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cutlerfan
09-11-2007, 11:14 AM
Broncos report: Strategy and personnel Sep. 10, 2007
The Sports Xchange
Strategy and personnel · Inside slant · Notes, quotes


REPORT CARD VS. BILLS

PASSING OFFENSE
B -- Jay Cutler made some huge plays, passing for 304 yards. He also made some mistakes, and the Broncos scored only one touchdown. Overall, the Broncos were thrilled with Cutler's performance in his sixth career start, especially the way he drove the team in the final minute for a game-winning field goal. And Denver's top three receivers -- Javon Walker, Brandon Marshall and Brandon Stokley -- all played well, especially Walker. But there are a few things to improve upon. With Cutler's talent, that will be possible.

RUSHING OFFENSE
B -- Travis Henry had a couple of big runs. Overall he played well, with 139 yards. He had some big runs, but was stuffed on others. The Broncos offense will be running on all cylinders when Henry consistently picks up four yards every time he runs with the ball. His physical style fits Denver's offense well, and he should have a big year.

PASS DEFENSE
A -- Buffalo's top two receivers, Lee Evans and Peerless Price, had three catches for three yards. That's what Denver envisioned when they traded for Dre Bly to pair with Champ Bailey. The only thing missing from the performance was an interception by one of the cornerbacks, but they should come with time.

RUSH DEFENSE
C-minus -- Buffalo's Marshawn Lynch had a very good NFL debut. He ran with power, and a few times the Broncos did a poor job tackling. That was a problem in the preseason as well and bears watching over the first few weeks of the season.

SPECIAL TEAMS
D -- The field-goal unit rushed out and hit the game-winner and had only about 10 seconds to pull off the feat, which salvaged an otherwise poor day. Roscoe Parrish returned a punt for a touchdown and Terrence McGee broke a long kickoff return. Domenik Hixon made a bad judgment when he should have caught a punt, and it was downed at Denver's 1-yard line. Even reliable Jason Elam missed two field goals.

COACHING
B -- The Broncos struggled through the preseason and trailed in Sunday's opener until Elam's field goal split the uprights after the final second ticked off the clock. However, the Broncos will take any win in a road opener. They're still learning a new defensive scheme and are incorporating a load of new starters. Denver will get better over time and the coaches deserve credit for putting the Broncos in position to pull off a late win in Week 1.

Copyright (C) 2007 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.

topscribe
09-11-2007, 11:23 AM
Those seem like pretty fair ratings. The rushing defense must become more
consistent if we expect to have a chance against the likes of LT & company.
Running and passing were inconsitent at times, but I'm not worried at all
about them.

I saw a couple disturbing signs, one being the inability to score TDs, with 470
yards of total offense. The other is very inconsistent pressure on the QB until
we started to blitz. What troubles me is that I saw this last year . . .

-----

SR
09-11-2007, 12:27 PM
I agree top...very fair and very unbias. We have some improvements to make, but as the article states, it will come with time. Luckily we have a couple of tune-up games before week three, when we'll face a very tough challenge.

Dean
09-11-2007, 08:27 PM
For the most part the article looks very balanced to me except for our offensive rushing grade of B. Henery gained 139 yards which was 6.0 yards per carry. If you include the rest of the carries we must have had 160 to 170 yard in rushing offense. What does it take to be graded as an A? :shocked: If this was truely only above average but not noteworthy, how many teams have earned a grading of A????

I guess my goals are far too low. To me 150+ yards on the ground is something to strive towards. A 6.0 yards per carry without a 50 or more yard run is wet dream material for most NFL coaches.

TXBRONC
09-11-2007, 09:04 PM
Well I might as well be a ditto head, because I agree with assements.

Skinny
09-12-2007, 08:13 AM
I agree with you Top on the Q.B. pressure being inconsistent still. And that's looking at it as far as the 4 DL through pre-season and the Buff. game. They just have'nt had much success at getting to the Q.B.

