Chiefs @ Broncos

[ATL96Steeler]

A 3rd party thought....watched most of the game, especially the 2nd half...the Chiefs RZ play calling was very suspect...particularly on the 10 min drive...getting zip there I thought would squash KC, but the KC OL controlled the game in the 2nd half and really should've won...good win by DEN, but they didn't look championship caliber yesterday.

That said, 2-0 is 2-0.

 

[WalkerBoh]

The penalties and KC 3rd down conversions yesterday were heinous. I'm sure it'll be a point of practice this week as I saw Fox going bizerk on the sidelines after a couple of the offside calls. Rightfully so.....I mean we had what? 6-7 of them?

I thought those were sketchy myself. Didn't know the Center could move like that before snapping the ball. I think those should have been called on the Chiefs for false start.

 

[wingsauce7]

Vonn needs to invent a new move for himself. This running around the outside on every snap only to be pushed away by the RG is redonk.

 

[HOF-ELWAY-7]

2-0 is 2-0 and you can't have a better record at this point in the season. That said, there is cause for concern. Of course 3 down conversions are terrible. Some of my fellow Maniacs has pointed the finger at the offense and they certainly share in some blame. However, it's getting concerning that the defense can't get off the field. Just as the defense gets tired if the offense can't put together drives, the offense loses it's mojo if they are on the sidelines.

I also though we really missed Trevathan yesterday. He's dynamic off the edge and a very effective coverage LB.

I think Del Rio needs to quit getting cute. Several times yesterday the DB's weren't ready at the snap. I never understood a three man rush on third or fourth and long, the worst thing you can give a NFL QB time to throw eventually they will find someone come open.

The Chef's had what, 7 starters either out or miss most of the game including they're top 3 of 4 top defensive players and their #1 offensive player. I really hope we aren't developing the "playing down to your competition" syndrome.

The good news is, these are all correctable issues and they have to quit being so dang sloppy. With our upcoming schedule we could be in for a long 6 weeks if we don't clean things up.

 

[HOF-ELWAY-7]

I also think the refs blew the "tuck" call. Not so much on possession but the "pass" hit a KC lineman's back of the leg. If they weren't going to call a fumble and that was a pass, it was an illegal forward pass and should have been called accordingly.

 

[Malibu]

Great post iknowfootball, and I agree with most of it. Although the run game hasn't looked great, they have been able to pick up first downs on third and fourth and short, and that's really important. I do hold out hope that the defense can get better as time goes on and they play more together, as well as guys like Harris and Miller get fully recovered from their injuries and the defense gets their conditioning better. I am sick of the 3 man rush, though, and I hope we never see that again.

The bottom line is although it hasn't been pretty the Broncos are 2-0 and the defense has made a stop to preserve the win in both games. I do believe the Broncos have got to get better if they want to win the Super Bowl, but the good news is they've got a lot of season left to do that. I have a feeling that if they looked great the first two weeks some people would be complaining that they're peaking too soon.

Finally some other Broncos fan agrees with me and JDR with his stupid 3 man rush. Thank you.

 

[Malibu]

Ive noticed to the defense wasnt set and ready to go on many plays. Communication issues most likely with hopefully Trevathon returning down the road that will help. The 3 man rush has to go. How many 3rd and longs do the Broncos have to give up until JDR quits with that bs? A 10 minute drive for the Chiefs to start the 2nd half was down right pathetic. M. Ball has to get it going or just give the ball to C.J. Anderson more often. Ball did miss a few holes yesterday and his pass blocking is suspect as well. The special teams played very well and there hasnt been any turnovers which is a big improvement from last year. Time to get ready for Seattle. Just saying.

 

[WalkerBoh]

Finally some other Broncos fan agrees with me and JDR with his stupid 3 man rush. Thank you.

I've only seen it work once..... in the playoffs when Knighton got a sack. Otherwise, I'd say we need to work on consistent 4-man pressure before we get cute with a 3-man front.

 

[cdumler7]

I tend to look at things glass half full most of the time. The team definitely has some major issues to fix. I think we all see that. The good though as we work on the correctable issues is we just took down 2 playoff teams to start the season. We have looked like crap but continue to find ways to win. Last year we came out firing on all cylinders it seemed like especially on offense but struggled for the middle part of the year. My guess is these struggles on both sides of the ball will keep them working to improve. The defense even with struggling looks heads above last years group and have had big time stands at the end of the game to seal victory.

Also those off side penalties were turned into the NFL for review as I guess the center kept snapping his head up which was supposed to be something the NFL was going to watch for this year. Fox was not happy the refs let this go.

