McNuggets: On the upcoming matchup with his former team

D.J. playing the big hits! (REUTERS/Rick Wilking)

Bite-sized morsels of coaching wisdom, courtesy the Broncos PR staff.

HEAD COACH JOSH McDANIELS

On if he senses that the Broncos are the most talked about team in the NFL at this time

“No, I don’t. Whether that is the case or not, there are plenty of things that we need to do a lot better than what we did yesterday moving forward. (It was a) very sloppy first half offensively. (We) couldn’t get into any rhythm. We were in so many long-yardage situations, whether it was penalties or sacks or negative plays. Start the second half with a turnover and then defensively, gave up some big plays. We talked about tackling all week and gave up over 100 yards after we had contact with somebody. Then, we had an opportunity a few times to hopefully end the game and gave them another life there on the fourth-down play. The guys played hard for 60 minutes, and that is what it took yesterday, certainly 59 minutes and 59 seconds until the game was really decided. There is a lot of evidence of things that we need to do better.”

On his involvement with the defensive game plan

“There is quite a bit of back and forth. Certainly, I communicate with (Defensive Coordinator) Mike Nolan and the defensive staff, same thing with the special teams. I watch and try to go through and see what I feel are real important aspects of our game in any phase of our game and try to really communicate the importance of all those things to our players. Each day we meet and we go through what we feel like we are going to do in each situation: third down, what are we going to call on first and second down, red zone, two minute and those kinds of things. I am very aware of what is going on in all of those situations and have great faith and trust in our staff to do their jobs.”

On an offensive coach aiding his defense based on his experience

“I think that is how you want to work together as a staff if you can. If you can look at it a different way than somebody else on your staff, it gives you two ways to look at things. Ultimately, you want to come up with the best way to play each team. I don’t know the exact percentage that we are blitzing, but we have created pressure without blitzing. We did yesterday, too, which is a combination of good coverage and great effort up front. It isn’t every time we have a free run to the quarterback because we brought one more guy than they could block. That really hasn’t happened much all year. (S Renaldo) Hill’s play yesterday, obviously, it did. We got him free to the quarterback, but (OLB/DE) Elvis (Dumervil) made a few plays yesterday where he just made good effort and there was good coverage in the back end, and (Dallas QB) Tony (Romo) was looking for somebody to throw it to and held the ball long enough for us to get there.”

On similarities between his coaching style and that of Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick

“I would say there are a lot of things. The philosophies about how to win that come straight from Bill, most of them, if not all of them, do. I was there for eight years and had a great deal of success being a part of that organization. It is a great organization with a great coach and great players and a lot of great coaches and great players. The things that they do to try to win games, we are doing many of those things here. We are trying to do many of those things and not because we are copying some other team but because they have been successful and it is a way of trying to win games in this league. It is showing itself as a very successful way to do that. Most, if not all, of the things that we try to do to win in terms of the big picture come from my experience in New England.”

On what is the “Patriot Way”

“I don’t know. All I know is we try to limit our mistakes. We try to take away the other teams’ strengths if you can. I have said it before: tough, smart, physical football for 60 minutes. It sounds redundant. Nobody believes in it except the guys inside the building, and everybody (else) just thinks you are talking coach-speak, but it is not. Tough, smart, physical football wins most games. That is how you win in this league because everybody has got good players, everybody has got good coaches and if your players are tougher, if your players play smarter and if you execute under pressure better than the other team, you win games. That is the definition. That is what it is.”

On the changes he made to improve the defense

“We looked at the whole picture. There were so many things we weren’t doing well in every phase. Offensively, we were bad in a lot of areas, also. Kicking game, we struggled last year. Defensively, certainly, we saw a need to improve. We just started with hiring a good staff. That was number one on our list. Mike (Nolan) has obviously done a great job with his staff. Our assistant coaches have also done a nice job of getting their players prepared and ready to go. We made the decision to go to the 3-4 system, which that is really my background. Mike (Nolan), obviously, is versed in both and could do either. We could have went in another direction but just felt with where we were at we wanted to go ahead and make that transition quickly and try to get as far as we could by the time the season came around. Wherever that point was, we were going to accept it and say that is what we have got to win games, and our expectations are no different. We are still going to try to win with whatever we have at whatever positions and however far along we are in terms of our system and our understanding of what to do and ultimately, try to put our players in a position to be successful. That was one decision among many that we made right away. Hopefully, we can continue to improve and get better.”

