Broncos' pass rush off to slow start without Dumervil

[Lonestar]

Broncos' pass rush off to slow start without Dumervil
By Lindsay H. Jones
The Denver Post
POSTED: 08/15/2010 06:28:39 PM MDT
UPDATED: 08/16/2010 12:10:48 AM MDT


Veteran linebacker Mario Haggan tangles with Bengals offensive tackle Dennis Roland during the Broncos' preseason opener Sunday. (Ed Reinke, AP)
With Tebow in tow, Broncos take on Bengals in preseason opener
These aren't the types of problems that a new defensive coordinator should be figuring out in August.

This is the time for position battles and rookies fighting for roster spots, not for figuring how to replace the NFL's reigning leader in sacks.

But in their preseason opener Sunday against the Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, defensive coordinator Don "Wink" Martindale debuted the Broncos' plan for how they will play without star pass rusher Elvis Dumervil, who will miss at least four months — if not the whole season — because of a torn pectoral muscle.

On the first defensive series for their starters, the Broncos forced the Bengals into a third-and-11 situation — the scenario in which Dumervil, who had 17 sacks last year, thrives. The players given first shot at replacing him — 2009 first-round draft pick Robert Ayers and versatile veteran linebacker Mario Haggan — couldn't get to Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer.
It surely wasn't the start the Broncos were hoping for.

"Trust me, Elvis was our best pass rusher, but we've got a lot of talent on this team, guys that whether it is schematically or just rushing straight up that we can get to the quarterback," Haggan said. "I think it's only just a matter of time. Trust me, Elvis will be greatly missed, but we have guys that can get the job done."

Defensive end Justin Bannan was the only Bronco to lay a hand on Palmer when the No. 1 defense played against the Bengals' offensive starters in a game Denver lost 33-24.

"Somebody else has got to step up (after Dumervil's injury). My guys have got to step up. Guys that are rushing on the edge have to step up," said Denver defensive line coach Wayne Nunnely. "It's a loss that we wish we didn't have to deal with, but someone else has got to step up and that's really what it's all about. That happens in football."

In addition to Ayers and Haggan, Kevin Alexander —


Bengals wide receiver Terrell Owens, above, misses a pass under pressure from Broncos cornerback Andre Goodman in the first half Sunday at Cincinnati. (Tony Tribble, The Associated Press)
an undrafted rookie from Clemson — and Baraka Atkins also lined up for at least one snap at outside linebacker with the first-team defense Sunday.
Atkins and Jammie Kirlew recorded sacks during the second half. Alexander was credited with four quarterback hits in the second half.

"Felt good to go out there and be aggressive and get into the backfield and help my team out," said Kirlew, a seventh-round draft pick from Indiana. "Not going to lie, it felt good to get my first sack under my belt, get that out of the way."

Yet it isn't just the loss of Dumervil that has caused concern about the pass rush. The Broncos lost much of their pass rush from last season before Dumervil's injury happened in training camp. Defensive tackle Vonnie Holliday, who ranked second among the Broncos with five sacks in 2009, signed with the Washington Redskins. Third-down specialist Darrell Reid, who had four sacks last year, remains on the physically unable to perform list after major knee surgery in the offseason.

So where will the sacks come from?

The Broncos are banking on big improvement from Ayers, who played in the nickel package last season but has yet to record his first NFL sack.

The Broncos have moved Haggan from inside linebacker — where he worked all spring and through the first week of training camp — back outside, where he started every game last season. Ayers and Haggan will likely be three-down players.

"Everyone wants to get to the quarterback. You have to get to the quarterback and knock him off the spot," Haggan said. "It's highlighted for us, of course, because Elvis is such a good pass rusher. But it's the first preseason game and we've got a lot of work to do."

Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com


http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_15789126

[Shazam!]

The possibility of another mediocre Denver defense, even due to injury, doesn't shock me at all, unfortunately.

I hope Ayers ups his game, but they don't need to be the 85 Bears to be effective.

[dogfish]

The possibility of another mediocre Denver defense, even due to injury, doesn't shock me at all, unfortunately.


i don't know if i'd say shocked, but i'm bitterly disappointed in my belief that this defense isn't going to be what it could have been, because i had extremely high hopes. . . and i still think they'll be a fairly solid unit. . . but unfortunately, i'm not so convinced the final results will reflect that. . . lack of pass rush is such an exploitable achilles heel-- you can be stout in run defense as well as pass coverage, and still end up giving up long drives when you can't get off the field on third down. . .

i know everybody talks about "one guy isn't the whole defense" and all that, and it's not wrong, but it does little to mitigate the fact that dumervil was probably THE top guy we couldn't afford to lose, or one of two or three at most. . . i'd say he was certainly the most difficult single player to replace on the defense at least, including champ or dawkins. . .

i have a sinking feeling that before this is over, even JR will understand why some of us were so insistent that doom was an absolute priority at pretty much whatever the cost was going to be. . .


and no, the %^(#)% sky won't fall if we don't have a pass rush-- but it will cost us some games that we can't afford to lose. . . i have as much hope as anyone, but little faith that the likes of ayers, haggan, kirlew, williams and alexander can get it done. . .

it would be a blessing if we could at least get darrell reid healthy, but it doesn't look like anything's imminent there. . .

