Defense devastated: Broncos rule out five vs. Jets

Would you actually say that to Brian Dawkins? Very doubtful…

If you though that was bad news then the Broncos passing game will face against a tough secondary just like the Ravens. It's only a matter of time when the Broncos realize that they can't compete with the top AFC teams. I REALLY hope with every inch of my heart that the Broncos be the top AFC team but 2010 is not our year. I don't know if we can even beat the 0 and 5 San Francisco 49ers.

Too bad we haven't won a game yet this year…oh wait…

The Broncos won a game this year, just not against competitives team. BTW, the Tennessee Titans are not a top 5 AFC team. In fact we barely beat the Titans.

im slowly losing patience with josh mcdanials.. Peyton Hillis is looking great and ever since he traded alphonso smith hes had 3 picks what the HECK????

would you shut up. not just CJ (no offense dude) but all the people whining about Alphonso (somehow) doing well after getting traded, and Hillis doing well. I'm sick of people using insight on the past to trash the Broncos…

Gee, maybe Alphonso is getting picks due to playing behind a penetrating, talented and physical defensive-line?

But Denver will still not blitz anyone, since McDaniels wants games decided on offense (or so he thinks). That's the same belief that Shanahan had and one of the reasons why Denver will never be a physical and intimidating team under Bowlen's stewardship.

He could've interviewed Rex Ryan but didn't. That was no coincidence, as Bowlen prefers conservative company-men who toe the line and keep their real machinations behind closed-doors. Not guys who can't be controlled, have no filter on their mouths and who heartily believe– and don't just pay lip-service–to the principle that pressure should be prioritized over coverage.

But football– as Romo knows– is a manly game where motivation and drive are partly a result of expending extra-effort. In that, a players coach helps and so does an emotion-and-momentum-changing sack.

And Ryan is a players-coach who lets his players attack the opponent (like the late Eagles D.C. Jimmy Johnson once did). He knows that it may be 50-50 on paper, but the sum total of all those hits and pressures makes passers throw off target much more than the immediate stats may indicate.

Announcers and columnists jump all over the blitzes that are picked up and exploited. But never notice the death by drips-and-drabs that result from not letting loose an extra-defender. For that is not so black-and-white and easy to illustrate as cause-and-immediate effect.

If Alex Smith, for example, had escaped from a blitzing Eagles pass-rusher for a long-run, the Sunday Night announcers would have lambasted Reid for calling three straight risky blitzes while already up 7 points. But the tactic worked, so the focus was on the individual's execution and the coaching staff didn't even merit a mention (as the 49ers ended up losing another close one.. even though the same QB, as a rookie, carried them to successive down-field TD drives against a passive and zone-heavy Denver defense on December 31st 2006).

As the stat-obsessed writers at The Fifth-Down Blog have frequently posited: most of the NFL's coaches are risk-averse.

Like McDaniels, they only roll-the-dice when their backs are against the wall (instead of when things are not-so-desperate… as Sean Payton's onside-kick to open up the second-half ably illustrates the better odds of the unexpected).

Its sunny-weather thinking that always assumes there's more time to prove their philosophy's benefits.

And, like Shanahan's decade of losing game's on defense– which was ironically motivated by his desire to “keep things even” and let his offensive coaching acumen ultimately decide things on that side of the ball– opponents marched down-field and kept us off-balance with long-drives and high completion-percentages.

Rich Gannon had that 28-of-29 performance against one of those mid-decade Shanahan defenses that kept everything in front of them (and was ultimately blamed on a revolving-door of defensive-coordinators… who were shown the door after another 9-7 first-round blowout).

When each was hired, they vowed to be “more aggressive” (yet, as always, noting ever changed). This season is already doomed by injuries.

But, even if it wasn't, a McDaniels supporter like myself is starting to belatedly realize that most of what he sold Bowlen on was basically b.s.

Every week we have a new game-plan and an emphasis on teaching “situational-football” (which sound great in an interview with uncritical football-minds like the penny-pinching Ellis and Bowlen.. who had already made up their minds).

And, with the exception of Bellicheat– who hasn't won a championship and is 2-2 in the playoffs since Spy-gate– making up even-more complex and numerous play-designs to memorize isn't that common throughout the rest of the league.

So, differentiating yourself from other coaches is not an easy task. Which probably explains the genesis of the whole two-blocking-TE look that seemingly ignores the incredibly-obvious advantages of a swift TE who can boost the running-game (like Shannon Sharpe's down-the-seam abilities bolstered the grateful Terrell Davis' standout performances by limiting te 8-in-a-box looks he may have faced without #84).

No other Coach ignores the traditional role of the TE like McDaniels does besides, perhaps, John Fox in Carolina. At their own peril, Jacksonville and Cincinnati used to, but Marcedes Lewis and Jermaine Gresham''s selections at the top of day-one showed that they learned their lessons. Heck, even New England– which used Ben Watson in the years previous to 2010– threw to TE's more than is assumed by people who mostly remember all the RB screens and passes to Moss and Welker.

And I'm sure McDaniels had a proud smile when the football writers at “ESPN, The Magazine” credited him and 2nd-round selected Richard Quinn for elevating the value of blocking TE's in their post 2009 draft issue (that commented on how Quinn's selection out of N. Carolina– without more than 20 receptions– could be a trend-setting development that future blocking TE's can credit for their higher signing bonuses).

Yeah. If only….

You see, that's the peril of trying to prove how original and irreplaceably brilliant you are (at the risk of overlooking one of the most obvious positions in the history of football).

McDaniels will get a pass for 2010 due to all the injuries, so this thought won't reverberate among the majority of Broncos fans (who would rather talk about QB moves, off-season conditioning and dancing too much in the backfield).

But the best way to help the running game isn't to add blockers (for that tips your hand that a run is coming and gives the defense that half-second, head-start anticipation/angle on the play…. that is frequently the difference between winning and losing).

Misdirection and its resulting split-second defensive indecision were cited by Saints players as the top reason for their offensive success last year.

Yet, just like conceding away the many positives of the pass-catching TE, we also play 10-on-11 while basically giving away the chunks of grass 20-yards down-field between the hash-marks (that Antonio Gates has camped out on en route to a bust in Canton, Ohio).

Can anyone name more than 2 passes we've completed to that area of the field behind the inside linebackers? Can anyone recall what position catches the most TD passes on SportsCenter and the NFL Network's post-Sunday highlights (in that area of the field)?

But, hey, Josh is just being original and oh-so-daring. And if anyone else ever uses another 2nd-round choice on a not-so-physically-imposing Tight End without pass-catching skills….

….Ach, never mind. I'm just wasting my breath and getting as resolutely negative as Jon Gruden is becoming predictably over-positive over every player he's praising lately.

Bowlen knows best and the rest of us should just buy his merchandise and game-tickets, pay for his stadium and love the predominantly-blue uniforms without the “D” on them (that have done so much to make us the kind of physically-intimidating team that doles out the punishment instead of receing it). Ahem.

I just can't wait to anticipate what over 34-year old defensive-tackle we'll be signing in 2014? Fred Robbins and Kelly Gregg can carry us over until Darnell Dockett turns 33 in that year.

Sounds like a plan.

Or should I say, “same crap, same owner… only different seasons?”