A Few Questions With a Broncos Blogger from MileHighReport

royal kill my fanest team too but gaff and stolk are more scary so far

Dumervil – When Elvis was drafted by the Broncos I was a bit surprised because I thought he was a better fit as an OLB because his strength was his speed and long arm-reach. While only 5-10, Dumervil’s reach is that of a man 6-4 or so. When he played DE, it was a lot easier for offensive linemen to engage him, using their size to overpower him at the point of attack. Now, since he is standing up, Dumervil gets a good push, allowing him to gain leverage on his opposition.

What has impressed me most about Dumervil is how quickly he has picked up the other facets of playing OLB – pass coverage and run defense. He has been able to quickly and effectively switch from a pass rusher to tackler in the middle of a play. He is also in great condition which allows him to play at a high level for 60 minutes.

MORENO - You can see with Knowshon it is only a matter of time. The injury in the pre-season, coupled with his 7 days hold out, slowed his progress but he is making up for lost time fast. Knowshon still relies on his athleticism a bit too often, but he is a load to bring down and his ‘pass pro’ is really improving each week. Knowshon, along with Correll Buckhalter, combined for 35 carries and 198 yards last week.

ROYAL – He is perfect, but to give credit to opposing defenses they are doing a good job of doubling him, and chucking him off the line, making it tough for him to get into his routes. The Broncos have gone to the matchups that are left over – usually getting the ball to Brandon Stokley and Jabar Gaffney. Now, with Brandon Marshall coming on, I expect things to open up for Royal a bit.

better than i thouht and he has

Brian Dawkins has been worth every penny – and more – to the Broncos this season. I was watching his press conference today, and even 1300 miles away I was intimidated by him. He is the ultimate professional and along with Champ Bailey, Andre Goodman and Renaldo Hill, has provided stability to the back-end of the Broncos defense.

serondry is underrated and r fields is underrated

There has been improvement on all three levels of the defense. Up front, Ronald Fields, along with Kenny Peterson and Ryan McBean, have been what they need to be as 3 down-linemen. They are taking up space, holding the line of scrimmage, and not allowing the OL to get to the Broncos linebackers.

At linebacker, all the publicity goes to Elvis Dumervil because of his hot start, but Andra Davis has been a huge surprise in the middle next to D.J. Williams. He seems to be rejuvenated by getting out of Cleveland and is playing the run better than I have ever seen him. D.J. Williams is a tackling machine, and Mario Haggan was voted a caption by his teammates – which shows the type of respect he has earned.

In my mind, however, the defensive backs have been the biggest upgrades, especially at safety. Brian dawkins looks to be playing as well as ever, and Renaldo Hill and Andre Goodman were instant upgrades coming in from Miami. Then, of course, there’s Champ Bailey.

There are a ton of ‘star’ players, but each of these guys is a professional that knows how to do their job. So far, it’s working.

He gets the start, and it seems there is a rotation of alternating series for C-Buck and KnowMo. Peyton Hillis had been lining up as the goal-line back, but he is nursing an ‘upper-extremity’ injury and didn’t practice today. LaMont Jordan has been the 4th quarter guy, coming in to grind out first downs and kill clock.

Ronald Fields – NT.

a 5-2 part of the time

As j-man eluded to, the Broncos have shown a number of looks this season. Several times, the defense looks to be in a 5-2, which might explain their success against the run. With the strength of the defense in the backfield, Mike Nolan is pressuring the QB and stopping the run by keeping 8 or 9 in the box at times. It isn’t a gimmick defense by any stretch, but it is filled we pre-snap movement, show-blitz, etc, forcing opposing quarterbacks to have to decide who is coming and where the pressure is coming from.

So far so good. The team is 4th in the NFL right now, and ran for 215 yards last week. Perhaps most importantly, the team is averaging 4.7 yards per attempt. Not as gaudy as the Cowboys, but solid nonetheless.