And i think a big reason for that may very well be that we are very young in the "pass rushing" department. Even with Simeon because he has'nt been in camp or any of the pre-season games and is still getting his legs under him. I think that combined with Elvis and Co. only having a limited time on the feild is the reason for the inconsistency there.

Rice needs to get into football shape and get the scheme down. While the younger guys like Moss, Crowder and Elvis need more experiance.

Things that you can only get better at and more consistent with, with more time on the feild.

On blitzing . . .

The only thing i like about us blitzing this year is we now have a D-Coord in Bates who knows how to play the blitz and someone opposite of Champ in Bly that can play "man" coverage and "press" the W.R. in blitzing situations.

And it has shown to work.

Where as in years past, particularly under Coyer, the C.B. would be off the W.R. 10 yards when we blitzed and the Q.B. would still be able to complete the pass.

And that totally depleted the reaason for blitzing in the first place.

It is a shame we still have to blitz to pressure the Q.B. with all the moves Mikey and Bates have made in the off-season to improve in that area, but hopefully that will decrease in time and we won't have to do it as much as the season goes on.

Now that Rice is going to start that may change sooner than later it may not. We'll have to wait and see but i fully expect Rice to continue what he's been doing since entering the league and that's getting to the Q.B.

I still have very high hopes for our younger DE's coming through like we all think and hope they can.

There's alot of talent there.

broncos9697
09-12-2007, 08:18 AM
[QUOTE=
great report card for the week...
one thing that upset me was 470 yards we should have at least had 28 points..that will come as the year goes on...
And the run def..we need to work on that also it is a new D..
spec.team I just dont know might be better off kicking it out of bounds the whole season...haha/..

Lonestar
09-12-2007, 12:45 PM
a fair and balanced report card let me add.

Tackling instead of whiffing the RB needs to really improve. As does the pass rush.

To have 5 minute advantage on TOP and almost twice the total yards gained the score should have been a blow out.

RED zone offense needs some help.

Den21vsBal19
09-12-2007, 01:17 PM
a fair and balanced report card let me add.

Tackling instead of whiffing the RB needs to really improve. As does the pass rush.

To have 5 minute advantage on TOP and almost twice the total yards gained the score should have been a blow out.

RED zone offense needs some help.

I can't quite make my mind up where though.

At times I see us calling the right plays, and not executing................partially down, IMO, to bulk on the line.

But other times, some of the play-calling has left me scratching my head.

But the article does seem to be fairly well balanced, I just wonder if our inability to pound the ball contributed to the lower grade for our rushing O than the stats alone would suggest?

Lonestar
09-12-2007, 01:29 PM
[/B]

I can't quite make my mind up where though.

At times I see us calling the right plays, and not executing................partially down, IMO, to bulk on the line.

But other times, some of the play-calling has left me scratching my head.

But the article does seem to be fairly well balanced, I just wonder if our inability to pound the ball contributed to the lower grade for our rushing O than the stats alone would suggest?

Your correct about play calling and execution, red zone will come around I hope, when everyone is on the same play card.

I alos think they need a bigger OLINE fro inside the 5 or major big TE's like mustard (although he is now gone) to add the the blocking.

Since the LB's and safeties have so much less Field to defend it is easier to stack the LOS.

Den21vsBal19
09-12-2007, 02:16 PM
Your correct about play calling and execution, red zone will come around I hope, when everyone is on the same play card.

I alos think they need a bigger OLINE fro inside the 5 or major big TE's like mustard (although he is now gone) to add the the blocking.

Since the LB's and safeties have so much less Field to defend it is easier to stack the LOS.

One of the game day threads, I think it was, had a typo suggesting that Adams play on the goal-line :laugh:

Not saying Adams, but maybe we need some sort of wrinkle inside of the 5, like we had with House on the tackle eligible a couple of years back, or is it Vrabel that the Pansies use on goal line.

I just think that we need to get a little cute if we're not going to add bulk.

