Perrish Cox can thank the man sitting next to him in the meeting room for his early season production.
Champ Bailey has served as the rookie cornerback’s sounding board as he acclimates himself to the NFL, but the nine-time Pro Bowler’s field presence could be the biggest reason why he and Cox are tied for the team lead with 7 passes defensed.
When a quarterback scans the field and sees a receiver covered by a veteran with 47 career interceptions, he’s more likely to avoid Cox’s neighbor in the film room and test the rookie’s mettle.
“Coach tells me every day, ‘Look beside you. That’s the reason you’re going to get every pass every game,’” Cox said.
In Week 2 against Seattle, Matt Hasselbeck trusted his receiver to outplay Cox in coverage, but the quarterback watched his pass fly into the rookie’s hands for his first career interception. A week later against the Colts, Cox entered the game for Andre’ Goodman, and Peyton Manning immediately completed a pass in front of him.
The Oklahoma State product welcomes the extra attention he gets because of his youth, but he hopes his play will eventually teach opposing quarterbacks that throwing to his side of the field isn’t their best option.
“It’s big-time motivation,” he said. “It also gives me more chances to make plays and to change the mindframe of those quarterbacks. Soon that will change, but right now I’ve just got to keep playing ball.”
Every pass thrown in his direction gives Cox an opportunity to make a play and analyze his successes or shortcomings on the sideline and in the film room. He said the more action he sees, the faster he can progress.
“You learn quicker,” Cox said. “Getting game experience is really all you can ask for in order to get better.”
The cornerback gives up years of knowledge to the veteran pass catchers he lines up against, so he picks up tidbits from teammates Brandon Lloyd and Jabar Gaffney on how they would play him. Cox doesn’t surrender his confidence to older opponents.
“I just have to play ball like I know I can play,” Cox said. “That’s how I go into games.”
HOMETOWN HEROES
At some point, both Cox and LaDainian Tomlinson have donned football jerseys for University High School in Waco, Texas.
“I knew him from there — never played against him,” Cox said. “I always watched him play and I just talked to my head coach from back in high school — we went to the same high school. I talked to my head coach yesterday and he just thinks it’ll be a great game. This is my first time playing him, so I’ve just got to say poised, just like I do on the outside.”
Cox said he’s talked with Tomlinson when the running back would return to Waco to run football camps. The rookie looks up to Tomlinson, but he won’t take it easy on the running back once the whistle blows.
“This is all competition,” Cox said. “Whatever happens on the field stays on the field, but off the field he’s one of the greatest backs that I’ve ever known.”
Robert Ayers (foot), Andre Brown (illness), Brian Dawkins (knee), Andre’ Goodman (quadricep), Darcel McBath (ankle), Knowshon Moreno (hamstring), Demaryius Thomas (concussion) and Wesley Woodyard (hamstring) did not practice on Wednesday. Mario Haggan (neck) and Spencer Larsen (ankle) were limited in practice.
For the Jets, LB Calvin Pace (foot) and CB Darelle Revis (hamstring) did not practice, while S Jim Leonhard (biceps), C Nick Mangold (shoulder), G Brandon Moore (hamstring) and LB Jamaal Westerman (ankle) fully particpated in practice.
-Gabe Hiatt, DenverBroncos.com
Below are photos from today’s practice:
Tags: 2010, Champ Bailey, Denver Broncos, LaDainian Tomlinson, Perrish Cox
^fail.
lmao at fail
Well, many asked for the change and change coems with growing pains. Thats what we get I suppose. U ask for change u are forced to experiment and experimentations dont always pan out. But I will say it again, I better not have lost Bmarsh for no reason….McD better succeed and succeed in a big way or I might stop disliking him and start loathing him lol. And to be fair to shanahan, he got us to the AFC champion shipps in 05. It was a all vet squad for the most part…but everyone wanted to get younger…so when he got fired he was actually in his rebuilding phase, because the next year cutler, Marshall, Dumervil, sheffler and I believe prater arrived. I think that was the year John Lynch became less used, plummer benched, and elam looking for a new job, rod smith going into retirement etc … we were on the build again. Job of a head coach is tough. Cant please everyone. but I dont think everyone. well winning pleases everyone lol. But all we asking for is to try everything and dont be to stubborn to try something new. Shannahans stubbornness when it came to DefCor was his undoing….McDs stubbornness will be his as well….
