At times throughout the offseason, Broncos Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy saw his unit confused by unusual blitz schemes designed by Defensive Coordinator Don ‘Wink’ Martindale.
When that happened, the players and coaches would get together and talk about how best to protect if they saw a similar look again.
With the New York Jets coming to INVESCO Field at Mile High on Sunday, McCoy said those situations were good practice for what Kyle Orton and the Broncos offense are going to face.
Against a squad that statistically blitzes more than any other team in the NFL, most times the question is not if the pressure will come, but from where.
“The communication has got to be great upfront with Kyle directing traffic, and everyone has to honor what he is saying,” McCoy said. “The backs and tight ends have to tune in with the linemen, and you have to do the best job you can to pick it up.”
Head Coach Josh McDaniels said he expects the Jets defense to be a great test for his quarterback as Orton tries to build upon the best start to a season of his career.
He said that one of the biggest keys to success against a defense averaging more than two sacks per game will be reading the rush to understand when he needs to get the ball out quickly and when he might have a little extra time.
“As long as you stop them from having free rushers to the quarterback — which is easier to say it than it is to do it — then you have time to throw the ball and that’s what we’re really focused on doing,” McDaniels said. “It’ll be a fun matchup on Sunday.”
Orton, who has thrown for at least 295 yards in each game this season, dealt with a similar Ravens defense last week and knows avoiding confusion at the line of scrimmage is a big part of the battle.
The offensive line allowed just one sack against the Ravens after ceding six quarterback takedowns the week before. Orton is confident that the unit has taken a step forward that will give him a good chance on Sunday.
“If you study it right and can break it down and make it as simple as possible then you should have a good chance of being able to pick them up and at least have a body for the body,” Orton said. “From that point, it’s manning up and blocking the guy that you’re blocking and making sure he doesn’t get into the pocket.”
And Orton’s leadership at the line of scrimmage thus far has earned him a similar confidence from the rest of his offensive teammates heading into one of their toughest matchups of the season.
“Kyle’s been doing a great job and we have an extreme amount of trust in him that he’s going to put us in the right position every play,” Brandon Lloyd said. “I’m not worried about that at all one bit.”
ROBINSON’S RETURN
This week the Dove Valley locker room has featured one new addition — but it’s a very familiar face.
The Broncos added linebacker Lee Robinson to their practice squad this week, bringing back a player who competed in training camp as a rookie free agent last season.
“The crazy thing about it is when you leave, you don’t know if you’re ever going to come back again or what,” Robinson said. “It’s crazy. I’ve been around four teams and I ended up right back where I started.”
Robinson spent parts of last season with practice squads in Arizona and Tampa Bay. After being dropped from the Buccaneers practice squad earlier this season, the Alcorn State product spent a few weeks as a free agent.
Robinson was headed home after a tryout with Green Bay earlier this week when the Broncos came calling. He jumped at the chance to return to Denver and has been practicing with the team since Wednesday.
After several stops along the way, Robinson smiled today when thinking about being back in the same locker room where his NFL journey began.
“I feel like I never left,” he said.
JETS RETURN TICKETS
The Jets have returned 200 tickets for Sunday’s game INVESCO Field at Mile High, and those tickets are now on sale to the general public, the Broncos announced Thursday.
The tickets are being sold at all Ticketmaster outlets, via Ticketmaster Charge By Phone, through online sales at www.ticketmaster.com and at the INVESCO Field at Mile High box office.
On Thursday, Knowshon Moreno (hamstring) returned to the practice field on a limited basis, while Andre Brown practiced after missing Wednesday’s workout due to an illness. Robert Ayers (foot), Brian Dawkins (knee), Andre’ Goodman (quadricep), Darcel McBath (ankle), Demaryius Thomas (concussion) and Wesley Woodyard (hamstring) did not practice for the second straight day. Spencer Larsen (ankle) was limited, while Mario Haggan (neck) returned to full participation.
