MP's Broncos Update: I'm Worried and You Should Be Too

MP's Broncos Update

Former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle convinced "all the league's owners to adopt revenue sharing, arguably the most successful form of socialism in U.S. history. The reason the NFL is so dominant is because the NFL is basically Marxist. This was Rozelle's greatest coup, and everybody knows it. But you'd never guess that from watching the NFL Network. Marxism is not a talking point." -Chuck Klosterman

Places To Go - Things to Do

DNUGS Downlow

An edgy read. No longer on strike because of K-Mart, but still bitter nonetheless.

Literati extravaganza

Books I read that may or may not influence the style of writing to your immediate right.

Broncos Optimists Club

Wonderful die-hard fans who deserve our support

McSweeney's

When you're feeling lethargic, there's nothing like a McSweeney's to perk you up.

RFO - Random Football Observation: The Jay Cutler / Kyle Orton 2009 stat sheet: CUTLER 5-8: 284/457, 3023 passing yards, 19 TD, 22 INT, 29 sacks, 75 rating ORTON: 8-5: 258/410, 2904 passing yards, 16 TD, 8 INT, 21 sacks, 89 rating

Monday, August 20, 2007

I'm Worried and You Should Be Too

Jim Bates' defensive strategy goes something like this: Get two huge guys in the middle to clog things up; speedy defensive ends rush the quarterback and tackle the halfbacks on running plays; linebackers get the majority of tackles by running down receivers and halfbacks; corners and safeties shut down the passing game and back up the running game.

It's a relatively simple scheme, and you can tell if it's working by a quick peek at the box score. Here's a quick peek at the defensive tackles portion of the box score from the game against Dallas:

Tackles:
Champ Bailey, 6
Nick Ferguson, 5
Nate Webster, 4
Kenny Peterson, 4
Domonique Foxworth, 4
John Lynch, 4
Dre Bly, 4

I see that cornerbacks and safeties are 5 of the top 7 leading tacklers. I think to myself, "That's not a good thing." Then I think to myself, "In fact, that's a very bad thing. It means the whole defensive unit is doing something terribly wrong." And then I slouch down, let out a long sigh, followed by some creative profanities in Spanish, and let a wave of quiet football depression sweep over me.

People, things just aren't right in D-Town. The D-line is a shambles precisely when it's supposed to be the cornerstone. Things don't look good. Hide your babies. Lock your doors. Run for cover because it just might be a horrendously long and obnoxious season when teams run willy-nilly all over the Broncos.

But wait! There's hope. The Broncos have traded Gerard Warren to....
the Raiders (hey wait a second, that doesn't sound good) for....
a fifth-round draft pick - wait, let me be precise: a conditional fith-round draft pick.

Wow! I'm glad we got rid of Trevor Pryce a few years back (he had 13 sacks last year) for what amounts to a conditional fifth-round draft pick. Like the Guinness guys say: Brilliant!!!

2 Comments:

MP said...: A little clarification: Yes I know that Trevor Pryce did not play for the Broncos last season. He played for the Baltimore Ravens and got 13 sacks in an incredibly productive year. The Broncos let him go two seasons ago in order to give Gerard Warren a big $10 million deal. Essentially the Broncos gave Warren money that could have been used to keep Trevor Pryce around and Pryce would be an ideal fit in Jim Bates new system. But the Broncos were not thinking that far ahead and now we have a fifth-round draft choice instead of both Gerard Warren and Trevor Pryce, which just seems wasteful if you ask me.; 4:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Ekuban being out for the year might not make that big a difference. The defense sucked before he got hurt and they're gonna continue to suck. Anything worse than 10th in total team defense probably won't get the team very far into the playoffs, and it doesn't look like the Broncos are headed toward anything higher than 15th. Unless we're gonna have gradations of suckiness it's sort of a moot point.; 9:58 PM