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Published on 02/07/2009 at Sat Feb 07 10:52.
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Josh McDaniels: Fix the Underachieving Offense

Posted Sat Feb 7th by

Dear Josh McDaniels,

Many say that the Denver Broncos needs to focus solely on defense and leave the offense alone. I disagree with that statement.

In the 2008 regular season the Denver Broncos played some pretty awesome offensive ball. There was this one rookie kid who caught for more yards in week one than any other reciever. Then in week two this other young kid caught 18 balls during an upset win over some team that you guys beat in the playoffs a few times. In the first three games Denver averaged statistics that were comparable to the offense you ran in 07′. However, things were awry in important places.

You see Coach McDaniels… Denver couldn’t score efficiently. It seemed every duration in the red zone was spoiled by a turnover or a lousy field goal, which isn’t helpful when the kicker is Matt Prater. This once high powered scoring offense was sputtering every time they crossed the opposing 20 yard line. Denver couldn’t control the time of possession (T.O.P) either. Things were just a mess.

Now I took a look at some of the things you did with New England’s offense and I was hoping you could reciprocate for Denver’s. What is the point of having an offense that grinds out the yards just to squander the points? Coach, all I ask is that you turn Denver into an offense that scores efficiently in the red zone and eats up the T.O.P. Is that so much to ask?

Sincerely,

Mr. East

 

 

 

Yards, Points, T.O.P and an underachieving Offense

For those who believed Denver’s offense needed to be left alone need to think again. McDaniels’ tenure as an offensive coordinator resulted in 999 points in the past two seasons. Denver loves to rack up the yards but somehow lose focus upon arrival in the red zone. This should help put things into perspective:

New England Offense

  • Yards per Game: 365.4 – 5th in NFL
  • Total Points: 410 – 8th in NFL
  • T.O.P: 32:25 – 3rd in NFL


    • Denver Offense

  • Yards per Game: 395.8 – 2nd in NFL
  • Total Points: 370 – 16th in NFL
  • T.O.P: 28:44 – 25th in NFL


    • After looking at those statistics one could easily argue that the Patriots’ offense was superior to the Broncos’. Denver’s offense lacks two of the most important aspects of the game, scoring and controlling the clock. McDaniels was in charge of an offense that efficiently turned yards into points as well as dominated the clock. If McDaniels can transform Denver’s red zone inefficiency and lack T.O.P. it could look very much like the offense he coached his first year as a coordinator.

    Thats the true harsh reality of our offense, tons of yards, no points, no control over the ball. So Denver fans, what do you think? Can McDaniels improve the underacheiving Denver offense? Do those statistics make you excited as they do me? Horray for numbers! Air it out.

    • David Kircus Made My Tuna Melt Sub

      t o p wins games

    • LorDog

      TOP wins games but DEFENSE wins championships! I fully agree there’s no use in putting up thousands of yards between the 20’s just to kick field goals but DEFENSE wins championships!

    • kerry

      well the whole “I love to play conservative in the red zone and kick field goals” mentality of Shanahan’s is gone. thank god. that right there should improve the scoring offense.

    • flbronc

      kirc & lor- top and defense go hand in hand. our lack of top was half due to the defense, who no matter how long of a third down they had couldnt get off the field. now the offense could have been more effecient, i’ll give you that. but our biggest problem with top was from the defense, and the fact that they were terrible at getting stops.

    • Broncoholic

      Another factor in our lack of TOP was all the injuries to our RB’s. Passing as much as we had to just doesn’t bode well for your TOP. That combined with the already mentioned inability of our D to make a stop on 3rd down no matter what the distance are the main to contributors to our TOP woes.

    • Broncoholic

      **main two contributors**. Guess I should proof read before I submit, huh.

    • Richard

      There are a number of things that will benefit Coach McD that will improve the points scored and TOP.

      The first is our young Oline was nothing short of superb in pass blocking, but not as polished in run blocking. Keeping Dennison and Turner will improve that just by being together with these guys another year. TOP improves as a function of (hopefully) healthy RBs and a more cohesive line.

