 11 drives were converted into touchdowns, 2 more were field goals. Over half of our drives that begin in good field position result in points, and more often than not, it’s a touchdown!

I think the reason behind this is the offensive line staying strong on a shorter field. Give them a long field and they seem to wear down by the time we reach the red zone. They’re not moving the defense on running plays as well, and they’re not protecting the passer as consistently. Chalk it up to inexperience or less than ideal conditioning, but it’s not easy to construct a 70 yard (or more) drive in the high altitude, especially for a bunch of guys new to the system.

Overall, this offense needs to do a bit better against turnovers (Cutler’s first interception-free game was a great relief), and something about the red zone offense needs to change. The playcalling needs to get less conservative, and the offensive line needs to step it up. Not having long, time-consuming drives (ahem, how about a nice interception to get some field position?) to wear out the linemen would help, too.

Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not calling for Shanahan’s head. I think that talk is crazy, frankly. But I’m not going to dismiss him from accountability, either. His specialty, his genius, falls on the offensive side of the football, and even with this amazing talent at quarterback, he has failed to coach this team into a point scoring machine. I think playing the Detroit defense, probably the worst we’ve played against all year, could see this offense explode. But it’s all for naught if we can’t convert these yardage totals into points.

  • denverocks

    A second look at the last three games with an eye for the big play, it appears they are calling a number of these. They are not executing them. Cutler’s pick in the endzone against the Steeler’s is an example. Whether youth on Cutler or Marshall was the cause. Marshall needed to go up for the ball before getting behind the defenders. Had he done that it would have been a touchdown. Maybe he was running too fast to do that. Maybe he didn’t locate the ball in time. As a pro, he has to recognize the improbability of making a play with the defender between him and the ball. I’ve noticed he does this quite a bit. It was poor execution either way.
    I have noticed Cutler looking down field a number of times (I have the advantage of watching the plays over and over). But he seems to be gun-shy right now. He doesn’t appear to trust Stokley’s speed. For all of Marshall’s upside, he does not run precise enough routes. And his timing with Martinez is off. I think he would take the shot with Walker. And he really has faith in Scheffler, which appears to be a safety net. There have been a number of throws down the field that were either inaccurate throws or the receiver was in the wrong place. Either way, Mike is calling about three of these plays every game. The players are not executing them.

  • denverocks

    I am hesitant to criticize playcalling for a number of reasons. I don’t know the exact play called. I don’t know if there was an audible. I don’t know what defense they are expecting to see. I think if Cutler had scored a touchdown on that sneak we would be calling Shanahan a genius again. Having said that, I think the worst call was the punt earlier in the fourth quarter. We were in no man’s land. It took the packers two plays to get back to where they would have been. And our defense was not stopping the run.
    I think Shanahan is calling plays understanding that he has a young Quarterback, a patchwork offensive line, a rookie running back, no true starter at wide receiver and a bad defense. It also appears that he has not allowed Cutler an arsenal of audibles. That will cripple any offense because it limits them to the play called. This would explain some of the frustrating and untimely time outs. It also would explain some of the scoring problems. Audibles are the hammer in the redzone. If the QB nails it, TOUCHDOWN!

  • http://broncotalk.net Kyle

    “I think Shanahan is calling plays understanding that he has a young Quarterback, a patchwork offensive line, a rookie running back, no true starter at wide receiver and a bad defense.”

    Well, when you put it that way, let’s just throw in the towel right now! :)

    I would say Brandon Marshall is definitely starter material. As someone else said, he’s the perfect #2 and could grow into a great #1. Our offensive line may be patchwork, but I see a lot of bright spots, and I’m convinced this group of guys can get the job done right now. They just need to get a little more experience and learn how to finish drives strong.

    In a post after the Colts game, I was completely with you – asking the fans to settle down with the “red zone woes” card.

    I’ve had a chance to rewatch the game tape too several times, and I’ve seen very few plays you mentioned (where it was set up for the home run ball, but Cutler hesitated).

    Thanks for the input, though, Denverocks. Honestly it drives me nuts when I write a piece like this and no one comments. I’m always dying to hear the readers’ thoughts.

  • denverocks

    I am surprised that you don’t get more feedback. I thoroughly enjoy the features here.

    As far as the season goes, I’ve been a football fan for long enough to know better than to throw in the towel at week 9. I am hoping for a reversal of recent years, starting strong and limping into November and December. This year we seem to have improved on ST and even on Defense incrementally with each game. And to be without so many key players (Walker, Nalen, Hamilton, Ekuban, Smith) along with the youth (Cutler, Doom, Crowder, Moss, Young, Marshall, Kuper, on and on), for this team to even be competitive is a statement for the coaching AND leadership. It is a credit to Shanahan. I expect a 7-2 finish for 10-6 overall. One game short of my pre-season prediction of 11-5. But that might mean 7 more heart stopping, gut wrenching, jumping, screaming, spitting and cussing game day victories! We know drama;)

    With regard to Brandon Marshall, he is quite a talent. I would concede that he could some day be a #1. He is so fun to watch with the ball in his hands (loaf of bread fumble notwithstanding). He is a big play just waiting to happen. The problem seems to be getting the ball in his hands. He runs sloppy routes. We can attribute four of Jay’s picks to this one problem. A receiver does not have to be the biggest, fastest, smartest, most athletic player on the field. But he has to be focused. Marshall lacks this right now. The great thing is he can be coached up to fix this. He has the size, speed and athleticism to be great. I’m hoping with Smith as mentor and Shanahan as coach he can touch up the focus and be the #1 for the future.

