Defense looks to bring back Orange Crush

[Denver Native (Carol)]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Future Broncos offenses will try to match the records set last year, when the warp-speed passing attack broke a slew of league records en route to the Super Bowl.

But for the defense, the standard was set in the mid to late 1970's. The "Orange Crush," a unit that engulfed opponents and played with fire as bright as their jerseys. As NFL Films' renowned "Voice of God," John Facenda, intoned during the Super Bowl XII highlight film, the defense was "an angry avalanche of swarming defenders."

No Broncos defense has matched the standard established in those days. But the Orange Crush remains the inspiration, and the subject of a video that Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio showed to his defense this week.

"We always talk about it," said defensive end DeMarcus Ware. "It is about bringing that back and being a really potent defense, talking about it just defensively, and just bringing that tenacity to the field week in and week out.

"At the end of the day, this is an offensive-minded regime, but we're trying to be the No. 1 defense and we're bringing that Orange Crush back."

rest - http://www.denverbroncos.com/news-and-blogs/article-1/Defense-looks-to-bring-back-Orange-Crush/e04d3ef9-c4f6-476b-8fd8-d607c1d67bdc

[GEM]

That just makes you feel like Ware is completely bought in. Really like him.

[Denver Native (Carol)]

I thought it was great that Jack DelRio showed them an Orange Crush video.

[CrazyHorse]

Not so much tonight. Maybe they just got tired?

[weazel]

Not so much tonight. Maybe they just got tired?

I think the second half was just a mix of the first full game they played, being on the field a ton in the second half and Indy is a good team with some great players to chase around

[Joel]

They mostly played well, with a ton of three-and-outs in the first half, a CRUCIAL one in the second half that set us up on Indys 48 for what proved the winning TD, a pair of Ints AND a pair of goal line stands, plus the big stop at the end, giving up just a SINGLE conversion before stopping Indy on 4 straight downs. The one flaw (and it's a big—potentially lethal—one) is the same as it's always been:

We SUCK against 2:00 drills: No matter HOW little time our offense leaves in a half, nor how far opponents must go, our D finds a way to surrender a score. The game winning stop at the end, as @Dallas last year, was a rare exception, but both would've been needless if we'd made stops at the end of the FIRST half instead of letting Indy go the length of the field for a TD in <2:00 and Dallas grab 50 yds in 0:30 for an easy FG. Considering Prevent's about the most basic thing defenses do, and our FAILURE to do it in 2012 cost us our best SB shot since '98, one would think we'd have fixed that by now.

Tonight, especially in the second half, a lot of that was our offenses propensity for quick punts. The D got us the ball back with a 7 pt lead and just 3:15 on the clock, and that SHOULD'VE been it for an offense as good as ours supposedly is: Instead we burned just 0:28 off the clock and sent our D right back on the field for yet another "one last stop." We didn't even reach the 2:00 Warning.

It should also be noted (as it was during the game) that Harris and Miller both missed pretty much all of camp finishing off their ACL recovery, so are far from the midseason conditioning playing at altitude requires, and frequently left the game as a result. So did Ware, though I'm not sure why that was other than being visibly gassed (and as much as our D was on the field in the second half, who can blame any of them needing a breather; I'm glad I'm not Potroast....)

Others have also noted that pass rush against Luck is as much about keeping him in the pocket as sacking him; most teams can only hope for one or the other, but we did both, if not at the elite level many expected from this years Broncos. There were some real bright spots against a very good offense, most notably (in my recollection) Irving, Roby and Moore having fine games.

[Joel]

I suggest consulting the drive chart, especially for the second half: The D looks pretty good; the offense, downright awful. Our SOLE second half TD drive began on Indys 48 after our D forced a three-and-out; one of theirs began on OUR 45 after THEIR D forced a three-and-out. The second half was at least as much about what our offense DIDN'T do to rest our D and kill the clock as it was what Indys offense did to erode that lead and claw their way back into contention, especially on our final 1:10 and 0:28 "drives." http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/drivechart?gameId=400554273 But don't take my word:
"We've got to find a way to play all four quarters as an offense," Manning said. "Thank goodness the defense picked us up when the offense wasn't doing their job quite as well."
It's not our DEFENSES fault historys best pass—er, "offense" only managed 50 yds in the whole second half. Actually, the more I look at it, the better our D looks:

Our Ds 3rd quarter arguably won the game; sure, it didn't look pretty, giving up 104 yds on 18 plays: But Indy only came away with 3 measly pts to show for all that, thanks to backup LB Brandon Marshall stopping Luck for -1 on 4th and G at our 1, then Ware sacking Luck on 3rd and G at our 6—and the whole thing ate up a whopping 9:25 to leave Indy at 24-10 as the 4th quarter started.