For the Jets, Calvin Pace (foot) and Darelle Revis (hamstring) returned to the practice field on a limited basis, while Jim Leonhard (biceps), Nick Mangold (shoulder), Brandon Moore (hamstring) and Jamaal Westerman (ankle) participated fully in Thursday’s session.
- Eric Detweiler, DenverBroncos.com
Below are some more photos from Thursday’s practice:
Tags: 2010, Brandon Lloyd, Denver Broncos, Kyle Orton, Lee Robinson, New York Jets, Week 6
You’re right Sndvl, you pick the underdog and win – you get paid. And if we do stop killing ourselves with penalties – especially on third down – we have a much closer football game on our hands than we did last week. We just gotta do all the little things right. And maybe with some of that Mile High Magic you were talking about we can get the Jets at doing some things wrong. We’ll see how good Sanchez executes the silent count
broncos 31
jets 37
I sure hope our guys are ready for another physical game.
I’m going to predict Broncos 27 Jets 24 in OT.
Go Broncos!!!!
We are not losing to the Jets. Broncos 24 -20. Someone will step up on D and force a big fumble for a TD. Maybe Moss, maybe Mays. Thats what we need. The Ridiculous Turnover as I call it. It’s when you pick it off and the guy is gone, or a fumble and the guy is gone, and everyone in the stadium just starts jumping up and down and screaming for like 10 seconds while he runs. Nothing energizes the whole stadium like that. Best one ever is when I was at the Steelers game in 2007 on that Sunday night when we sacked Roethlisberger and I believe Thomas or Crowder picked it up and rumbled like 65 yards. Awesome.
Just looked it up, it was Crowder, but only 50 yards. Felt like forever.
This is definitely part of the problem, as reported by Lindsay Jones:
The Broncos have had a different offensive line in each of their five games. There’s a chance they could make it six-for-six.
Rookie Zane Beadles has been taking reps with the first-team line at right tackle ahead of starter Ryan Harris, who missed three games with an ankle injury. Beadles replaced Harris during that stretch.
Russ Hochstein replaced Stanley Daniels at left guard last week, and McDaniels said that job remains competitive.
“They’re rotating in there right now, and we’ll see how that goes,” McDaniels said. “Ryan and Zane have always been interchangeable at the right tackle spot. Competition for us has got to continue to help make us better. We’ve tried to push a lot of different players to be in a
competitive situation even though the season has already started, and we’re seeing some results in different places.”
We’re seeing some results in different places!?!?! I guess McD’s idea of results is different than mine. The one thing about an O line is that it takes longer than any other unit on the team to gel, so how can it be productive to shuffle them around from position to position and in one week out the other? And McD doesn’t do it just because of injuries, no, he does it to experience with it, in the middle of the season, that in my opinion is as counter productive as can be and keeps setting our O line back. I kept saying all off season that the O line would be our biggest issue, well, after 5 games, the way McD is doing the O line shuffle, I am even more concerned if that’s even possible.
One more occasion for me to be completely mistified by the “Genius”. Just put your best players in that darn O line and let them get used to eachother at the same positions and give them a chance to gel, it takes time for an O line to gel, I thought everyone knew that. But no, things are not producing right now and then in the running game, so let’s make changes in the O line every week until we find what works…. whatever…
I thought the only problem with our running game was the lack of execution, why don’t we keep the same players in the O line in the same positions so we can have them get comfortable with what eachother is doing so they can be given a chance to execute properly, if someone in the line is different each time you turn around how in the world are you going to trust folks around you to always do the right thing, THE O LINE IS A UNIT, it is not a bunch of independent parts you shuffle until you figure out the puzzle, specially 5 games into the season, that what preseasons are for!
In this case the versatility McD is looking for first and foremost in nearly every player on his team is killing us. He is versatilitating this O line to death.