[Elevation inc]

i don't know if i'd say shocked, but i'm bitterly disappointed in my belief that this defense isn't going to be what it could have been, because i had extremely high hopes. . . and i still think they'll be a fairly solid unit. . . but unfortunately, i'm not so convinced the final results will reflect that. . . lack of pass rush is such an exploitable achilles heel-- you can be stout in run defense as well as pass coverage, and still end up giving up long drives when you can't get off the field on third down. . .

i know everybody talks about "one guy isn't the whole defense" and all that, and it's not wrong, but it does little to mitigate the fact that dumervil was probably THE top guy we couldn't afford to lose, or one of two or three at most. . . i'd say he was certainly the most difficult single player to replace on the defense at least, including champ or dawkins. . .

i have a sinking feeling that before this is over, even JR will understand why some of us were so insistent that doom was an absolute priority at pretty much whatever the cost was going to be. . .


and no, the %^(#)% sky won't fall if we don't have a pass rush-- but it will cost us some games that we can't afford to lose. . . i have as much hope as anyone, but little faith that the likes of ayers, haggan, kirlew, williams and alexander can get it done. . .

it would be a blessing if we could at least get darrell reid healthy, but it doesn't look like anything's imminent there. . .


if we can get Reid back by start of October thats a bigger boost then people realize.......also if green goes back to his new england rotational production thats likely 5 sacks, im actually pretty confident ayers can get about 6 sacks as well(he was double teamed quite a bit our first pre-season game, but was very close)......i figure jamal is good for at least 1, and bannan and mcbean should have 1 apiece as well......perhaps 2 for haggan and maybe 1 or 2 from our depth Olb's plus 3 or 4 from reid when he returns, and then factor in about 8 from blitzes by ILb's, Cb's and safties and we will be alright im thinking we will have about 30 sacks next year(not great but not devestating to the d if our run defense and pass coverage hold up).......from what i can tell we were always a 8-12 win team this year.....losing doom hurts as we probally could have taken the divison this year with him on d..... but i belive the reality in my mind is that we can still achieve ten wins rather soundly

[Lonestar]

As much as sacks are great, hurries are nice also.

I rewatched parts of the game last night and confirmed what I thought I saw on sunday. There was a play early on that TO went up to catch one out on the left sideline but it was high and went thru his hands. Sll the while Ayers was almost on him and Plamer had to through his out stretched hand.

Now I know that doom also had this happen. But we may just be surprised in the loss of doom, pretty sure others will get enough pressure to force the QB into throw some pcks or uncatchable balls.
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[dogfish]

i hope you guys are right-- i don't see it. . .

[Lonestar]

The possibility of another mediocre Denver defense, even due to injury, doesn't shock me at all, unfortunately.

I hope Ayers ups his game, but they don't need to be the 85 Bears to be effective.

Last year we had a great pass rusher with Doom but in the end they did not need to pass the ball because they could run all day.

That is what killed us down the stretch 20+ yards per game on the ground.

If we can stop the run early this year, then they become one dimensional then the pass rush will come around from different players.

NOW that we have signed the guy, Lets just hope that doom will beat all the projections and come back to cap off the season.

[G_Money]

Hagan is sloooow. He's not getting to the QB unless some RB falls down laughing while watching him try.

If we can corner blitz or something we might stand a chance, but we fired our last DC because he was blitzing too much.

I agree, we need to stop the run and force guys to pass, but we've done that in prior seasons and then been unable to actually get to the QB and couldn't get off the field, as dogfish says.

DJ and Woodyard are fast enough to get to the QB, but they play inside right now. I'd replace Doom with Woodyard on passing downs - he's a better tackler in space than Doom even if they both get run over by bigger guys.

I still haven't seen jack from Ayars to indicate he's any better than Moss. I was pissed at both selections at the time and I'm really hoping Ayars can make me eat that rage and turn it into joy.

But I ain't betting on it, and the Broncos better not either. We need to find a pass-rusher or make a pass-rush through blitzing or stunting our asses off.

And after watching that game, we'd better not get any of our first string DL injured either, because our backups are NOT ready for primetime.