Yet I said that ARGUABLY won the game because, again, our game winning score came after our D gave up -3 yds in 3 plays from Indys 10 and we got the ball back on their 48.

Even that wouldn't have been enough if Moores 2nd Int hadn't ended the Indy drive after the onside kick gave them the ball at their own 43, OR ir Roby hadn't knocked down Lucks last pass to Wayne. Now, if I told you a likely first ballot HoFer threw a 4th down pass to a GUARANTEED first ballof HoFer covered by a rookie, what would you expect? Pass knocked down, turnover on downs, game over?

The TD before the half was bad: You shut them OUT all night, but can't stop them going the length of the field for just another 1:57 with the crowd roaring?! Shades of DOT vs. Baltimore. The 41 yd TD pass was awful; we had yet blew the coverage but, far worse, the guy tight-roping the sideline got hit not once but TWICE and NEITHER defender managed to nudge him out of bounds before he reached end zone. The rest though? The 45 yd TD drive? That only happened because a 25 yd PI that only happened in the refs mind gave them 1st and G—but the -14 yds we "gained" from our 20 started it.

[Al Wilson 4 Mayor]

Say what you want, but with the way the offense played in the second half I was really impressed with holding the Colts to 24 points. I think we only had about 100 yards of offense in the second half. Outside of our one scoring drive I think we only had one first down. Manning was not the mvp of that game. Our defense was. Luck is an exceptional player and we picked him off twice and sacked him 3 times.

[Joel]

Both think it won the game outright, and the D played well throughout: http://espn.go.com/blog/denver-broncos/post/_/id/8571/broncos-new-look-defense-powers-win

Pagano's right those two goal line stops saved us 11 pts (and, again, burned nearly the whole 3rd quarter while only taking Indy from 24-7 to 24-10,) but without

1) The Ds three-and-out from Indys 10 to set up our ONLY second half score,
2) Moores 2nd Int OR
3) Rookie Roby deflecting a HoFers 4th down pass to ANOTHER HoFer

those goal line stands couldn't have won it. In fact, absent any TWO of those other huge defensive achievements, we'd have LOST even WITH the two goal line stands.

[Joel]

Say what you want, but with the way the offense played in the second half I was really impressed with holding the Colts to 24 points. I think we only had about 100 yards of offense in the second half. Outside of our one scoring drive I think we only had one first down.
Actually, we only had HALF that much offense: Exactly 50 yds in the second half (not counting the kneels for -2 at the end.) We did have >1 first down, but not MUCH more (5 if I counted right, one by penalty.) Fortunately, half were on a 48 yd drive where just one big play gave us 1st and G at the 3, but we can thank our D for holding Indy to three-and-out from their 10 so the drive started on Indys 48.

[Al Wilson 4 Mayor]

I suggest consulting the drive chart, especially for the second half: The D looks pretty good; the offense, downright awful. Our SOLE second half TD drive began on Indys 48 after our D forced a three-and-out; one of theirs began on OUR 45 after THEIR D forced a three-and-out. The second half was at least as much about what our offense DIDN'T do to rest our D and kill the clock as it was what Indys offense did to erode that lead and claw their way back into contention, especially on our final 1:10 and 0:28 "drives." http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/drivechart?gameId=400554273 But don't take my word:
It's not our DEFENSES fault historys best pass—er, "offense" only managed 50 yds in the whole second half. Actually, the more I look at it, the better our D looks:

Our Ds 3rd quarter arguably won the game; sure, it didn't look pretty, giving up 104 yds on 18 plays: But Indy only came away with 3 measly pts to show for all that, thanks to backup LB Brandon Marshall stopping Luck for -1 on 4th and G at our 1, then Ware sacking Luck on 3rd and G at our 6—and the whole thing ate up a whopping 9:25 second to leave Indy at 24-10 as the 4th quarter started.

Yet I said that ARGUABLY won the game because, again, our game winning score came after our D gave up -3 yds in 3 plays from Indys 10 and we got the ball back on their 48.