Good Morning Broncos Fans!
I am so frustrated with McD to the point where I want him out of Denver. He’s made a number of bone-head moves involving talented players we once had……no need to rehash it all but we’ve kicked out a number of talented players since he came into control.
And his prize pick Moreno, IMO has been nothing short of a bust in his career so far. Last season he always came up short in those 2nd/3rd and short yardage critical situations that were difference makers in the games. And now, this year, he can’t stay healthy. I haven’t been a fan of his since watching his first game and he really hasn’t done anything to change my opinion since.
And then there is his horrible play calling. For someone who was supposed to be somewhat of an offensive guru, he is boring, predictable, and calls the worst types of plays in critical situations……HELLO REDZONE! I was expecting someone a little more creative and unpredictable to keep opposing D’s off balance.
Don’t get me wrong, he is the coach and I will support him and our team, but I really don’t think he is the answer. Yes, I realize Shanny’s time might have been up, but it does make you wonder what type of team he would’ve built with a couple more years in Denver.
We have a major uphill battle ahead of us with all of these injuries and a tough NYJ team coming into our house riding a four game win streak, but I’m calling an upset.
Mark it Bay….28-24 Broncos!
@killerkod, have to agree with your take on Moreno, or who I choose to call No-Show Moreno. He dances too much.
I miss the good ol days when the backs would make one cut and hit the hole full speed. Whomever the RB coach is, he isn’t doing his job. The O’line is partially to blame as well. I wish McDaniels would pull some old footage of the Shannahan era and watch how successful the zone blocking scheme was and bring it back. The only way the running game has a chance of “getting better”.
I believe there are only a few players that side with McD and the rest feel like us fans do. No play-offs and McD is done in Denver!!!! No expectations, just hope, thats all we have this season. Lots of football left and anything can happen. Go Broncos!!!!
BFE, I thought you would know better of all bloggers, I didn’t take credit for your link, I gave you credit, this is what I posted on the previous blog, to which TRB didn’t respond, so I re-posted the link on this blog:
baylinorcrush says:
October 13, 2010 at 4:41 pm
TRB, the Jets run the same zone blocking scheme we used to run, that’s why LT was so excited to go over there, BFE posted a link to that effect on the previous page, check it out.
Of all bloggers I probably give credit where it’s due more than anyone, that was uncalled for, read the previous stuff before you post stuff like that would be nice, but that’s ok I’ll get over it.
And a couple posts down, saw you realized your mistake, so disregard above post, it’s all cool, thanks for apologizing.
Hello to all! Hey broncos fans i’ve been reading a lot of you comments and it brought me to this cvonclusion. Can anyone tell me wat Shannys record was in his first 3 seasons or maybe up to his first 27 games. I want you to compare them to McD’s and tell me which one looks better. Time my fellow fans, time.. By the way, you knock McD because he traded a so called probowl qb, a probowl wr,alphonzo smith for a 3rd string TE, sent nolan packing,got rid of the zone blocking linemen with power blocking linemen, and a tightend that was ready for the season to be over.