      The scoring will improve as a function of B Marsh’s recovery from his stupid “accident with the entertainment center, and the pulled hip flexor injury that dramatically reduced his YAC totals. Hopefully, he can get enough “home cooking” to keep him away from McDonalds and their associated empty bags. It will also improve due to Eddie Royal no longer being a Rookie. I don’t see a sophmore slump for him, I believe he’s too serious and emotionally mature to let that happen. Stokely still has it, and will be a very productive slot guy once again. Chad Jackson has some familiariy with the NE system, but he was shown the door once, and I think he’s gone again. Bust City. Darryl Jackson was a warm body last year and is a FA now. So we will need one maybe two WRs on this years team. Graham knows both the ZBS and the NE system so he fits well, and finally, Sheff won’t be rehabbing in the off season and we should expect to see some improvement in his blocking. All of these things will help the scoring and TOP.

      The next consideration to improve the scoring and TOP, as FLBRONC correctly points out, is the Defense. Our Dline has a few young guys that MAY be capable backups, but NO starters. Shanny screwed the Dline position for years prior to his release. Coach McD and Coach Nolan won’t miss that problem, and with a FA and a class of big boy rookies that improves and TOP improves. If they can stop some people, scoring improves because the Offense isn’t having to go 90 yards for a TD.

    • merc22

      i could see us getting bobby engram who played in SEA last year to fill a spot

    • NathanH

      I think something we all need to be reminded of as fans, with the apparent switch to the 3-4, and a dire need for a healthy rb, is that this is at least a 2 year process. We don’t have the personell for a 3-4 right now at all, so I feel that needs to be immediatly addressed.

      Though I will say, if there’s a Slaton there in the 3rd, and we’re not in love with the DE’s we were targeting there, i’d be fine with taking the RB. We need to make sure we’re taking the best available players at the positions we need.

      My position priority to fill this offseason would be:
      1. NT, No one on our current roster could fathom playing NT.
      2. OLB, unless Moss or Elvis both really excell in the switch, we need to nab a pass rushing OLB, whether it be in the draft, or Suggs in FA. Pass defense starts with the pass rush, which we’ve sucked at.
      3. S, The final 4 teams in the NFL had Brian Dawkins, Ed Reed, Adrian Wilson, and Troy Palmalou. Of the NFL leaders in INTs, 5 of the top 6 were Safteys. 4 others fall in the top 10 in FF. Denver has to be among the worst in saftey combos. I was really hoping Mays would come out, but if we care for any one in the 2nd or 3rd, i say wait til next year and sign someone short term thats not Marquand Manuel. I’d like to see us pursue Jim Leonhard from the Ravens who may come cheap.
      4. ILB, I think DJ will be great as an ILB in the 3-4 though he wasn’t as productive as the sole MLB in the 4-3. Fans need to realize how much different the roles of the front 7 are in a 3-4, and I think DJ will do great if he can stay healthy. I like Larsen, but i’m not comfortable with him starting just yet, and Woodyard is a little undersized. If we could get Vilma at a reasonable price i’d thrilled with him and DJ as our ILB’s, and I think their chemistry would be great.
      5. RB, winning time of position starts with being able to run the ball effectively. Due to all our injuries last year we weren’t able to do that so well. If we could find a work horse back in the later rounds i’d be thrilled.

      Great article though. I completely agree that we cannot grow content with last years offensive production. Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall(not to mention Royal) still have far too much to progress, and I think McDaniels will be able to grow a good relationship with the younger players to get the best out of them.

      Outside of RB, I really don’t want to see us pick anything but defense. No shame in drafting a great special teams guy in the later rounds either with less cieling. Our special teams coverage lost us at least a couple games last year, so that will need to be addressed as well.

      It really is a 2 year process though. We need a 3-4 DE as well, as we only have 1 real one on the roster right now imo in Marcus Thomas(who i think will do great by the way in the switch).

      So to be so long winded. Its my first post on the site after finding it a while back. Great site by the way.

    • Jack

      We weren’t awful in the Red Zone this year. We scored 30 TD’s in 55 red zone trips, good for 54.5%. That’s 16th in the league in TD’s per red zone trip, which means we were exactly average. Now, with an offense as good as ours was, we should have been much better, but having a consistent run game would have helped that a lot.

    • Jack
    • Jack
    • http://broncotalk.net Ian Henson

      I am a bit angsty about the, “Defense wins championships,” thing. In reality, when? In 2002 and 1985? That’s two years that defense won championships… GIVE ME MORE EVIDENCE!

    • Awesome, Austin

      I agree with Ian. It is as simple, unless you have a truly dominant D or dominant O, you have to have balance on both sides of the ball to win championships period. And one of the biggest TOP problems was Cutlers lack of checking down to players in order to keep drives going.

