As the Broncos prepare for their matchup against the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football, there is one glaring difference between the 2008 Patriots and the team from the past several years — No. 12 is not under center.
It will be Matt Cassel at the helm instead of Tom Brady, last year’s league MVP.
Dre’ Bly looks at the Patriots offense and thinks it’s weird not seeing Brady back there. Brady has always been consistent, even when the Patriots did not have as much offensive firepower as they do now.
“Tom, to me, has been the best quarterback in this league for the last eight years,” Bly said. “He’s been out there doing the same things before he had (Randy) Moss or Wes Welker, posting the same kind of numbers and leading his team to Super Bowls.”
But just because he’s not in the lineup doesn’t mean the Broncos aren’t concerned. They still have a lot of weapons, and Cassel has played solidly thus far in 2008, completing 92-of-142 passes for 910 yards and three touchdowns to four interceptions while leading the Patriots to a 3-2 record.
“He’s capable,” Bly said. “He can throw the ball deep. They’ve got weapons. He’s a guy that hasn’t had a lot of opportunities in his career, but now with Tom going down, he has the opportunity to make plays. I’m sure those guys rally around him.”
STICKING TO THE BALL
Brandon Marshall walked into the locker room holding a football. He held his press conference holding a football. Whenever he was on the sidelines at practice, he was holding a football. Everywhere the third-year wide receiver went Thursday, he held a football.
And since Marshall has had two key fumbles in the last four weeks, it should come as no surprise that his focus has shifted to keeping control of the ball.
“‘Ball security is job security, yours and mine.’ That’s a famous quote by D.J. McCarthy, my wide receivers coach from college,” Marshall said during his press conference. “I’ve been carrying it off and on throughout the week and during practice.”
Against Kansas City, a defender stripped the ball from Marshall, and the Chiefs recovered it. Jay Cutler also fumbled in that game, and the Chiefs scored on both possessions they got from the turnovers.
Last week against the Jaguars, Marshall caught a pass from Cutler inside the Jacksonville 10 yard line, and there he fumbled again. This time, no one stripped it. He just dropped the ball.
And Marshall has no problem pointing the finger at himself for that, taking the blame fully upon himself.
“Basically I just made a move, and I just dropped the ball. I literally dropped the ball,” Marshall told reporters. “He didn’t touch it. He didn’t strip it. I just dropped the ball. It’s just one of those things that you get caught up in the moment and the situation of the game, and you forget about the most important thing and that’s ball security.”
It’s a problem that Marshall will focus on fixing this week. He recalled his stats from a year ago, when he caught 102 passes. In 2007, he only fumbled once, but the Broncos recovered it.
Marshall knows that a fumble could be the difference between winning or losing a game, and as he put it, when the Broncos take care of the ball, they win the game.
“I could be a great receiver without all of those fancy moves, but that’s what keeps me playing this game,” Marshall said. “I have fun out there every time I make a guy miss and see the expression on the guy’s face when I go back to the huddle or guys on the sidelines or the reaction from the crowd. That’s what keeps me going. I’m just going to do a better job of holding on to the ball.”
– Adam Zinser, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Adam Zinser, Brandon Marshall, Dre Bly, New England Patriots, Uncategorized, Week 7
Dre Bly should not talk. I’m tired of seeing his #32 chasing after defenders.
I’m tired of seeing defensive backs having to chase recievers all over the field because this team has NO pass rush. Please find us a DL Shanny.
where is anthoney aldridge
dre bly is waste of space he always is getting bet deep short. let let him go and let jack williams get a shot. and get d line stat your never gonna win when you don’t have a pass rush
anthony aldridge is on IR
how bout we trade dre for a great defensive line man or line backer. we have jack williams. and id like to see us bring josh barrett back from practice squad and play in manuels spot
What are you people talking about. Dre has had a ruff season, but get a grip. The coaches are playing him in zone coverage which is not his best, obviously. Jack had a terrible game when he played a couple weeks ago. Our D-line is not that bad, just not shown their potential. D-rob and Elvis have been fighting injuries and are starting to do a lot better. Other than that big run for a TD to MJD, I thought they did a lot better. I think that they need to have Dre play off about 5-6 yards rather than 15 yards because the short dump off passes are what are killing the D. Dre is always chasing WR because M-Manuel is never getting his back. That is the real problem. We are still one of the best teams in the NFL and I think we will prove that on MNF.