Do you guys really not see that loydd is ahead of marshall statistically, and there are other broncos recievers wit similiar stats. Cutler is a gun slinger, he didnt want to be in a systematic qb role. Orton is more accurate, who knew Orton could do wat he’s doin now 3 years ago. Our passing game is our strong point, cutler n marshall are not on this team and they are being out shadowed by their replacements. every coach has bad year, we have so many injuries that McD is really doing the best he can. I heard that we should have drafted an outside linebacker and i agree, but we didnt. Just like we didnt know we’d lose both our starting OLB’s to injuries. The defense is fine without Nolan we give up 200+ rushing yards once and you go criticizing McD about kickin out Nolan. The OL is young and inexperienced, our center is a rookie. I think by next year our by mid season our line will began to work better. Hillis is gone, get over it. Tebow needs to keep handling the 2nd string position he’s in and be patient. We dont need tebow in getting hurt, what we need is some speed at running back and our D to get healthy. All i’m saying is you can’t judge a coach by his first 3 years, how long did it take shanny to get to the super bowl and win? I like McD’s attitude, he’s a good coach and after all you I hate McD ppl have supported the team have no clue wat to expect wen McD has all his pieces together. After we win this game I’ll be waiting to hear how it was McD’s fault we didnt win by 30 points.
Broncomani56, I couldn’t of said it better about this season, NO EXPECTATIONS, JUST HOPE.
It’s undeniable that the orange koolaid well is drying up, have you guys noticed how many fans are shifting their thoughts about McD from Genius to what in the heck is this guy doing? McD is going to have to dig much deeper in this orange koolaid well of his to get it flowing again. It’s never too late until you are mathematically out which is many games away, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this engine is not running smoothly, is already sputtering real bad at times and could be quitting on us at anytime.
Hopefully McD keeps a special back up reserve of the orange koolaid for the players, they are going to need to drink tons of it in order for them to keep on buying into McD’s head coaching ways. And just like last year, no doubt some players are already taking exception to McD’s ways this season like Broncomania56 said, not just the fans.
It’s a lot of hope we are asked to have, that’s for certain.
In this day of instant graitfication, HC’s are rarely ever given more than three years to prove themselves, that may not be right, but it is the reality of the NFL, if you don’t turn a team around in three years no one will wait around until the HC gets it, so that’s one more year after this one.
I hope he succeeds because I hate to see what we would be left with after three years of this if it doesn’t work out. McD will be enjoying the 4th year of his contract sipping margaritas in the Carribeans on a Bowlen buy-out of his last year, while fans here will be left with utter destruction of our long standing feared running game and depletion of most of our major talent to basically start from scratch again. Point is McD stands to lose very little and we stand to lose just about everything, so I think we are totally justified in raising our concerns about this regime, not unreasonable at all, just plain justified, the way McD is going about things is basically leaving us no other options but to question him.
What’s up fellow Broncos?! I’ve been out of the country for over a week and a half. Just got back, and it sure seems gloomy here. I was able to watch most of the Tennesse game before I had to leave for the airport. I caught the game by game play on my phone, and was extremely excited about a great win on the road. I would like to give a special shout out to my Ole Miss Rebel, Casus Vaugh for another great play on special teams at the end of the game. My question is now, what happened while I was overseas? Granted I was not expecting us to win in Baltimore, but it seems as though we simply laid down and died. I feel like maybe the coaches and players new we were going to lose, and that was the attitude I saw when I watched the game last night. We are way to inconsistent! Our running game is a joke, and the defense that looked so good against Chris Johnson the week before looked so bad! How does this happen. Just when I thought we were coming together we fall apart.
If we are to have any chance against the jets McD better tell Wink to do the same thing he did against Tennessee. Put 8 men in the box every play on D, blitz, and force Sanchez to beat you with his arm. If that happens along with any shred of improvement with the run game we may have a pretty good chance. Jarvis Moss, you better step it up this weekend son. Also, to coach Mcd. If you want to help this defense go get Shawn Merriman as soon as he is released on Monday!!
Good to be back state side Broncos fans! Can’t wait to bust out my Orange Crush Elway jersey on Sunday. We need this one bad! Lets play with some fire and consistency and turn this season into a playoff run. Go Broncos!!
What are the thoughts on Merriman? Washed up? Too injury prone? Still have some left in the tank?
