Best of the West – Broncos Round Table: 3

By the way, if anyone's been keeping up with the column in part 1 I suggested Zane Beadles be moved elsewhere on the line and that Ryan Harris return and right tackle. I also suggested activating Lance Ball, both were done tonight.

Agree that the defense needs to step. Watching Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Green Bay over the past couple of weeks was fun. Every player goes 110% on every snap. Fun to watch. NY Giants play the same way.

McCartney should forget about coaching the Buffs. What Bowlen should do is convince him to be the Broncos GM or at least have complete control over personnel decisions. Why? McCartney knows how to build a football team. He knows it starts with the O-line and Front 7 on D. He knows that you cannot dominate unless you win both lines of scrimmage. He knows talent.

When the Buffs were in there hayday I swear they had better and bigger offensive and defensive front lines than some pro teams.

The Broncos want to be phyical??? Go get somebody that actually knows what that means.

since McDaniels phylosophy, no one is indispensable and every person has to earn his position…

oh, Does that mean we should change him??

Is it just me or does Brian Xanders look like he is borderline retarded?

Kind of scary the situation surrounding Bowlen with his admissions of memory problems and letting Joe Ellis take more and more responsibility. Hopefully we are not descending into a situation similar to Oakland has with Al Davis. If the season continues on a similar trajectory as it is currently changes need to be demanded by Bowlen. Hopefully the season begins to right itself starting Sunday, but I am wondering if Bowlen is still the hard charging capable owner he once was.

D is the key and i agree. wow that just rhymed. i think for the remainder of the season they need to blitz, blitz, blitz. who cares if the other team expects it. lets see if they can handle it. the tow primary blitzers should be DJ williams and briwn dawking. two of the hardest hitter we have who are also fast. but disguise is everything. overload one side. hit the A gap hard. blitz dawkins from the blind side. show DJ falling back then blitz him late. do all four of these on the same play. but at least quit letting the qb prop up a lazy boy and chill till he finds an open man. we have one of the best secondaries in the league as long as some ones creating havoc in the offensive back field and its not like we have Osi Uyminuora and Justin Tuck on each end so the blitz is important.

Way to go 5280 and Ian (re: real overloaded blitzes). I've been preaching that for years (primarily when I blogged at a broncos-discuss site that was at denverbroncos.com until this season when Bowlen's minions canceled it).

Plus, remember that one of the main advantages of the 3-4 is how it facilitates better disguising of Dick LeBeau's 6 permutations of zone-blitzes (where, every once in awhile, you drop a guy like Ryan McBean into the vacated A-gap where the QB is looking for his hot read if DJ comes charging in… as you both wisely suggested).

And Ian: although you are right about the pressure on Champ, Perrish, Cassius and Andre to cover without getting any double-teams from presumably-blitzing Safeties like McBath and B-Dawk….

….Well, remember playing five-on-five in junior high-school where the end-zone was the leaf-covered back-bumper of a 1989 Volvo on some suburban street?

When you knew that the guy who normally counts to 5 or 7 Mississippi is slated to come charging in to the QB on a blitz, the coverage of said receiver becomes attacking rather than retreating (since you know the ball has to come out quicker and you can afford to jump a route… like the now-unshackled Alpohonso Smith behind Detroit's front four).

If Perrish or Champ can jump an out-route and run it back for a pick-six, the opposition's QB is going to be concerned about more than just hits, pressures, fumbles and hurried incompletions. In fact, he may just begin looping high-sailing passes down-field more often, in the hope that his WR's can out-jump our islanded defensive-backs if the Broncos reverse decades of passive, keep-everything-in-front-of-you Cover 2 and actually give an athlete like DJ Williams the chance to use his speed while going forward (more than 5-6 times an entire season).

What exactly do we have to lose by trying (except, perhaps, for setting a record for the worst home-field advantage and concurrently sapping team-morale)? And, at least, there's a chance for good things to happen and for intimidation to again become part of a Denver defense.

Plus, a guy like Jason Hunter– who was a defensive-end previously like the useless Jarvis Moss– can apply those old skills occasionally instead of constantly being forced into unfamiliar coverage responsibilities.

But none of this will happen under McDaniels unless Bowlen/Ellis orders it (since you know that Brian Xanders and Wink Martindale certainly lack the job security to insist upon this). For a control-freak head-coach is more afraid of winning under these circumstances than losing and muddling through in the old familiar way (when opponents have to score in 6-8 plays… unless we get a lucky unforced error from a professional NFL QB under no duress).

This is what happened three or four seasons ago when we beat Pittsburgh at Invesco behind the kind of double-blitzes Ian suggested (which means more than just 4 rushers out of a 3-4). That game, we beat up Roethlisberger and upset the Steelers behind 7 to 9 of these 5-6 rusher blitzes.

But Shanahan instantly reverted to form and only blitzed when it was a desperate and obvious situation where we needed the ball back and were trailing by 14-or-more with less than a quarter to play. And, even then, he only used the aging John Lynch instead of the more-explosive DJ Williams (whose Al Wilson-like, 25-yard down-field drops were too tantalizing for Shanahan's Def. Coordinator puppets to stop deploying).

McDaniels, I fear, is the same stiff-necked personality-type (and was actually being a bit deceitful when he implied that Nolan and he only disagreed with the run-blitzes that were of no use against Kansas City last season). As I can see in 2010, it was blitzing in general that they parted ways on (and that is especially odd considering the great success that Nolan had with once-or-twice-a-game CB blitzes during the 6-0 start). And the K.C. travesty wasn't directly attributable to the run-blitzes anyway (even if the loss at Indy in '09 could be linked with Nolan's mistaken departure from the complex d-back zones that throttled Peyton “blitz-proof” Manning during the 2nd, 3rd and most of the 4th quarter). Then, three ill-considered blitzes on Indy's game-clinching final-drive were beaten by 25-yard gains to Dallas Clark.