As for whether or not the Broncos are a contender that will remain to be seen. We need look no further than last season to see what being 3-0 means as both the Cowboys and Broncos started 3-0 only to see the season go up in smoke. I think allowing 16 points in 3 games is real regardless of the opposition. Last year the Broncos gave up 86 points in going 3-0. Big Difference. No one talks about the Ravens being soft, or playing a weak schedule, yet they have faced KC, SD and CLE.

In the end, winning is what will determine if the Broncos are for real or not. Each week is a statement game. I think both teams will answer a lot of question about who they are this week, at least until Week 5. ;-)

I wouldn’t expect any less over here this week. Trust me, educated Broncos fans know how much of a challenge this will be. The Cowboys are easily the most talented team the Broncos have faced this year. That said, the recipe for success is still the same. Stop the run, avoid mistakes, and head to the 4th quarter in a position to win the game. After that, we’ll see what happens.

I will say I feel better about this game being played in Denver.

All along I would have said right up the middle, but the Broncos have been solid inside. I still think that is your best bet, and biggest strength. With the size advantage up front, it would be smart of the ’Boys to attack the Broncos straight on instead of trying to string them out. The strength of the defense is the speed, and the best way to neutralize speed is to run right at it.

Don’t forget to post pics!

We both want our teams to win. So how do the broncos win, and how do the cowboys win in your opinion? I haven’t really watched the Broncos play, so I won’t analyze you guys. But my keys for the Cowboys would be:

1) Keep running. If we can put up 250 against the Giants front 7, we could still put up 175-215. With Felix out, I understand our Home run threat is out. But I think Barber(who will play, I have no doubt) can rip some big ones. He seems to handle smaller defenses effectively(think Green Bay last year). And Choice will add his 10-15 carries for good gains.

2) Run to pass. When Denver attempts to stack the box, Romo has the potential to rip the back field apart. Look for a lot of play action and post routes.

3) Shut down defense. If we play like we did against the panthers, then the game is ours. Newman and a safety shut down Marshall, Jenkins plays Royal closely, and stuff the run, as we have the past two weeks.

If anyone wants to add, be my guest.

But the play book has been mostly vanilla. The new offense, personnel, and coaching requires reps with a reduced complexity. Does that mean that after 7 games the Broncos still aren’t ready for his advanced plays? Probably not, but McDaniels probably felt that he could beat the first 3 teams without giving away the farm. And I don’t think Dallas is on the short list of teams he is worried about studying Bronco film. This game will be as complex as he decides it needs to be… no more, no less. I don’t think that Dallas requires an unusual play-list to be beaten. What is needed is the players we have need to do what they have been assigned, and well. From what I have seen of Dallas, the same is true of them. I don’t think there is any significant disparity in talent or physicality. Where I do see a potential disparity is at QB and Head Coach. I have watched Wade for a long time, and while we have had less of McDaniels to observe, he seems to make up for quantity with quality. Orton seems to me to be doing less to hurt himself than Romo does. Not that Romo is horrible, but I think it could play into this game if it remains close.

for the vanilla offense. First, it really is a complex offense. It took Brady some years to really master it, and although Cassel was the backup for 4 years, it still took him half a season to really get comfortable running it under game conditions. I think that McD is not holding the playbook closed to ‘save’ it for worthy opponents, but is slowly adding more and more complex pieces to the puzzle as the offense shows its ability to master them. I would guess that the whole playbook won’t even get opened this year.

A second reason is McD’s stated preference for very specific game planning. He looks at each team and plays to their weaknesses. That means that one week we will focus on the run up the middle on smaller linemen, and the next week crossing patterns to take advantage of slow LBs, and so on. Sure, all teams do this to some extent, but McD is so meticulous about it that its called the Amoeba offense. He did it at NE for several years, but I’m guessing there were things he wanted to do that Belichik wouldn’t let him do. He might do it now.

Sorry about the lack of venom. I bite harder at other sites, but on these SB Nation sites, we all love football. So, I talk football here. I go to some of the other forums for my smack.