Your questions alone give a pretty good answer, mainly the injury thing, the way this guy has played with reckless abandon has left a significant mark on his body, the odds of him playing out the season wouldn’t be very high I would think, therefore it would be hard to justify, but we are so thin at LB’s I wouldn’t be surprised if we did get him and I would just hope for the best, healthy he could help us, heck that’s not very hard, haha.
I think he still has dome left in the tank, and could help us down the stretch. However, he may not want to play for McD after their little spat in San Diego before the game last year. Stuff like that really makes you question our head coaches maturaty
Was the spat with Merriman?
I just checked it out, it was Shaun Phillips.
With all of our divisional games ahead of us it might make a lot of sense to get Merriman. He has had a lot of success against them in the past. I would say it completely depends upon his attitude. McDaniels wont bring on a whiner, self first player.
3 years of McD. I can barely stomach the first year and a half. We are in serious need of a gut check. A good long look in the proverbial mirror. A resurgence of mile high pride. The thin air mystique. Orange Sunday is a start.
It seems to me, that a lot of people understand the potential complications long term if McD’s vision doesn’t pan out. Even Mayor Hickenlooper has took it upon himself to do something. When McD seemingly refuses to do anything but stick to the script. It’s frustrating. What is the identity of our beloved Denver Broncos?
Seems the only constant is injuries.
My silver lining is Orton. It’s possible he will be shipped off to make way for the golden child. But I gotta keep the faith anyway I can.
Please find a run game. And hey, all you young guns on D, what ya have to lose? Afterall, it’s your play on the field that strengthens our faith in ya. Make BRONCOS COUNTRY proud!
GO BRONCOS 2K10!!
No to Merriman. We have our own lights out in KO. Lol
I just want to throw out an idea to see how you guys feel:
If the Broncos lose bad this Sunday, would McDaniels be out of line to trade Kyle Orton and Brandon Lloyd? I really like both of these guys; but we have some guys in the wings for these positions and their stock is at the highest. We could really use long term solutions to a few other positions.
What would he be thinking? Well, how about building a team for next year when Elvis is back and this young O-line is gellin? Does that mean we are throwing in the towel for this year? I don’t think so.
At least it would be interesting to watch Tebow’s progress with this young receiving core; instead of watching a slow decline into irrelevance. Isn’t he poised to play sooner than later anyway? He has already sat longer than the other QB’s drafted later than him. Except Colt McCoy who should play this weekend.
It is not just a fan wanting to see our draft pick play. It is a fan tired of watching their team beat their head against the wall. Even healthy, are we built to win a championship? I think we should know after this week, having played the teams most likely to meet us in the playoffs.
No matter what moves are made or not made–Broncos all the way!
I would love to see some 2nd stringers step up and play lights out!
My feeling about that is since McD has been so careful so far about not playing young players I don’t see any chance of him making a Tebow switch at this point, you are taking doing it before we even play a single inner division game, that would be completely out of character for McD, we would have to wait to lose at least some of those division games until we are truly irrelevant before anything of that magnitude is even considered, and trading Orton with a 9 plus mil 2011 contract would be no easy task in my opinion anyway.
Temper the Tebow Time talk.
I think Merriman is an intriguing option. Except, does his designation on the IR make him ineligible for this season? I would worry about Merriman’s whining, too. And he may want too much money. But he and Dumervil would be quite the dynamic duo.
Bay, thanks for your response.
How is it though that McD doesn’t play young players? Perrish Cox, JD Walton, Beadles and Deymarius have been out there as soon as he could get them on the field. Even Knowshon last year was sent out right away. Granted QB is a different position.
Ok Bay, you didn’t say he does not play them, you said careful.