On how ILB D.J. Williams fits in a 3-4 base defense

“He had a good game yesterday. D.J. is just a very good linebacker. D.J. could be a very good player in any system, I think. The weak side of a 3-4, some people think the ball runs away most of the time in a 3-4 depending on what type of system you are playing against in terms of the other team’s offense. D.J. has got some coverage responsibility and he is capable of doing that. We have done a decent job of mixing it up. He has blitzed some and created some problems in the background. When he has a chance to run and get to the ball carrier where it is tough for somebody to get a body on him, he usually makes the tackle. That is a sign of a good linebacker. When somebody is struggling to get on to you or get up to the second level up to you and because of that you are making a bunch of tackles, you are a dependable player, and that is what he has shown to be the past four weeks.”

On Williams’ leadership role on the team compared to last year

“I don’t think it has changed. D.J. is very instrumental in what we do defensively. (He is the) number one communicator, I think, in terms of the front seven, calls the defense in the huddle. Guys listen and respond to him every day. He is a great player to coach, too. Very coachable and understand what we are trying to do to win and buys into it and does his role to the best of his ability each week.”

On his reaction to playing his former team

“(The Patriots) are the next team on our schedule, number one. We are not going to make any more of this game than what it is. It is our fifth game of the year. I think it is going to be a great challenge to play against one of the best franchises in this league and one of the best teams in this league with, certainly, what I think is the best coach in this league. We are going to have our hands full in a lot of different areas, but it will be a great challenge to our football team. I think we are all going to be excited to go through this week of preparation and see what we can do.”

On what will be the difference in the Broncos-Patriots game

“It is going to come down to whoever tackles better, who blocks better, who throws better, who catches better. It is not going to be a big game of tricks and gimmicks, I don’t think. I think they are going to know plenty of what we are doing if not all, and we are probably going to know a lot about what they are doing. It is going to come down to whose players plays the best and who can make the plays and avoid the big mistakes in the game like most games come down to. I don’t think this game is going to be about deception. I think it is going to be about us trying to play good football, and they are going to do the same thing. Whoever plays better on Sunday will win the game.”

On QB Kyle Orton’s knowledge of the offense

“Kyle knows the offense very well and has done a nice job of limiting his mistakes. Certainly, to not turn the ball over in four weeks is a big plus for our team. I think any time you have a quarterback play—I am not going to say error free because he certainly was not error free and hasn’t been error free in any game. That is hard for a quarterback to do. When he doesn’t commit a big mistake and put the defense on a short field and give the other offense an opportunity to score points quickly, I think that is really a big plus for our football team. Kyle has bought into that and understands his role and has done fairly well so far.”

On if he will spend extra time preparing for the New England game

“I hope I prepare really hard every week. I really do. I hope our guys, our coaches, our players spend a great amount of time preparing for every opponent. I hope I don’t see a big change in what I do this week. I am going to prepare as hard as I have the first four weeks. I think our team will respond and do the same thing. Look, it will be fun. It will be fun coaching against Bill and the staff there. I have got a great deal of respect for them. I know how talented they are and how tremendous of a staff they have there… You always try to fit in as much extra time as you can. I have also got a lot of friends there. This isn’t going to be in any way, shape or form some kind of a negative week in terms of us playing them. It will be a great challenge. We will look forward to it. I am sure they are looking forward to it. We will see who can be in the best position to win the game on Sunday.”

On what he does as a coach that he did not pick up from New England

“That is a tough question because most of the things that we do with our football team in some way, shape or form I get from Bill. His preparation, the way he prepares his team, the way that he feels you have got to approach each game a little bit differently in terms of you have got to beat New England than you beat Dallas, you have got to beat New England differently than you beat Cleveland, and I am sure he is saying the same thing. You are going to have to beat Denver a little bit differently than you beat Baltimore. There is not a whole lot that I would say from a football standpoint in terms of philosophy that there was change. I certainly work a little bit more with the offense during the course of the week than I do with the defense, but Bill works with both sides and the special teams coach as well. I am with the quarterbacks a lot more. There is a little bit of change in terms of where I spend some of my time during the week as opposed to what he does, but he has influence on everybody. He can coach any position, and we are just trying to do the best that we can to get our team prepared to play as well we possibly can against each different opponent because it is definitely a different challenge, and this week will be no different.”