 

[WalkerBoh]

Heck, looked to me like he moved his whole body before the snap. And yet it was a penalty on us.

 

[Malibu]

I tend to look at things glass half full most of the time. The team definitely has some major issues to fix. I think we all see that. The good though as we work on the correctable issues is we just took down 2 playoff teams to start the season. We have looked like crap but continue to find ways to win. Last year we came out firing on all cylinders it seemed like especially on offense but struggled for the middle part of the year. My guess is these struggles on both sides of the ball will keep them working to improve. The defense even with struggling looks heads above last years group and have had big time stands at the end of the game to seal victory.

Also those off side penalties were turned into the NFL for review as I guess the center kept snapping his head up which was supposed to be something the NFL was going to watch for this year. Fox was not happy the refs let this go.

I agree its better to struggle now then at the end of the season. All I know is if this defense doesnt get it together at all this year it will be J.D.R. that will be gone after all the money that was spent on the defensive side of the ball. No more excuses. I do see the defense improving by the middle of the year. To much talent there for 10 minute drives, lack of pass rush, and terrible coverage on TE's. A better running game would help as well. Just saying.

 

[cdumler7]

The TE coverage should improve the minute Trevathan steps back on the field. We also faced teams that operated quite a bit out of 2-TE sets. Not many teams have two TE's that can both block and pass like that of Indy and the Chiefs

 

[cdumler7]

For those commenting on Ball not getting it done he did average 5 yards a carry yesterday with our OL getting pushed back more than I like. I have seen him break tackles on quite a few plays to just get back to the LOS. So I guess I just don't know what I am missing about his play so far. Yes he has missed a couple of holes so that can improve but overall I have been satisfied with his play on the field.

 

[Broncosr0k]

For those commenting on Ball not getting it done he did average 5 yards a carry yesterday with our OL getting pushed back more than I like. I have seen him break tackles on quite a few plays to just get back to the LOS. So I guess I just don't know what I am missing about his play so far. Yes he has missed a couple of holes so that can improve but overall I have been satisfied with his play on the field.

I did not get to see the game on Sunday but from box score and colts game I don't think Ball is the issue with the run game. The offensive line is not getting much of a push or opening many holes for the RBs. I don't think I have seen a line with such a night/day talent between run blocking and pass blocking.

 

[Malibu]

I did not get to see the game on Sunday but from box score and colts game I don't think Ball is the issue with the run game. The offensive line is not getting much of a push or opening many holes for the RBs. I don't think I have seen a line with such a night/day talent between run blocking and pass blocking.

Ball 3.6 yards per carry and C.J. Anderson 6.4 yards per carry with that same line. The jury is still out with ball and he did miss some training camp so Im not giving up on him yet but Anderson has been the better back so for even in limited carries. Balls pass blocking must improve as well. Just saying.

 

[WalkerBoh]

Ball 3.6 yards per carry and C.J. Anderson 6.4 yards per carry with that same line. The jury is still out with ball and he did miss some training camp so Im not giving up on him yet but Anderson has been the better back so for even in limited carries. Balls pass blocking must improve as well. Just saying.

Ball had 12 carries for 60 yards. A definite improvement over the Colts game. Also, kinda hard to compare since Ball has 35 carries and Anderson only has 9. No guarantee CJ keeps that same average with 4 times the carries.

 

[cdumler7]

Ball 3.6 yards per carry and C.J. Anderson 6.4 yards per carry with that same line. The jury is still out with ball and he did miss some training camp so Im not giving up on him yet but Anderson has been the better back so for even in limited carries. Balls pass blocking must improve as well. Just saying.

Ball did not have 3.6 yards per carry in the Chiefs game. He averaged 5 yards per carry. Here is the deal in the run game after watching the game a few times. The Broncos are much better at picking up the short yardage runs as they go to strictly a power run game where our big guys up the middle just push the pile straight back. The problem comes when we start mixing in our zone blocking schemes and having the guards pulling. This improved from game one to game two and my guess is it will continue to improve as the season progresses. We essentially have 3 new OL players playing this season with Clady back from injury, Franklin in a completely new position, and the same for Clark on the right side. It takes time to gel with these guys learning to function as a unit. The run blocking ability can be seen in those short runs where these guys can dominate the guy in front of them. Again it is just a matter of a guy like Franklin learning the little details in pulling and Clark especially learning a little better technique for the RT position. I for one am not worried about the running game. Both Anderson and Ball have shown the ability to break tackles and pick up the extra yards.