When I see McD operate sometimes I swear I know absolutely nothing about football, that I wasted an entire adult life learning about it, that is truly how it feels. My all time belief that the O line is a unit and needs to be build as such is completely out the window now watching McD shuffling an O line every week!!! And I can remember the times when we lost a member to injury in our famous non talking O line in our haydays, it was a real hurdle to overcome, bringing somebody new into the mix, but now in McD’s days, we dare not keep the same guys out there, the opposing D might then be onto us, LOL. I am just a stupid fan, so don’t pay me any attention, McD knows best and I am learning I know nothing.
Sometimes I think that McD should just play some Madden. I play Madden a lot, my wife says “you’re addicted to that game,” and she’s probably right. I just don’t play Madden to play Madden, I think it is fun to think of it as a “real” game. Actually putting thougth into the plays you call and things like that. Honestly sometimes I think that I put more thought into a game of Madden than McD puts into his gameplans for actual opponents, like running a draw on 3rd and long when you have a deep threats like Royal and Lloyd. Just my feelings.
I think in the end we just need to win baby win!!!!
Go Broncos!!!!!
brian is really Al Davis? LOL.
I think that McD’s required versatility of his players is the only reason we are 2-3 and not 0-5 right now, not only on the offensive line but also on the defensive side of the ball.
Before the season started we had both offensive tackles injured with no clear timetable for return. We had no real options for a starting center or left guard. The only healthy lineman we had was Kuper and even he has been hurt. With all of these injuries our rookie lineman have filled in admirably. The pass game looks great but the run game is not what it should be.
We have to remember that Ryan Harris has been very injury prone and he may not be ready to go at right tackle so it is a luxury to have a guard like Beadles that can also play tackle. Once Ryan Harris returns to healthy form we can establish a unit on the offensive line by permanently placing Beadles at left guard and having Hochstein as our 6th lineman.
This is the lineup I believe that Coach McDaniels is ultimately trying to put together but injuries have been forcing us to shuffle our linemen and try to put them in the best temporary positions. Once we get all five starters healthy and in the right place and Knowshon gets back, then we will start to see better success in the running game.
We should not be so quick to doubt the approach of our coach. He knows what he is doing. Injuries have been holding us back and I have heard some suggestions before about getting rid of Tuten as the strength and conditioning coach. With our consistant history of injuries the past few seasons maybe we need to look into this.
I don’t think that shuffling the line isn’t always a bad thing. Think about it, you put those guys in and then the o line gels with all the linemen on the team. When they find the five they want and are officially starters and say one of the olinemen go down then they can just plug another one in there and go like it was nothing. Instead of having someone go in that the linemen don’t understand. He is only shuffling harris and the LG position but the main ones are still there in jd walton and clady and kuper as the main ones. It isn’t like he is shuffling the whole line just the two that at this point are uncertain. Just my opinion…I think broncos have a fighting chance and sanchez isn’t that great without the running game. We shut down the running game we win.
Different strokes for different folks, totally fine with your view of McD knowing what he is doing, me, not so much buying into that.
Like he doesn’t know how to draft, he doesn’t know how to hold on to talent, he doesn’t know how to recognize talent, he doesn’t know how to get short yardage, he doesn’t know how to score in the red zome, he doesn’t know how to interact with the press about his team or his players, he doesn’t know how to control his emotions on the sideline, he doesn’t know how to handle pressure, he doesn’t know how to handle adversity, but he also knows plenty. Hopefully it’s enough to get us the wins that a guy who knows what he is doing should produce. Starting Sunday would be nice.
The season is young, we can turn it around, but McD’s got a lot of growing to do, he can do it, he is young, he just has to learn to look honestly into that mirror we were talking about yesterday, and adapt to what it takes when the status quo doesn’t work, but he is no chameleon, and I’m afraid other teams know exactly what they are up against when they face us, being predictable is probably our biggest weakness right now, it will take a lot of imagination to turn that around, but McD is stubborn, it has a way of standing in the way of imagination. Tebow anywhere? or the two running plays up the middle for one yard each against Jacksonville were as much imagination as McD can muster for him, just saying.
If everything is just so fine about the O line shuffle, how come it doesn’t work? I know, give it time, it will work because McD knows what he is doing, right back where we started, LOL.