I watched the Jags game a couple of times , I get a little confused at times with everyones laying this defensive problems on just a few of the players. Manuel seems to be having the most issues, McCree has had some issues but not as many. Bly has become the player everyone says is the problem in the passing game, I really don’t see it. The last game he even broke up some passes, what I are seeing is teams exploiting our weak area’s of defense. Every team has them, the difference is we are not getting enough pressure on the QB’s, you can not give that kind of time to anyone in this league. We have tried old lineman before only to get nowhere, so now you want trade a good player for something over the hill. Loved to watch Lynch play, but to be realistic he had problems playing the pass, do I miss John knocking somebody on their ass, hell yes, but we have to work with what you have, let the scheme work and refine it. Team sports are just that, you do not take that many players and throw them together and ta dah they become the greatest defense ever.
It takes time and we are running two systems of defense, more pressure on the QB, less time to find open man, less time for opposing WR’s to find coverage gaps, equals less time on the field for the defense, more time for offense to kick ass, and never look back. Broncos don’t need the best defense in the world, they just need to make some more improvements, and provide some assistance to the Offense. Take it to the Pat’s on MNF
on defense we need a pass rush or we’re gonna have another disappointing season.i think that we should move McCree over and start calvin lowry at safety and i think that we should trade hall, bly, and nate jackson for a good d-linemen and a high draft pick and maybe some cash. and as for offense, hold on to the ball and dont force it either.
…or maybe even manuel too
You all know that the trade deadline has passed?
I’m tired of all you all the sudden blaming Bly for whatever it is going on in your minds… are we done playing this stupid ‘blame game”????
THEY ALL MAKE MISTAKES – GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!!!
There are always going to be mistakes but at least these guys own up to it. They don’t shove the blame on someone else or something else. Marshall is the perfect example for this as you can read above. He knows what he did wrong, it can be fixed and all we can ask of him is that he try (mostly DO) what it takes to fix this ball security problem we have going on. The Jags offensively outplayed us, it can’t all be blamed on Bly, you can’t deny we got outplayed even just a little bit. They brought their game with them and for some reason we stayed home.
As for Marshall, I’m proud of him for taking on his mistakes. He made quite a few in this last game but he’s doing what we needs to do – Learn from his mistakes. He’s taking those steps to be better at what he does. I’m proud to have a guy so humble and non-egotiscal as T.O.
Our defense isn’t perfect but neither is anyone else’s… but we can come pretty darn close to it. All we can do every week is get better and improve our game on BOTH sides of the ball and not to leave out special teams. There will always be room for improvements no matter what your name is, no matter what team you play for and no matter how good you think you are. I think this is a pretty good football team, but even the man in the moon knows we have improvements to make just as much as the 5-0 Titans or any other high-ranking team right now in the league.
I’ve got faith in you Orange & Blue, make us 5-2!!!!!! I’m so excited to watch this team step up their game, BRING it with them on Monday and execute it. All I ask is that this team play to their full potentail every single game and give it their all like it would be their last… is that too much to ask??? I think not.
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!
07elway u couldn’t be more right. Everybody needs to stop with the trade talks…let the season play out. Oh, Btw, Bly has been having a lot of balls come his way this season, and he’s won the matchup at least 60% of the time. Everybody gets beat. And most of the time when it looks likes he’s givin up the big play, its when he’s supposed to have safety help.
WE NEED TO BLITZ MORE
47rocksurworld said it best of all. Our CBs are good. VERY good but it takes 11 guys. Give this young squad a chance. I don’t think the Super Bowl was in anyone’s realistic expectations this year. A division crown would be nice….I see improvement though. And yes, the trade deadline was tuesday 14 Oct. We have been Blitzing MISS24 but they seem ill timed. I recall blitzing the jags and they had a screen pass lined up for us leaving a huge gap and a huge gain. But we do run a pretty good CB fire….Griese knows that all too well.
I’m with 07elway and letdansmoke. nobody would be saying anything if they would of won. Yes bly is getting beat but the poor guy its picket on all game. But that not the problem there making big mistake at bad times of the game all of them. I’m talkins from Shanny to the last player on the roster, people this is a team game. when they lose the hole team loses. I don’t care what anybody says the team is getting better every week. the Jags are a great team they lost to a great team. If people look around the league no team is putting up great defenceive numbers. I’m not making up excuses the D does need to make better decison on the field. so to you all who are taking pop shots at Bly remember denver is stilll in first place in the division and beat some great teams already so they must be doing some things right. They just need to keep those turnover down and they will be fine GO BRONCOS
our d. sucks, period. we are last in the league people. zone d. sucks, we need man to man with all our speed. i like to see more blitzing schemes that are well timed. come on d-line help a brother out. safety positions need to be addressed as well. best of luck guys ill be watching u on mnf!
i think that we should go 3-4 all the time because we’re not getting a pass rush either way and at least in the 3-4 we can drop more guys back into coverage to help the pass D. and for our run D, i agree we should blitz more but at the right time and we do we should try to disguise it better. and we have 2 of the premier CB’s in the league and i dont care who you are, if your d-line cant get a pass rush then you’re gonna get beat. and i think we should put jack williams in front of paymah on the depth chart at corner. and manuel needs to either step up his play or we should get rid of him and if we dont turn the ball over on offense we should be good there.