And I think it unlikely that he makes the switch as well. But some unlikely things have been happening in Bronco Country for a couple years now.
when we win its all positive comments about our team and all of this broncos going to the superbowl… when we lose we need this and dat and JOSH needs to be fired…. yall arent broncos fans….. BRONCOS fans always find positives and always believe the broncos going win regardless the circumstances….. we beat ourself and didnt attack enough in the b-more game oh well… we play bad its not the end of the world we will finish strong this year just look at the rest of our schedule we got this playoff berth and a deep run,… PLEASE STOP CRYING….. GO BRONCOSSSS…..
score prediction…. broncos will win in mile high 35-20…… kyle and the wr’s will have a big game the defense will have a big game especially dj.. he had 15 tackles last week
Of all his top draft picks he only has started Moreno RIGHT AWAY and that’s it, not Ayers, not Phonzy, not Richard Quinn, not Thomas, not Tebow, not Beadles, and with the young high quality talent we discovered in pre season this year, McD has still hardly played Willis, Syd’Quan and Decker, so I don’t buy for a minute that McD takes a chance with his new talent out there, he rather let them ride the bench and take the safe route with established players, in most cases anyway, and how is that working out for him? Just saying.
Take the Chiefs and see how much impact the coaching staff there is allowing their rookies and young inestablished talented players to have. A team is build through the draft, everyone pretty much agrees on that, the way McD handles it he is pretty much by-passing it, you can’t blame some of us for being confused.
I’m confused.
But I might be coming around. So, basically, the young fast, explosive players we get in the draft need to age a little?
That probably should have been the case with Knowshon. I always thought he needed a little more patience. Even when he was tackled, he would get up so quick I was afraid he would hurt himself.
I always thought the O-line should sit a year to develop and understand the system, they seem to get better with age.
Anyhow, elwayalday….. it is pretty easy to say someone else is not a real fan. It seems to me there are fans that are not as optimistic as others; but they still seem to love the Broncos.
I think every loss is a bad loss, I don’t know of any “good” losses.
I don’t know how we could trade Orton and Lloyd, I know football is a business but they’re doing very well for us. I know someone is going to bring up the “Cutler/Marshall” crap don’t bother. Orton has been very consistent week in and week out. Sure we’ve been putting up more L’s than we’d like but it is the little things that are killing us. The thing with Tebow not playing is because how to you bench Orton when he’s the only flotation device we have because we don’t have a running game. Tebow will get his chance, but putting in Tebow now and benching Orton would be like taking you’re motor off your boat and installing a sail. While if the wind is in your favor could take you a long way, with a motor it doesn’t matter what direction the wind is you can fight your way through.
I do have to take back my comment with Orton not being effective without a running game. He’s been doing pretty well, just would like to see more W’s. That all starts with fixing the things we control, penalties, knowing your assignment, and just doing your job.
Go Broncos!!!!!
Brian, I do agree, mostly. Orton is the reason we have a chance in every game.
I wonder though if the ‘penalties and doing your job’ difficulties are because of a real lack of talent or poor coaching or both.
How much of that could we fix with better players at key positions?
I guess the real question is; are we getting better or worse and do we need to make any moves by the trade deadline to get on the playoff track?
Baylin……your 9:52 post hit the nail right on the head bro!
look at Dallas back in the 90′s won 3 Superbowls starting rookies,and a lot of them too,not a fan of sitting rookies,especially explosive ones,maybe QBs are the exception tho.But I still think Tebow needs to get a few plays a game in there,to get some real game time experience.jomho.
hometeam007,I think we need to take a long hard look at the Oline coach,and the blocking scheme,too bad we can do nothing about it tho!
I think that for the most part the penalties on the o-line are just from lack of focus and from being young. Every offenseive line holds so those calls are just going to be dealt with. Its just minimizing those kinds of penalties, sometimes they hold when they don’t even need to be holding things like that. As far as the false starts, illegal formations and delay of games, those are just lack of focus and have nothing really to do with talent in my opinion. I feel that we are getting better it just doesn’t seem like it right now because of the injuries and the losses. We have some key injuries at some key positions so it is difficult to determine if we’re getting better or worse are we comparing ourselves to a full healthy team or not.
Yeah…Clady,Harris,and Kuper(all of our vets on the Oline) are all less than 100% I think.