Man, that cheddar man always makes me hungry…
You have to have consistency on the team. O-Line especially. When you see blitzes coming and that man is bearing down you only have seconds to react. You have to know that if you go wide there will be a man inside to pick up what youare leaving. The inside man has to know that you are going outside. These are things that happen when you work together in the fire. You know how the other is going to react and so on. Bay you are so right about the mismanagement of this team. I will not say that McD is not a creative O-Coordinator, but at this point he is at this point in his career ill suited to be the head coach. I think he needs to be groomed and like Bellicheck may become better after being fired.
Thank you.
Kind of the same as Shanahan, he couldn’t get it done in his first stint as a HC in Oakland, it maybe was unfair that Al Davis dismissed him so quickly then but same end result, I agree that McD has stacked the odds against himself for making it long term as the HC here, one more year is the upmost I would give the guy if no concrete results are achieved, like making a decent run in the playoffs, but if we end up with less than 7 wins this year, I honestly don’t see what would even be the point to give him a third.
At the Broncos expense VA?
McD, IMO, has completely stripped this team of identity. Oh, yeah we sure can pass the ball, but dont you remember- The NFL is a passing league!
sndvl, yeah we are like McD’s training grounds, isn’t that grand? LOL.
If this doesn’t work out, next time we need to go with an HC without training wheels.
As much as a fan of his I am not, I still want the Broncos to win. His success is the Broncos success. His failures are the Broncos failures.
Mike Rice is absolutely correct. We are at a crossroads this weekend.
Or, since all the blame cant be place on McD (ahem), we hire a GM that doesnt need training wheels.
baylinorcrush: Who told you my true idenity? Now I’m going to have to change my handle. LOL!
You can only “experiment” for so long before your boss comes in and says..”WTF are you doing?” I’d sure like to know what Pat has to say about the team so far this season and access McD.
Go Broncos!!!!
Asses..oh man..English sure ain’t my strong point.
34 – 17 JETS…..
I don’t see how playing a shell game on the front line does anything but hurt the team, IMHO McD is showing his rookie stripes, his attempts to emulate the Pats instead of focusing on our strengths is really hurting us. We have so many players out each game, its like a new team each week. Really glad KO has stepped up, but without a running game he is at risk, the D which has been a work in progress forever now, is full of holes, and in facing the Jets pressuring Sanchez is a must, hoping we have someone who can step up to take him down. Most of this would be SOP, except our coach just does not have the experience to make the most out of the situation. So hoping for the best, our guys are out there each week putting it on the line, and they deserve our support 110%.
GO BRONCOS
by the way… we haven’t even played a single division game. you know what really gets me excited is that the chargers have dropped two of em. My point is that our team has been losing to some of the most elite teams in the league (Colts and Ravens) and we have not had the opportunity to play the teams we are most familiar with, our division foes.
We owned a perfect division record on the road last year but somehow dropped all three divisional home games. I don’t see us losing all three divisional home games this year because I will be at all three games screaming my effin face off.
GO BRONCOS!!!
Yeah, that’s where Bowlen missed the boat on this one, when you are set on hiring an OC for your HC position with no HC experience whatsoever, you have to have a legitimate experienced GM, and we certainly don’t, we’re wet behind the ears everywhere, except on D, haha.
We behind the ears…our whole head is submerged…
lol Brian
The latest by Legwold about the injuries and the maneuvering McD needs to do to get ready for Sunday:
McDaniels said this morning that running back Knowshon Moreno (hamstring) and wide receiver Demaryius Thomas (concussion) would practice today and continue on their track to play at least some on Sunday at Invesco Field.
“We’re excited about that,” McDaniels said.
Moreno missed most of the preseason with a hamstring injury and has missed the last three games with a second hamstring injury. Moreno practiced Thursday on a limited basis.
Thomas, who was knocked out of Sunday’s loss in Baltimore by big hit on a kickoff return, has been cleared by doctors to practice. McDaniels said they would monitor how Thomas does in today’s practice as well as Saturday’s walk-through.