If we’ve learned anything from this season thus far it’s that we’re really tough to beat when we don’t turn the ball over. However, when we are cavalier with the ball, winning is really difficult. Therefore if we take care of the ball and dictate the tempo, we’ll find a way to pull out a victory. Let’s crush the Pats Monday!
You know what I love about our team? We are 4-2, and what I love about our 2 losses? I love that we were still in the game, but due to turnovers which we all know turnovers=losses. WE CAN FIX TURNOVERS! We are easily a 6-0 team, or you could say if refs didn’t make mistakes as well as players “were all human” then we would be 5-1!
We have a great team, and far better than I think most of us anticipated at this point in the season, so get off of the freaking backs!
07elway, more and more respect for you young lady! But I will beat you on one of these blogs soon, so that I’m not just re iterrating what you’ve said. I feel like calling some of you out now:
MISS24, seems youre just negative and have no faith, each post is down, and when we correct you with facts you find something else to complain about!
TRADERS, I’m glad that the deadline has past because if it hadn’t god knows who else you people would want to get rid of!
CBFAN, same deal as MISS24, complain complain complain.
b.marshall##15, when I read your post I thought you were the same marshal from above that defended bly, BUT SINCE YOUR NOT, READ THE FREAKING STATS! The ball has been thrown at champ what now 14 times all season? Average qb throws the ball 20-35 times a game. 50+ if your garcia….. so 14 times in 6 games is what, 2 and some change a game going at champ. Average tight end has maybe 6 balls thrown intended for him, and depending on the team maybe 5 to the backs! Look it up to be specific!
WITH THAT BEING SAID PEOPLE, 2 at Champ, 6 being covered by line backers/safeties covering the tight end, 5 to the backs again same coverage on defense typically. THAT LEAVES 7 BALLS OR MORE AT DRE BLY!!!! Honestly how many plays do you KNOW he has given up?
And don’t argue that that’s if were in man, cuz its worse if its zone! Cuz in zone champ has HALF THE FIELD! Dre the covers A THIRD OF THE FIELD, and the rest for lb’s and safeties.
I think our lies with the safeties. McCree has his moments, and Manuel is never in position unless it’s to take us out of position!
It’s like LETDAMANSMOKE and BMARSH-1 said, Manuel is not giving support when he is supposed to, and Dre expects it but it’s not there. We can’t improve on our CB’s, but on our safeties we can easily. Our D line is getting healthy and developing in the 3-4 so they will improve.
Pressure on the QB is key, that will get you haters off our players back!
I dunno maybe its just me but id have to say the hardest working man on our offense is Pittman im so glad we picked him up. Dont get me wrong Jays doing phenomenal and B. Marsh is lookin like hes at the top of his game but Pittman looks like he see the chance to take over the starting spot at his age and he wants it. i know this is a defensive blog but i had give him credit
1. We need to apply pressure regardless of who is behind center for the other team. No pressure will make the CBs job harder.
2. We need to stop with the turnovers. Please just hold onto the ball. The fact that Marshall was carrying a football around to his press conference shows that he knows.
When we don’t turn the ball over this year we win…..period.
Dre Great to see you get more physical out there! Great job man..keep up the good work!!
Go Broncos!
He guys, PUT SOME STICKY ON THOSE GLOVES!
I’ve Tivo’d every game this year, watched them all at least twice…Dre is NOT winning 60% of his match ups! That’s a load of crap if I ever heard it. We have 3 guys getting consistent pressure, the problem is that we dont’ get enough up the middle. I thought Thomas and Robinson were supposed to be this “FORCE” for the middle of our line. The tape doesn’t lie. Thomas gets pushed around, Webster gets washed out, McCree gets totally lost and Dre loses his man. I think someone helping in deep zones would help Dre a lot, and I think that’s why McCree is riding pine. Guess we’ll find out in 3 days? GO BRONCOS!