~G

[Dirk]

Doom will be missed...I hope that this is the moment that Ayers steps it up and becomes what many thought he could in 3 years....only because of need..he does it in 2. :woot:

[Elevation inc]

i hope you guys are right-- i don't see it. . .

you know are 2 worst defensive years the last 4 we had 33 and 26 sacks, that was with slowik and Bates as DC in a wack ass 4-3 defense....and dumervil having a bad year one of those years as well.....17 sacks is big for doom and he will be missed im quite sure we could have challenged the division if we had him......but if bob slowik can get us 26 sacks as a DC im quite sure we will get by with our new personnel......

25-30 sacks and we are middle tier......not great but certainly more acceptable than normal......this year will come down to matchups plain and simple.....wink needs to be creative with MCD to ensure our matchups give us extra help.....but rest assured im pretty sure a aggressive d like ours can generate 25 plus sacks.....even without elvis

[TimTebow15MVP]

i saw big rob ayers almost get carson a couple times though, hopefully he starts getting there. he was so close though.

[NightTrainLayne]

It seemed to me that we were playing very vanilla on the defensive side. I didn't see any actual blitzes, and hardly any stunting. I'm reserving judgement until we get closer to the regular season. .. All we heard about all off-season was about Wink's agressive scheme. They didn't show any of it the other night.

[broncosinindy]

Losing Doom no matter how youcut it is gonna hurt. I had to work the other night How did alexander and Kirlew look?? After Moss's tweet the other day i think it s finally time to remove my adopt a bronco

[TXBRONC]

It seemed to me that we were playing very vanilla on the defensive side. I didn't see any actual blitzes, and hardly any stunting. I'm reserving judgement until we get closer to the regular season. .. All we heard about all off-season was about Wink's agressive scheme. They didn't show any of it the other night.

Generally that's what you get in the preseason. We were pretty bland on the offensive side of the ball as well, but the Bengals were also very vanilla on both sides of the ball.

[PAINTERDAVE]

Hope for the best...
prepare for the worst.

I am not saying I have no hope for this season...
but I doubt we will be in the AFC championship game.

All these new players... it takes time.

It really depends how the record goes...
if this team loses some key games early...
if they struggle at home...
if the season tanks...

The play we get out of the defense will be affected.

If we go in the tank...
and Tebow geets the nod to get his feet wet...
if it becomes a rebuilding year...
then it will affect the play of the team.

Some guys will be playing for a job...
others... not so much.

Jeez... I am so ready for this season to start.

I think that 6 and ) start last year spoiled us...
then the 2 and 8 finish shacked us..

I just want to see what these guys look like.

[weazel]

I see a lot of 30+ point games from our competition. I hope our bubble screens can get us more points a game than that.

[NightTrainLayne]

Generally that's what you get in the preseason. We were pretty bland on the offensive side of the ball as well, but the Bengals were also very vanilla on both sides of the ball.

The Bengals ran a lot of blitzes, especially at our 2nd & 3rd teamers.

I agree this is usally what you get in the pre-season, but that's what makes it difficult to draw a conclusion that our pass rush was "off to a slow start". It was about what I expected for the 1st preseason game.

[arapaho2]

in 05 we were the 15th ranked def
lynch was tied with ebeneezer for most sacks at 4
we were the 4th worst def in sacks
we were the 26th ranked passing def

yet we were the third best in scoreing defense which is the biggest key
maybe because we were the 2nd best rush defense in the league

if we can hold the line with jwall, bannon and mcbean, and be a solid rush defense...i think we will be ok

[Elevation inc]

The Bengals ran a lot of blitzes, especially at our 2nd & 3rd teamers.

I agree this is usally what you get in the pre-season, but that's what makes it difficult to draw a conclusion that our pass rush was "off to a slow start". It was about what I expected for the 1st preseason game.

yeah zimmer dialed in a CB delay blitz for christ sakes....dont see that to often during pre-season.....

zimmer also was constantly bringing guys the whole game......walton and beadles got a little hello very early on....

[TXBRONC]

The Bengals ran a lot of blitzes, especially at our 2nd & 3rd teamers.

I agree this is usally what you get in the pre-season, but that's what makes it difficult to draw a conclusion that our pass rush was "off to a slow start". It was about what I expected for the 1st preseason game.

I didn't think ran many blitzes but that's neither here nor there. The real point is that Denver kept it vanilla on both sides of ball.

Replacing Dumervil's sack production wont be easy in fact I wouldn't be surprised if there's noticeable drop off. However if Wink can come up with creative ways getting sack opportunities the defense might be still be able to respectable job of getting sacks.

[Lonestar]

yeah zimmer dialed in a CB delay blitz for christ sakes....dont see that to often during pre-season.....

zimmer also was constantly bringing guys the whole game......walton and beadles got a little hello very early on....

they were trying for pay back for our opening day win last year. Kind of surprised the Stokey did not wind up on a gurney.