If Thomas continues to be symptom-free, he would then likely play only at receiver Sunday, having missed most of the work on kickoff returns during practice this week.
The Broncos are also looking to promote safety Kyle McCarthy from the practice squad for Sunday’s game. They would have to make a roster move to do that, but they would like McCarthy to play on special teams and have some depth at safety, givent that both Brian Dawkins and Darcel McBath will miss Sunday’s game.
Russ Hochstein will also start for the second consecutive week at left guard as the Broncos continue to juggle their offensive front. McDaniels said he still has not made a decision whether rookie Zane Beadles or Ryan Harris would start at right tackle.
“It’s a competitive situation in there. Zane’s played a lot of football, so has Ryan, and Ryan’s coming off the ankle (injury) the last couple weeks,” McDaniels said. “If there’s competition to be had, we’re going to let it play out.”
Orange Sunday, doing it right:
Several of the stadium concession stands will be serving orange beer.
And I couldn’t agree with Woody more about this Sunday:
This is the Sunday for the Broncos and the Kingdom of Orange to show their true color.
Since the beginning of the 2006 season, the Broncos — once the most-feared home team in the NFL because of altitude, attitude, players, coaches and fanatics — have sunk to a frightful 18-16 low-water mark — 4-4, 5-3, 4-4, 4-4 and, this season, 1-1.
The Broncos fell hard in five of their past seven seasons on the field named by and for a shameful company.
The Broncos are a shameful home team. In the division they have: dropped three of four (and were saved by the ref in the other) to the Chargers; been beaten in consecutive seasons by the Raiders, and were humiliated in the 2009 finale. Steelers fans dominated the stadium in last year’s 28-10 debacle, and the Colts prevailed in Denver this season.
Because Mike Shanahan lost in Denver, he lost his job. If Josh McDaniels wants to win a hold on his job, he must win at home.
From 1977-2005, the Broncos were defeated in two, one or zero games at home 20 seasons.
But home sweet home has become home suet home — an indifferent site for a mediocre team with apathetic followers.
It’s time on Orange Sunday for the Broncos to take back control @Mile High.
BTW, the humiliation of the 2009 season finale loss was against the Chiefs in case anyone forgot. And look at what that field advantage used to be at Mile High, astonishing, I almost forgot, losing a maximum of two games at home between 1977 and 2005, but I’ll take it with a grain of salt since Woody says it’s 20 seasons but by my calculations it would be 29 seasons, probably a typo, but either way the Mile High Magic so many refer to has obviously gone by the way of Invesco, that is the truth of the matter. The fans there somehow need to bring it back, let’s hope this Orange Sunday is the right thing to kick start it.
Ok, I got it, duh, Woody is saying that we lost maximum two games per season in 20 of those 29 seasons, that makes more sense, still darn impressive of course.
Guys I’m so excited! As big of a fan as I am I’ve never been to a Broncos game. Growing up we never had the money to do stuff like that (even at the old mile high prices) and as soon as I graduated high school I did four years in the Navy. In that time I only had one leave period that coincided with the football season and I was unable to get tickets. I got out of the Navy around this time last year and trying to get situated and adapt back to civilian life was so crazy I never even thought about the possibility of going to a game. Well this year I decided to do something about and I scored some sweet tickets behind the goal post for next weeks Raiders game! It’s not Orange Sunday but I can’t describe how elated I am right now! It’s been a long time coming. Far too long…
GO BRONCOS!
You know Baylin they were all saying that same kind of stuff about Belichick in 2000. He came in and traded away Lawyer Maloy, and they went 5-11 that season. 3 Super Bowl Rings later and now people aren’t singing that tune. Everyone complains about how much like Belichick McDaniels is… personally I hope they’re right. GO MCDANIELS! GO BRONCOS!
thinking back to mile high, man that nosebleed section used to get wild, the whole place would rock and you would have to hang on to your beer when the D was on the field, one game I leaned back just in time to have a raider fan fly by (airborne) to the seats below—-good times, you could not find tickets for the love of money. Seems like that has changed, McD is certainly a Belichick wannabe, but he has not paid his dues, or earned the respect of the fans and the players, maybe that will come in time. It’s going to take some winning games for that to happen though, we have the talent, but when your coach calls for running the ball on third and 19 in a game where your run game is in the negative yards, some people are going to question your skill level… just calling it the way I see it. Really hoping to see things turn around this sunday, we got the heart just need the game.