I think that we need better safeties. I still think that even with Lynch’s age we should have kept him and we should have also kept Foxworth. Our safeties are not providing any kind of run support or over the top coverages which is why I think we are getting beat deep sometimes. I don’t think they are physical enough like Lynch was. A lot of teams are beating us in the middle of the field with dump offs and drags. At least with Lynch back there they would think twice before they sacrificed their wideout to a bone jarring hit by #47, but that is past. But I read an article that Lynch is staying in shape in case anyone gives him a call. Maybe we should…
agree with 47rocks and brian_schneider et al that (i) dre is a very good CB and (ii) we need better safeties. i’m actually ok with mccree for now, but manuel is a real problem. at SS he’s often overmatched in man against TEs. need a better athlete there.
anyone know what that tape is on bmarsh’s arms? so much tape that if it’s for protecting skin, why not just wear sleeves? so is it decorative? do they reflect the light and mesmerize the opposing CB with flashing patterns?
I agree ssc bly is a very good corner the problem is he’s getting no help from manuel. but theres not much we can do now but pray that those guys improve and believe me they ARE! But we DEFINATLLEY need to invest in the safety position.
What happened to Cecil Sapp? Go Broncos!!!!
No matter how good are your corners if the opposing QB has a year long to throw !!! It all start upfront , the front seven need to improve and the offense need to take care of the ball , period .
I dont know 2champ4PICKSIX, try hard, but I think 07elway still has the longest and best analytical blogs here..lol…giv her a run for her money..lol..keep writing guys
ok,,trade deadlines over, doesnt necessarily mean we cant sign free agents or players from our “practice squad” right??..hint..hint..”barrett”…
i’m jst glad royal and scheffler (probable) are coming bak soon,,by end of BYE week,,the team should be healthy,,including Torain…YAY!!
cant wait to see Bailey up against Moss on MNF…
I believe in Dre, yall need to have faith in the man. He and the rest of this defense will come through, just give them time to figure out this new defense and to gel with the other players. I believe we will have a dominant defense by the end of this season…..I love this team and think they can go far. Go Broncos, and to all you haters out there….chill out!!
I think we all can agree that Manuel is posing a problem within our defensive structure. Many of you say that our problems are coming up front (Which they are) but you can also argue that our corners are getting beat in deep coverage because of the lack of speed and “good reads” from the safeties, particularly Manuel. Moving DJ to the OLB position has helped but I still see Webster getting hammered on short run plays and I can’t stress enough how badly our defensive line needs to improve on the pass rush. We’re 28th overall and last against the pass in the league- Absolutely horrible. There is no excuse as to why our defense is struggling so badly this year. I believe Dumervil will get better and our pass rush will eventually improve, but how much longer can we wait guys? What we truly need is a strong defensive leader. Say what you want about Baltimore’s Ray Lewis but he’s one hell of a leader on the field and when we’re getting pounded by the run or seeing Bly get beat deep while Manuel runs around lost, we need that leader to build momentum.
I think our best options are to explore the 3-4 defense, try out other options at SS and improve the pass rush. With 4 LBs, we can protect against the 5-6 yard run gains better and have some help with coverage in case Manuel does not improve.
On to offense. Obviously the turnovers were bad last game, but other than that I don’t see us struggling as badly as people are saying we will. Cutler’s only thrown 5 INT’s so far if I’m correct and Marshall’s been a beast. Having Stokley as questionable will hurt but hopefully Royal will be ready to play on Monday. I like Pittman carrying the ball while Young has been injured. He’s really surprised me and I think he will do a good job on MNF. I heard Jamie Dukes saying something on NFL Network about us establishing a ‘running game.’ Although I’d have to disagree with him in the sense that we have been running the ball more than usual, I think that mixing up the offensive play calling will help a lot more too. With Stokley being out, the Pats will probably be expecting us to be hitting Marshall the entire game. Belichick’s not an idiot. Pittman’s got good speed and we can use to that our advantage. I recall the game last year when Andre Hall filled in for Young one week and had around 154 yards. A lot of those plays were pitches; I can see Pittman excelling on the pitch plays and the strong stretch runs.
But what we really just need to understand is that all of these things are going to take time. I think a lot of people are writing us off because our defense is not as high caliber as our offense. This is a good thing. It gives us something to work on and improve. If you’re too good in every aspect of the game, teams tend to get a little cocky and overlook teams on the long stretch. Case a point: The Lions start out 6-2 and end 7-9 last year. Let’s not be that team. GO BRONCOS!
It’s one thing to be high caliber or average, it’s another to be piss poor. Our safeties really are a joke so far and if anyone, AND I MEAN ANYONE has taped the losses we’ve had please take a look at Thomas. The man gets lit like a Xmas tree on almost every play!