  • http://merlinofchaos.livejournal.com E. Halsey Miles

    denverrocks: I agree with you about Marshall. It’s very clear that Walker being on the field vastly improves Marshall as a receiver. Whether this is because Walker is the bigger threat and that means Marshall pulls the less talented defender, or because Walker being on the field forces Marshall to do better because if he doesn’t, Walker will get all the balls, I’m not sure. But there is no doubt in my mind that, right now, Walker and Marshall are a killer 1/2 receiver combination and that Marshall/Stokley do not have that same dynamic.

    On the topic of audibles, I very, very rarely see Cutler call an audible out there. Usually you can tell when a quarterback is changing the play (or pretending to change the play). But I don’t even see any of that pretending. I think right now, Cutler is on a fairly tight leash and he goes out there and he runs the play that’s called and has very little freedom for changing the play. If he did have that freedom, I think he’d call fewer timeouts.

    I’m not really sure what I think about the play calling in the red zone. I feel more like we’ve been getting stopped by sloppiness. Kuper coming around and slapping the ball out of Cutler’s hand before he gets back is just the shining frosting on the cake example. It’s hard to tell what exactly goes wrong in a lot of the plays that don’t work. What happened, for example, when Cutler missed Marshall in the endzone? That was a big play. That appeared, to me, to be a timing pass that either Cutler or Marshall missed the timing in — and I’m more likely to blame Marshall on that one. I think what happened there is that he didn’t win the battle with the CB and that’s something Marshall has to do. We rely on his size to win those battles.

    What I’m not seeing in the endzone, surprisingly, are the tight end fade routes that used to be so common. I’ve watched the Patriots score touchdown after touchdown on a route that I used to see a lot: The tight end goes and sets up a block; he wins the battle with his man, then cuts and runs for the corner while the back comes up and engages the guy he just missed. It works really well if Cutler just faked to that back and then lofts it into the corner. That is the kind of play that Daniel Graham is built for; because he can be taken seriously as a blocker, AND he can catch the ball. Line up Scheffler and Graham on the strong side, Mustard on the weak, Sapp and your back of choice in the backfield, and do it. Every one of those guys is a weapon to catch the ball, since you can flip it to the fullback on the outside if the matchup is right.

    In at least one case, and I take this from the commentators, it appears that Marshall and Cutler aren’t quite in sync on the option plays. That is something we can feel confident will happen less and less as time goes on, as they get more experience together.

  • denverocks

    RE Cutler and audibles – it bothers me to see him on the sideline not looking at the lineup photos. But I realized this would only be useful if he planned to audible when he sees this formation.

    RE the throw to Marshall in the endzone – from the replay and the interviews, I got the impression that Marshall ran too deep into the endzone. The throw was a no look zinger to the pylon. They do have some read and react plays though. And Cutler and Marshall have missed on a number of them.

    If we are right, it is encouraging observation. All of these issues can be coached up. Which means we might see an improved team at the right time.

  • http://broncotalk.net Kyle

    Cutler may not be calling audibles yet, but he is directing traffic out there. Our first quarter touchdown against the Packers was a perfect example of that – pointing to where Scheffler should go as the pressure caught up to him, and making a perfect pass for the score. I’m simply loving this kid.

  • http://birty.blogspot.com MB

    When they get inside the 10 wasn’t Shanahan’s go to play a counter pass to the full back in the flat? I don’t think I’ve seen that this year, maybe because we don’t have a proper fullback? And I don’t think there’s been as many bootlegs this year too – probably down to changing the playbook for Cutler.

    I’m not putting the blame on the play calling, because let’s face it – when you’re inside the 5 with a couple of downs to play, you should be able to score with most play. I’m sure one of you with your fingers on the stats will be able to tell us all how many times we’ve got inside the 5, not just the 20, and not scored a touchdown.

    The solution is to find a set up that works and go back to it every time. I watched a bit of the Patriots on Sunday and who’d have thought that Brady to Vrabel would result in a touchdown pretty much every time the play was called?

  • jvill

    Kyle, first you write:

    “Here’s a nugget for you: the Broncos did not feature a single starter on offense last week that started in that position in week 8 of last year.”

    But then:

    “…and even with this amazing talent at quarterback, he has failed to coach this team into a point scoring machine.”

    From all new personnel to a “point scoring machine”? Quite the stretch, no?

    I’m not sure it’s much more complicated than what all of us already know: this team has a lot of offensive potential, but they might just need a little more time to pull it together. Seems like it could happen anytime between our very next game and into early next season.

    Our disastrous defense is another issue…

  • http://broncotalk.net Kyle

    I give the coaches kudos for churning up the yards the way they are, despite all the new personnel (BTW, I think I like the word “churn”). If we’re marching down the field, we should be able to get points, too. We rank 32nd in yards per point scored, pretty dismal, and we’ll need points to beat the Lions.