    • http://myspace.com/paraleipsis jchase8410

      If Nolan can improve the defense to stop just every other possession, You will see the TOP change dramatically. If there is 1 thing McD knows how to do, it is put points on the board, so I am convinced that he will fix the offensive woes by the 2009 season opener. Here’s to hoping for a Raji, Greene, delmas draft day.

    • flbronc

      ian- good point. but can someone show me a stat that shows how well defenses ranked 25th or worse fare in the SB? or how often they get there? out defense is so abysmal they hurt the team. if we could muster a middle of the pack defense (say ranked 12-18) our team would be legitimate contenders to make a deep playoff run. i dont think that we need to turn into baltimore or tennesee overnight or anything like that- we need personell to remove the laughing stock tag from that side of the ball. our offense is good, i’m encouraged by the stats i see out of them, but the fact that they have to win almost every week in a shootout style game hurts them. and thats on the defense.

    • Danish

      Ugh… Defense is just as important in the TOP-game as offense. And can you blame Cutler and co. for sayig “hell with TOP” when down 17 by halftime?

      On the redzone problems i agree. There were some issues, but remember, it’s harder to move the ball in the redzone for everybody. Maybe every FG seems like such a failure, because every time we settled for one the defense would go ahead and give up 7…

    • troyn

      Almost every problem on offense can be attributed to the lack of a consistent running game, mostly due to injuries. When Hillis was healthy and starting the offense was just fine, same for the half of a game when Torain was healthy. If we can keep those two healthy and add another mid to low round back, the O will be just fine. Also, when we ran Shanahan’s version of the New England offense with the stacked wideouts, the passing game was awesome, unfortunately they went away from that way too often and we ended up with the parade of bubble screens. Healthy rb’s + a defense in the middle of the pack + Mcdaniel’s/pat’s scheme will = success.

    • http://BroncoTalk.net Mr.East

      flbronc –

      the 2006 Colts had the worst run defense in the NFL going into the playoffs. But I agree with what you’re saying. I don’t know if I can withstand another season of shootouts and blowouts.

    • http://BroncoTalk.net Mr.East

      NathanH –

      Good points in your comment. I completely agree with you about Marcus Thomas excelling in the new scheme, he’s too talented to have been underutilized for so long.

      Welcome to the commenting side of the site my friend, I hope to hear more from you.

    • kerry

      Ian:

      how about the Ravens Defense of 2000?? or the Pats defense in 2001 when they shut down the “greatest show on turf” in the SB? or the steelers defenses of the 70’s. you gonna tell me the Steelers would have won in the 70’s without that defense? not a Chance! would Flacco even been near the playoffs this year without that great defense?? or would Kerry Collins led the Titans to the best record in football without that defense?? not even close. the defense is the main component to a championship team.

    • Dee

      when are we going to re-sign Brandon Marshall

    • http://broncotalk.net Ian Henson

      Dee-

      Better be soon, Manning said that he’s recruiting Marshall.

      Kerry-

      Sure, defense is 50% of your team, having the number one defense just isn’t enough though. Use the Broncos as an example, think back to the great Orange Crush, how many championships did that team bring in?

      You talk about the Steelers defense, you’re telling me that Lynn Swann, Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris are all in the Hall of Fame because of the defense? The Steelers of the 70’s had a little bit of help from their offense.

    • Dee

      Jack – you’re right. This article oversimplifies what was going on with the offense this year.

      They were not that bad in the red zone this season, although they have had RZ problems in seasons past. The Broncos also might never win the TOP battle because Jay Cutler and the receivers often score so quickly – just like Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Dan Marino, etc.

      You would never want someone with Jay’s arm to focus on grinding it out and wasting his talents to “manage” a running game first and pass second just to win the TOP battle.

      This year the Broncos had an inconsistent kicking game and running backs dropping like flies. The passing game, however, was brilliant, with the exception of some ill-timed turnovers that need to be corrected.

      To win TOP, you have to have a solid running game and Great defense.

      BTW, the difference between the Pats total points scored and the Broncos’ is not that significant and can be attributed to 2 things – Prater’s missed field goals and the Pats’ tacky penchant for running up the score.

      I’m disappointed in this article. The argument was not very well thought out and the stats were misused to take the focus off the team’s biggest weakness – the porous defense.