Hey guys and gals, first time blogger on here. Not going to write much now, want to make sure it works first before I type out a book and it doesnt work. Long time fan, always read the blogs, just never became a member to write anything. Im more of a optimist then pessimist. Go Broncos.
Lots of doom and gloom out there. Trade Orton, Lloyd, maybe Champ, Dawkins, fire McD and start rookies? Maybe that is the answer but…..I don’t think so. Give McD his three years and if he is not headed in the right direction think about making the change. Really, the guy has coached his 5th game of his 2nd season and you are ready to fire him and start over! Really? Well, I’ll be in the bleachers cheering and looking for the win. We have one more game in our toughest stretch then we go to normal games. If we lose to the Jets which is Broncos win 27-24.
Whoops-If we lose to the Jets which is quite possible I know we will have more blogs calling for McD’s head. I precict Broncos win 27-24. This is what I meant to say.
Ok, lets say that our O-Line is less than 100% healthy. Great, that means they have been doing a really exceptional job pass protecting while injured. Does that mean that once healthy they can run block better? Or is it more of a coaching/ scheme issue?
Is the o-line our biggest issue right now? Is the defense going to survive with Ayers out for 6 wks and Dawkins out for 3 wks? And Goodie?
I’m not saying we can’t because I think we can; but that might mean some outside help. Sorry, I just have so many questions right now that probably nobody knows the answer to. I can’t imagine being in the coaches shoes. Hopefully he has great advisors.
I guess we’ll have to take it one game a time and see what happens.
For those who dont think Moreno is a good back…I HAVE to strongly disagree. When he was drafted I didnt think he was needed, but he is a good back.
BroncoMania asks why he doesnt do the good old one cut and run … well quite frankly because we dont run the zone blocking scheme anymore and our linemen, the plays we utilize in this new power O is subpar. At least Moreno gets yards. He is just in a horrible run system. Buck and Maroney couldnt get yards if they tried in the poor run system, but moreno actually get positive yardage. I truley believe that Maroney will do well in a zone system and Moreno would excell in it. The thing is that Moreno in my opinion is a more balanced back so he can do power blocking as well even tho thats not what he is suited for. He is not a speedster…he knows that, he wouldnt dance if there was an Actual hole, but theres rarely an actual hole because ALL the run plays LOOK like run plays and the defense fully commits. Even I can tell when the Broncos are gonna run…Imagine a DC who has been watching video on them. Just my take
Well said TRB….Well said bro!
McD is a “do it my way” type of guy, he is not going to take advice from many, he either will get it figured out for himself or not, so far he has not done a good job of adapting to adversity, look at last year two 4 game losing streaks, he has one way of getting it done and he runs with it, no adapting skills to really speak of, that’s why he is so reluctant at playing young blood, changing schemes or calling imaginative plays, what you see is what you get and if it doesn’t work, it’s because of the execution, and that’s it, end of the story for McD. He probably doesn’t even own a mirror at home, LOL.
hometeam007,we all know in the zone blocking scheme we used to run when Shanny was here works perfect,we had the best Oline in the NFL period,McD changed it,so I would blame it on coaching and scheming,even tho I probably get ripped for it,but I don’t care.
As far as the Defense goes,were pretty much screwed there,until we get healthy,way too many starters out and not deep enough to have quality backups,especially at the LB position.I said back in the draft,we let too many great LBs get past us,shame on McD for that.
But hang in there,if we can get past the Jets,the easy part of our schedule kicks in,if we don’t start winning then,the sh*t will hit the fan.
BFE
Baylin,good one…McD prob dosen’t own a mirror at home.haha
If he does I sure as Hell hope it isn’t telling him he is the fairest in the land.haha
Man! What was that? I am a fan and almost got hit by a piece of doodoo.
LMAO
Thanks for the prop for the joke.
Man, back in the day with Shanny and our zone blocking scheme look how many RB`s had over 1000 yard season`s. Heck, that says it all.
strandoftds……I HEARD THAT!!!!!!!!
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.