GO BRONCOS
B&R, first of all happy for you next week, enjoy.
About Belicheck I can see why you missed the point since you are too young to remember, Belicheck was first the HC of the Cleveland Browns from 1991 until 1995 amassing a 36-44 record which got him eventually back into assistant coaching for a few years before N-E. That’s what we were saying could very well happen to McD, just like Shanahan head coaching the Raiders first, both Shanahan and Belicheck got their on the job training with different teams than the one they were ultimately successful with.
Yeah Baylin…I remember when other teams didn’t like playing us at our house,they could pretty much chalk it up as a loss before the game even started,now it is irrelevant.I agree 100% with your 8:07 post,you can’t keep shuffling the Oline around during the regular season,maybe in preseason and practice,but Hell we all know Clady is our LT,Harris is our RT,and Kuper is our RG,and Walton is our Center.We do have a problem at LG it seems.McD knows his blocking scheme is not working but he continuosly runs it every week and blames the players for not executing,that’s BS.I’ll say it once more McD go back to ZONE BLOCKING.I will however go out on a limb and say we win,even if everything in me says we won’t considering all the injuries,and with that,I’m outta here,I know it’s not 5:00 yet,but gotta do some stuff.
Broncos win 27-24
BFE
You raise a very good point Baylin. I still have to hope McDaniels is different. I was aware about Belichik starting off as a loser but I never really thought about it in that light. I was just referring to him coming over to New England and people talking about how the fans hate him, the players hate him etc.
Belichick gave Mcdaniels a typed manifest on what it takes to be a winning head coach in the NFL and they talked about it in depth once a week for the duration of 2008. I hope some of his mistakes in Cleveland are mistakes Mcdaniels can learn from without having to repeat over and over himself. I guess he’d have to coach 80 games in order for us to compare.
There’s not a very good track record for first time head coaches. But there are a few who’ve done some awesome things. Mike Holmgren went 75-37 and won a Super Bowl in his first stint. Mike Ditka won a Super Bowl in his third year as head coach of the Bears. Mike Tomlin won the big game in his first coaching stint at the age of 36. What’s even more hopeful is that he became the youngest head coach ever to win a Bowl game and it happened two years ago. Head Coaches are younger overall now and McDaniels is facing a much different competitive landscape than Belichik did. Of all these young guys someone has got to end up being a winner. Why not McD? This is all just speculation of course, and clearly I’m biased toward the guy who’s running our team. But I think there’s truly a lot of good things going on right now. Some of it is probably not going to manifest it self this year. Historically the third year has been the magic year for guys who have done it with their first team so we’ll all have a more accurate idea of what we got on our hands by come December 2012. If the world doesn’t end by then haha.
GO BRONCOS!
I think another thing that has played a factor – throughout the league- is that with all these corporate stadium the true homefield advantaged has measurably decreased for a lot of teams. We have less working class people attending games because of higher ticket prices. Whatever corporation that owns the stadium sells a bunch of tickets to the visitors (like those jerk Steelers fans coming to Denver). I’ve been told of times when fans wearing jerseys of opposing teams were afraid – and for good reason – when sitting in our stands. Those days are over for many teams, not just the Broncos. Statistically the W-L ration has become less lopsided in any city that has a corporate stadium. My friend owns a book about. I’ll find out the title for anyone interested in reading it. GO BRONCOS!
And Beast I’m stealing your score prediction. That’s what I was already going to post for the competition. Honest
27-24 Broncos
2010 mediocrity, mediocrity , mediocrity . fireeee Mc Daniels
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