    • MikeY55

      in all honestly there isn’t a blue print for winning championships… if there was everytime would have it say its a good running game and a solid D like the steelers but yet arizona made the playoffs with the opposite and almost won its all about the players you have if you have a middle of the pack offense and a top D you have just as good as chances as the other way around… but for us we have a top end offesne and not even close to an average defense… there is no doubt that kerry and other ppl are right that we need defense to take the next step but having a top tier offense is pretty good to have to.. imean look at tampa bay they always have a mediocre offense but a stellar d but they continue to be a mediocre team… plus it would really help it prater came back strong for next season having him with his confidence back gives us alot more range of scoring attempts with that rocket for a leg he has

    • http://broncotalk.net Joe

      when is Brandon Marshall’s contract up??

    • http://broncotalk.net Ian Henson

      Joe-

      I believe that this is his last season on his rookie contract. The fact that 2010 is an uncapped year and it doesn’t look like there will be a CBA in place… Who knows what will happen. There are a few that Denver needs to worry about Marshall and I beleive Scheffler and Dumervil.

    • http://BroncoTalk.net Mr.East

      Dee –

      The only thing thats disappointing about this article is your interpretation of it.

      They were not that bad in the red zone this year? Denver was 2nd in the NFL with points and 16th in the red zone? How is that acceptable? Thats like having a defense thats 2nd allowing yards but 16th in allowing points. It’s ridiculous that you’re okay with a coin flip in the red zone.

      When did I ever say that the TOP was Jay Cutler’s fault? Where in this article did I hint that Cutler is to blame for all the statistics? The truth be told its not exactly one person’s fault. Of course you need a running game and a defense to help with TOP.

      Are you really saying that Praters 3 point misses even remotely make a difference between Denver and New England’s point difference? That’s completely false, you can’t really use hypothetical situations either, Prater missed field goals and running backs got hurt, you can’t change that, thats part of the reason why the season ended out how it did.

      Lets say we go the hypothetical route. Even if Prater made 100% of his field goals, which would make him the best kicker that year, that would only account for 27 points. That would bring Denver’s scoring to 393 to New England’s 410. Not exactly a big difference, but it is when New England averages less yards a game than Denver did.

      New England is way more efficient than Denver and thats a fact. The whole point of this article.

      The Patriots ran up the score this season? Not really. This season the Patriots had to hesitate to open up the playbook with Cassel until he settled into the offense better. The Pats didn’t even make the playoffs despite their 11-5 record, they struggled in a lot of games, but they had a few blow outs like every team occasionally does.

      Scoring quickly isn’t exactly a good thing. Directly after the Super Bowl this year Mike Tomlin was asked how scared he was when Larry Fitzgerald scored in the 4th quarter. He responded by saying he wasn’t scared at all because that’s how you want them to score, quickly. You may not want to take my word for it because I’m just a lowly independent sports writer, but you have to listen to a Super Bowl winning coach.

      Yes, I would want someone with Jay’s arm to focus on grinding it out and “wasting his talents” to manage a running game first and pass second just to win the TOP battle. I’m not going to give into Jay Cutler’s me first attitude. Why should we let him continue to pass it out 70 times a game when it results in losing? He isn’t Peyton Manning, he’s not the best quarterback in the game right now, he makes more mistakes than most. Ask anyone what the fundamentals of football are, they will say running game and a defense. Denver did not have any of those things last year and it lead to the inconsistency and 52-21 demise at the hands of our rivals.

      My stats were not misused. I was focusing on the overrated nature of Denver’s offense. I’m not sure I’ve been making this easy on you so here’s the bottom line. “Denver offense is not as good as everyone thinks it is, they put up a lot of yards, but they don’t have the points to put it in proportion. The Patriot’s offense (formerly lead by our new head coach) does those things… hooray!”

      This article was not meant to take focus off the defense. Who am I Bob Slowik?

      Dee, I don’t mean to dissapoint. I hope that clears things up for you.

    • David Kircus Made My Tuna Melt Sub

      PWNDED!!!!!

    • http://brocotalk.net dee

      This is dee not Dee , I agree with you Mr East , as a bronco fan I loved the broncos offense last year for their ability to move the ball at will, however it frustrated me the lack of TD’s they were able to get, and it got only worse with prater’s frequent misses. Coach Mc D is smart, and I believe he will utilize the TOP effectively especially at home, also we need more creative playcalling in the redzone. How many teams did I look at the stats after a game and see 400 yards total offense and less than 20 poins was countless. We need to perfect the offense and then have the defense follow, we wont be able to fix the entire defense in one offseason, but we can fix the problems of an underacheiving offense scoring wise.