We have been suspect in pass coverage for a long time

What do you mean by “Air it out”? If Kyle Orton has to throw the ball 50 times, or something crazy like that, the Broncos will likely lose the game. Do I think Orton cannot throw the ball downfield? Of course not. He can and I would welcome that challenge.

That is a great question. From a kicking standpoint, Matt Prater was just named the Special Team Player of the Month, which bodes well. Not only has Prater been solid with long-range FGs, he is tied for the league-lead in touchbacks. The best coverage unit is one that watches the return-team kneel down in the endzone.

As for the return game, the Broncos are still searching for someone to grab that role by the horns. Peyton Hillis, Eddie Royal and LaMonth Jordan have returned kicks this year, and Royal has been returning punts.

A question for you – Was Felix Jones returning kick-offs? If so, who will be back there with him out of the game?

There has been alot of 8 and 9 man fronts – though not necessarily designed to stop the run. It has been to show the quarterback a lot of different looks. There is a lot of pre-snap movement and different guys stay and drop each play.

To help stop the run, the Broncos have been in a ton of 5-2 alignments, more than a traditional 3-4.

…I, like most of my fellow Broncos fans, until recently, didn’t even care if Marshall EVER took another snap as a Bronco. His antics had us completely fed up. But, alas…McDaniels seems to have shocked the kid into submission. Although I’m not super impressed with his performance so far, he is coming along. I think Brandon understands his position (in his life and our offense), and will continue to improve.
As a matter of fact, I’m predicting a breakout game for Marshall this week…sorry your pass D is kinda porous.

Prediction:
BRONCOS: 24
COWBOYS: 14 (90+% OF OUR ALLOWED TOTAL ALL YEAR) props for Romo…he’s a stud

I think there were a lot of fans who were still in love with Shanahan so to them, McDaniels could do nothing right. And I think there were also a lot of average fans who didn’t understand the inner workings of football well enough to comprehend what he was doing. I’ve got to admit that I was in that group. And all the intensely negative stories from so many main stream media sources didn’t help.

Fortunately for me, some of the excellent minds here at Mile High Report are much deeper thinkers and were able to enlighten me. Unfortunately for most of the rest of the Broncos fans, they weren’t members of MHR so yes, many of those wanted to run him out of town immediately if not sooner. They were, as I’m sure most of the rest of the NFL, surprised to see the Broncos get out of the starting gate so well. And now, we hear less and less about firing him. I think McDaniels has now earned at least a grace period from even the most ignorant Broncos followers.

Funny what a little winning will do.

People have been riding this team all offseason, talking about how terrible Denver would be. For months, broncos fans have felt, not ashamed, but a little timid about coming out and stating how the MSM was wrong. If broncos fans, especially those at MHR, talked about the broncos surprising people, they were criticized and called homers and called an idiot.

Now that the team is 3-0, the broncos fans are getting a little bit more brave. Naysayers are giving reasons why the broncos aren’t as good as the broncos fans think. So, a lot of the bronco fan’s “enthusiasm” stems from frustration about being repressed for 8 months and feeling disrespected by the MSM and fans of other teams.

Very true, which is why I conveniently overlooked it.

That’s a travesty. The Broncos owe a lot to that guy. He was one of the toughest and bravest football players, not just QB’s, ever to play in Denver. In my book, he’s still the second best QB ever to play here. Without him the Broncos don’t go to their first Super Bowl. Sure, the Orange Crush was a top two or three defense, but they still needed some offense and Morton’s rocket arm and tough, old pro leadership were exactly what the Broncos needed. It was just too bad they had to meet up with your Doomsday Defense.

but I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that Josh McDaniels does and he and his coaches have already taken the Cowboys actual proclivities into consideration.

Like I said in the post, I am not in to trash talk and all that. We all know I want the Broncos to win, and you guys want the Cowboys to win, but that should mean we can’t talk football like intelligent fans. To that, I say, THANK YOU!!