Even that wouldn't have been enough if Moores 2nd Int hadn't ended the Indy drive after the onside kick gave them the ball at their own 43, OR ir Roby hadn't knocked down Lucks last pass to Wayne. Now, if I told you a likely first ballot HoFer threw a 4th down pass to a GUARANTEED first ballof HoFer covered by a rookie, what would you expect? Pass knocked down, turnover on downs, game over?

The TD before the half was bad: You shut them OUT all night, but can't stop them going the length of the field for just another 1:57 with the crowd roaring?! Shades of DOT vs. Baltimore. The 41 yd TD pass was awful; we had yet blew the coverage but, far worse, the guy tight-roping the sideline got hit not once but TWICE and NEITHER defender managed to nudge him out of bounds before he reached end zone. The rest though? The 45 yd TD drive? That only happened because a 25 yd PI that only happened in the refs mind gave them 1st and G—but the -14 yds we "gained" from our 20 started it.


Well said Joel. Our D won that game.

[Al Wilson 4 Mayor]

That just makes you feel like Ware is completely bought in. Really like him.

His effort was amazing. He went hard until the whistle blew on every down. We stole him from the Cowboys.

[Joel]

Well said Joel. Our D won that game.
That's the ultimate bottom line; the rest is just explication. I like this D a lot, and expect it will only improve once Miller and Harris are back in midseason form. Roby's clearly a stud, so if what BSN says of Websters development is true, we're absurdly deep at CB. Either as #2 CB, the other at dime and Harris in the slot makes Tony Carter (or whoever) the backup 5th CB, and he's plenty good enough for that.

[weazel]

That's the ultimate bottom line; the rest is just explication. I like this D a lot, and expect it will only improve once Miller and Harris are back in midseason form. Roby's clearly a stud, so if what BSN says of Websters development is true, we're absurdly deep at CB. Either as #2 CB, the other at dime and Harris in the slot makes Tony Carter (or whoever) the backup 5th CB, and he's plenty good enough for that.

The only thing I had a problem with the D in that game was parts of the 2nd half when they were making the same mental mistakes this team has made over the years. Not touching guys when they go down, not finishing plays that lead to a guy walking down the field for a TD... These kinds of things have happened for years and you would think they would stop at some point. I mentioned this in the gameday thread but used the term "not trying", that was the wrong term and got flamed repeatedly by motard but he knew what I meant and just wanted to act like a pompous ass.

[Joel]

The only thing I had a problem with the D in that game was parts of the 2nd half when they were making the same mental mistakes this team has made over the years. Not touching guys when they go down, not finishing plays that lead to a guy walking down the field for a TD... These kinds of things have happened for years and you would think they would stop at some point. I mentioned this in the gameday thread but used the term "not trying", that was the wrong term and got flamed repeatedly by motard but he knew what I meant and just wanted to act like a pompous ass.
I fear we'll just have to get used to this and hope it doesn't bite us in the butt like it already has in the playoff game vs. Baltimore or last years game @NE. It happens on both sides of the ball; that's how we nearly lost a home game against a moribund 'Skins team we handed 3 TDs. Much is made of Foxs SB trip with Carolina, but he needed FOUR OT wins to do it: His '03 Panthers got to the playoffs the same way as his '11 Broncos, and he only had 2 other playoff seasons or wins before Elway handed him Manning. I'd prefer Del Rio; sure, he was in charge for the NE blunder, but it was Foxs team.

I keep coming back to "how does a former DB fail to teach his team Prevent even after that failure handed an inferior Ravens team a SB?" That's like a former RB whose team can't complete a handoff. Even on 1st and 10 at midfield in the 1st qtr of a scoreless game, the FSs primary job is "protect the end zone," but on 3rd and 3 at their 30 with a TD lead and 0:41 to play, everyone in the STADIUM knew Moores job was to guard the end zone—except him; apparently, his coach hadn't prepared him for that situation. Just like when Indy got the ball at their 20 with 1:57 left before halftime.

I can't help wondering how Dom Capers would've done with the '03 Panthers; he'd taken them to the AFCCG just 7 years earlier when they were just 2 years old, after all, and when Fox left they bounced back pretty quickly under Rivera. Alll last year, Fox excused half-game after half-game by saying they were due to "correctable" mistakes he NEVER ACTUALLY CORRECTED. There's no reason to think THAT mistake's been corrected, nor ever will be: We'll just have to find a way to win a championship anyway.

[GEM]

Ware mic'd up for the game...

http://www.denverbroncos.com/multimedia/videos/Micd-Up-DeMarcus-Ware/3843dd72-c4e1-4192-acff-e160d9b4a735