LawDog
09-12-2007, 03:06 PM
Special teams - everytime someone was running back a punt, they were surrounded by Bills - blocking for their guy and tackling ours. That's gotta change - better penetration when we are kicking and better protection when receiving.

Rush defense - the main problem I saw was how many times our players attempted to arm tackle Marshawn around the shoulders. I didn't notice him juking, just powering through the arm tackles. I kept wanting to see people get low and wrap up his legs, but it was rare. Other power runners like LT can not be controlled with poor tackling. Speaking of LT, did anyone watch the bears and bolts? How did the bears manage to hold him to 25 yards on 17 carries? Bet it wasn't arm tackles...

Skinny
09-12-2007, 05:06 PM
Rush defense - the main problem I saw was how many times our players attempted to arm tackle Marshawn around the shoulders.Man, i hear ya there!

That just eats me up everytime i see that (guys trying to tackle up high). I just don't get that. Never have, never will.

Has to be a mental thing.

If it's late in the game or if your team is behind and your trying to create a turnover by jarring the ball loose. . . that's perfectly understandable to me.

But other than that and your trying to tackle the guy high like that (arm tackle!) and your running down the feild for 20 more yards . . .ooooooooooh, i wish i was a coach or teamate on the sideline when that guy came off the feild! :rant:

rcsodak
09-12-2007, 08:03 PM
Some of you tend to forget, that the guys on the other side are getting paid big bucks also!

It's not like Parrish/McGee were noted SLO-POKES, and sucked at this.

Moorman is/has been a great punter. Notice how high his kicks were? The hang-time? Denver pr's never stood a chance!

I'm still waiting for Sauerbrun to show all of us why he's back with the team. You HEAR how he's killing the ball in practice, but I've yet to SEE it on the boob-tube.

As for the Dline....

...looked to me like having kept M Myers would have been a splendid idea. Anybody watch/hear the Cincy/Raven game? Nothing but accolades about him, from the announcers AND the 'gaaaaaaals.
Denver screwed the pooch on that non-deal, imo.

I think a B+ is a fair total score.
This WAS the 1st game....

...of the season, Plus, to mesh:

New starting CB
New starting DE's *too many to name*
New startingDT's *ditto*
New starting LB's
New starting LOG
New starting ROG
NEW starting ROT
New starting RB
New starting WR's
New starting TE's

New D Coach/scheme

2nd year of new O Coach/scheme
6th game of new starting QB

New ST Coach/scheme
New ST players


And ya'll expected a higher grade? :confused:

Lonestar
09-12-2007, 08:12 PM
Some of you tend to forget, that the guys on the other side are getting paid big bucks also!

It's not like Parrish/McGee were noted SLO-POKES, and sucked at this.

Moorman is/has been a great punter. Notice how high his kicks were? The hang-time? Denver pr's never stood a chance!

I'm still waiting for Sauerbrun to show all of us why he's back with the team. You HEAR how he's killing the ball in practice, but I've yet to SEE it on the boob-tube.

As for the Dline....

...looked to me like having kept M Myers would have been a splendid idea. Anybody watch/hear the Cincy/Raven game? Nothing but accolades about him, from the announcers AND the 'gaaaaaaals.
Denver screwed the pooch on that non-deal, imo.

I think a B+ is a fair total score.
This WAS the 1st game....

...of the season, Plus, to mesh:

New starting CB
New starting DE's *too many to name*
New startingDT's *ditto*
New starting LB's
New starting LOG
New starting ROG
NEW starting ROT
New starting RB
New starting WR's
New starting TE's

New D Coach/scheme

2nd year of new O Coach/scheme
6th game of new starting QB

New ST Coach/scheme
New ST players


And ya'll expected a higher grade? :confused:


Remember many fanatic expect nothing but accolades for the broncos no matter what the situation, if the national media does not fall over themselves praising Mikey's clan then it is blasphemy.


Way to many changes this year for it all to fall together consistently.