But Josh's self-destructive treatment of Peyton Hillis reminds me of how Shanahan lost the Lions game by benching Donovan McNabb when trailing 30-25.

Supposedly, McNabb lacked the 100% recall of all the 2-minute formations that Shanahan's equally-complex playbook demanded.

So what was the result when Rex Grossman came in? He fumbled on the first snap and the Lions prevailed 37-25.

If the similarities are as great as I feared and Pat “emulating Oakland A's ex-owner Charlie Finley” Bowlen doesn't demand another thrice-a-decade blitz-fest, we'll probably only see blitzes when Kansas City is already up and anticipating a desperation move (which, of course, is like an onside kick when there's a minute left and you're trailing by a touchdown).

Blitzing, like throwing 20+ yards over-the-middle– which Matt Ryan did to Roddy White under heavy Tampa pressure and before his WR even came open– is something that works best when its less predictable (i.e when the game is close).

Although is doesn't always work, it can light a fire under a team by reminding them that football is usually won by the team that forces their opponent to throw in less time than their own QB has. Or, as LeMarr Woodley, James Harrison and Bill Romanowski could explain:

“You want to be the team that punches the 98-pound weakling in the mouth…. not the always-retreating 98-pound weakling” (whose only consolation is that they manged to cover more spaces on the field).

When that happens, opposing QB's will let the pre-snap play-clock go down to 0:01 as they gesticulate and point out potential blitzers (as Orton did in anticipation of Jets blitzes on the final two plays).

When a QB's mind and body-memory are more concerned with those factors– and whether they can mange to still step up into a throw without being pulverized when their chest is wide-open– they lack the time to be reminding themselves when the instantaneous window of opportunity to hit their second-read will come open (and they certainly won't have time to locate a slower-developing crossing route).

Yes….. on the chalkboard at mid-week practice or at halftime, calmly locating the hot-read is as simple as pie for…. well, for a head-coach, his brother or, ahem, his offensive-coordinator

But in the heat of battle with footsteps bearing down on you and a distinct desire to stand upright for the penultimate drives that will decide the game, throwing the ball away or off a QB's back-foot– which we've repeatedly seen from our own Broncos signal-callers as the protection breaks down– seems to happen a lot more commonly than the former scenario.

And as long as the entirely-theoretical Broncos blitzers are coached to retain gap integrity without losing much acceleration, this should also work against Matt Cassel (who will still have to locate Dwayne Bowe against Champ Bailey's coverage.. but in much less time than normal!!!).

Then, it comes down to whether we can take away their middle-screens to Jamaal Charles or Thomas Jones and maybe a quick-out bubble-screen to Dexter McClusker. Which is where a zone-dropping Ryan McBean or Kevin Vickerson must able to to disrupt the Chiefs peeling-out RB's before they've gone 5 yards (and all that's left is Mario Haggan between them and a long-gain).

But I'd rather have a stout LB like Mario Haggan having to cover a screen for 2 seconds than trying to track down Jamaal Charles after the Chiefs have had 5 seconds to throw the ball and set up their blockers.

And remember too that fake blitzes where we bluff and drop the linebackers– when Denver anticipates a RB screen or draw-play– are only effective when a team actually gambles and deploys the real-thing more than once a game.

In that, its not so different from throwing long to Brandon Lloyd. Or not too different from running play-action fakes after you maange to gain over 5-yards on the last running-play.

To wit, its all linked. And you can't beat other teams without reminding them that every play is on the table. Even passes that go 20-yards or more and are positioned between the hash-marks.

When Eric Mangini finally loosened up the reins and coached to win– rather than to limit the opponent's theoretical infliction of damage– the Browns started winning behind inventive and unforeseen formations and play-calling.

And that's because morale– which still matters even on the professional level– is directly proportional to having fun and getting an opportunity to make a highlight-reel-type play. Any player is more jacked-up for those opportunities than they are for the umpteenth usage of a cover-2 or cover-3, going-through-the-motions banality. Just ask them (off-the-record or without attribution).

The defense is lacking an “Al Wilson” type of player.

Funny reply, jdkchem. However, at the risk of purporting to sound like a smarty-pants: the real reason wasn't the attacking of Goering's blitzkrieg.

In actuality, the Germans failed to realize that the power-lines they failed to bomb were more than what they appeared. They were early-stage radar installations that allowed the British to track the Luftwaffe's fighter planes.

If Field Marshall Goering had realized this– instead of assuming they were innocuous power-lines or radio transmission towers– he could have probably kept his promise to defeat Britain within one month (as the R.A.F. wouldn't have had any insight about where the Germans were attacking and in what numbers).

The early gains of the Luftwaffe were able to be withstood to a virtual standoff (which, as George Washington could tell you, always goes to the home-team).

But don't ask me. Ask Gunther Cunninggam and Marty Schottenheimer.

The FOUR simple reasons McD must go:

1. 4-14 record

2. 59-14… yeah, at home

3. Cleveland has the #12 rusher in the NFL, we have a QB that's been active for one game.

4. Detroit has the #2 interception leader in NFL, we have a tight end with something like one catch.

Can anyone come up with 4 compelling reasons as to why he should stay???

Mcdaniels is an offensive co at best!