One last detail about the run game. So far our team has been running out of 2-TE sets on a majority of plays with Welker being suspended (thankfully that ended!). What this means is teams have been able to play more base defense against us with extra lineman and linebackers. My guess is with Welker back teams will have to switch to the Nickel and Dime more than they want giving the team easier boxes to work with. Makes it a bit easier when there is one less guy in the box to have to worry about.

 

[cdumler7]

Was just reading up a bit on the Phil Simms bias against the Broncos and I think 2 things could be at play for some of that...Now obviously this story is just a small one as my guess is we will have to put up with Phil Simms for years. He is not going anywhere and thankfully he actually has been a bit of a good luck charm in the Broncos have gone 10-0 in his last 10 games calling the Broncos. That should be put to the test this week as he is once again calling the Broncos game against Seattle...


Anyway back to my actual point. The first reason he might have some bias against the Broncos is his son Chris Simms. Phil Simms has said he doesn't think the Broncos handled his son very well and especially with his major injury I think to his spleen and having the risk of dying I guess I can understand the idea that a parent would not like a business place that I felt mishandled my child.


The second, which I find funny, is I guess Phil Simms during the whole will the Colts keep Manning or draft Luck thing Simms dragged Manning's name through the dirt saying things along the lines of "Manning won't let the Colts draft Luck." Essentially saying Manning was going to handcuff the organization and make it all about him. Simms then texted Peyton to apologize after the show. Which essentially is like saying "I hate your stinking guts but I apologize for that." How in the world is apologizing after really helping that much? Anyway Manning texted back saying "Phil, I hate to break it to you, but I don't watch your show, along with a lot of other people that I don't think watch that show."


You do not want to get on Manning's bad side it looks like.

 

[WalkerBoh]

Ball did not have 3.6 yards per carry in the Chiefs game. He averaged 5 yards per carry. Here is the deal in the run game after watching the game a few times. The Broncos are much better at picking up the short yardage runs as they go to strictly a power run game where our big guys up the middle just push the pile straight back. The problem comes when we start mixing in our zone blocking schemes and having the guards pulling. This improved from game one to game two and my guess is it will continue to improve as the season progresses. We essentially have 3 new OL players playing this season with Clady back from injury, Franklin in a completely new position, and the same for Clark on the right side. It takes time to gel with these guys learning to function as a unit. The run blocking ability can be seen in those short runs where these guys can dominate the guy in front of them. Again it is just a matter of a guy like Franklin learning the little details in pulling and Clark especially learning a little better technique for the RT position. I for one am not worried about the running game. Both Anderson and Ball have shown the ability to break tackles and pick up the extra yards.

One last detail about the run game. So far our team has been running out of 2-TE sets on a majority of plays with Welker being suspended (thankfully that ended!). What this means is teams have been able to play more base defense against us with extra lineman and linebackers. My guess is with Welker back teams will have to switch to the Nickel and Dime more than they want giving the team easier boxes to work with. Makes it a bit easier when there is one less guy in the box to have to worry about.

I think Malibu was citing Ball's cumulative average (which IS currently 3.6 YPC), and not trying to cite the KC game specifically. He just left off the fact Ball's average improved during the KC game.

 

[cdumler7]

I think Malibu was citing Ball's cumulative average (which IS currently 3.6 YPC), and not trying to cite the KC game specifically. He just left off the fact Ball's average improved during the KC game.

This is the problem with stats being only 2-games long. We can look at some of these and say "wow these Broncos are just completely average." Which so far yes they have played pretty average but that doesn't make them an average team. Both the offense and defense have been missing a couple of huge pieces in Trevathan (I do think him returning will be huge for our 3rd down defense as he is our best coverage linebacker plus he is the one used to getting guys in the right position on every play...there was some major confusion on our defense on some of those plays) and then in Welker (he is our 3rd down guy which is where the offense has struggled at times in the 2nd half with drops and mental mistakes).

Now as for the run game like I said I think it will be a growing process throughout the season. It takes a lot of things going right for the run game to work and right now with the new pieces in place they just are not on the same page. Honestly I just don't see how it can get any worse at this point especially from the blocking concept. The Broncos are in the bottom of the league right now in running plays that go for 1 yard or less. If a RB is getting contact that early in the play then that is an OL failure for the most part. Yes Ball can do a better job of noticing cut back lanes that are open. I'm not giving Ball a complete pass on this but I do put about 90% of the blame on the OL just not executing the way they are supposed to. This last game there was some major improvement which as we saw lead to our run game averaging over 5 yards per carry. With Welker back I do think that 5 yards per carry has a chance of sticking around for the Broncos. Teams will have less chances to load up the box giving Ball and the OL and easier time.