    • http://brocotalk.net dee

      Also I believe’s “Dee’s” reference to running up the score can be solely attributed to the CARDINAL Game (52- 7???) … where NE ran up the score I guess? I watched that game and the Cardinals were horrible in the snow …. New England didnt do anything special in that game, and the Cardinals basically quit at half time. I believe they did manage to score 1 TD , but that was it …

      On a side note the whole “running up the score” notion I really hate. IF you can’t stop someone thats too bad for you’re team. I think its more of an insult to stop playing you’re best because you feel sorry for the other team. Imagine if San Deigo took off all there starters in the 4th quarter of the week 17 game … I would be even more pissed…heres hoping during the next meeting with San Deigo … Coach Mc D decides to run up the score a bit …

      Random thought: Whats going on with Norv Turner’s neck?

    • Jordan C

      dee and Dee –

      I’m sorry, but one of you has got to alter your names. I, along with untold numbers of other posters, are not going to be able to keep it straight.

      I was going by Jordan, but I noticed there’s another poster that goes by that, so I just added an extra letter that hopefully helps.

    • Ryan M.

      I was at the pro bowl…first time seeing Jay live. He does have a cannon but played pretty lame. B-Marsh couldn’t catch, I love them but was disappointed and got harassed by some of the crowd.

    • MikeY55

      morlon greenwood just got released by the texans..been a solid LB his entire career could come cheap!

    • http://broncotalk.net (dee)

      Jordan C … I changed it … ?

    • NathanH

      The more i’ve read about it, the more i think that Ray Lewis will stay with the Ravens, even if he doesn’t give them the home town discount. And John Clayton has said they’ll likely tag Suggs again.

      If it played out like that, I’d absolutely love for us to go after Bart Scott. He’s real agressive and has played alongside some very successful players and i’m sure has good leadership. And he’ll likely come much cheaper than the top tier players available.

      Any one out there think its realistic to sign Bart Scott, Karlos Dansby, and Jim Leonhard?

      That would leave us to draft OLB, DE, NT, RB in no real order this season, and the LB crew would be set for quiet a while.

    • steve

      defense doesnt win chamionships? how bout the steelers THIS year.

      nathan,
      no, its not realistic to think we can get 3 of the top free agents in the league.

      dansby’s making bank cuz of the playoffs, scott is making bank cuz hes bart scott, and leonhard is making bank cuz hes young and good. We can get one, maybe maybe maybe two.

      Marshall wont leave this team as long as mcdaniels is coaching and cutler’s passing, hes not an idiot. he’ll set records. We’ll resign him for sure.

      Im excited for next year, cant wait for free agency and the draft

    • flbronc

      it was mentioned here somewhere, but i dont think i hear it enough form the ‘major media’— the fact is that an uncapped year is looming. how is that going to factor in on these major signings? are we going to see premier players sign one year deals to get them to free agency when the cba expires? how is bowlen going to handle it? will he spend with the spenders ? (i dont know who those teams are going to be, but i can guarantee there will be some)

      it’s an interesting problem/question when talking about free agency. it also could cause us to lose some big time players- a la bmarsh.

    • http://birty.blogspot.com mikebirty

      can someone check some stats for me, because i’m lazy. I wonder what the percentages were like before Mike Pittman got injured. I reckon they’ll be much worse after he got injured. Now was that coincidence or was it his hard running that helped?

    • tedwin

      Anybody who spouts the myth “Defense wins Championships” needs to take a hard look at the Ravens and Steelers. How many times have the Ravens won the SB, post Dilfer? What? Do I hear silence? What happened to “Defense wins championships”? Here’s another one. How many times have the Steelers gone to the SB, post Bradshaw, before they got Roth? What? Do I hear silence again?

      Stop sounding ignorant like Emmitt Smith. It takes a balance of both sides of the ball to win championships.

    • Broncoholic

      I always preferred the saying, “the offense sells the tickets but the defense wins the game”. I do agree however, you need balance on both sides of the ball to win the SB. You can have a great O and an average D, or a great D and an average O, but you can’t win it all if one side of the ball sucks, no matter how dominant you are on the other side of the ball.

    • http://Gmail Payton Kibel

      Hey i dont know what your talking about but they have a awesome offense 2nd in the NFL last season they did struggle at running back but the fullback that they put at running back shows alot of sparks of greatness and problably will be the starting running back you watch he will prove greatness they are fixing the defense if they Albert Hayensworth and drafting Rey mauliuga the MLB for usc and maybe getting Julius Pepers .