Pressure, sacks and interceptions/turnovers make for a long night. Sorry for the delayed post today but I was in the air all day yesterday flyng back form Florida. I even tried (wifi) in the airports and that was sacked-pressured and disconnected much like the game Monday Night. I finally got home late in the day.
I was in the Keys for a charity fishing tournament and maybe the 35-plus knot winds and cloud cover should have been a clue to what was coming Monday night. We had a tropical storm that blew up over Cancun with it’s remnants sweeping across Florida and another Hurricane shooting up the middle of the Gulf of Mexico out of Honduras SPEWING winds and cloud cover for 4-5 straight days. A few more knots of wind and it could have been a Tropical depression where we were.
Monday night before the game, I was doing a radio show at Gary Dunn’s Hotel the OV (Oceanview), bar and restaurant in the Keys in front of a rowdy crowd of about 100 or so people. The crowd was a Steelers HOMER crowd, with Gary being the weekly host of “Jocks on the Rocks”. I threw a few punches at the Steelers and we told a few stories and had some great laughs of the old Steelers Curtain days and the opponents we played against in that era as fun was had by all.
Only two of the five folks associated with the show picked Denver?? Hmmm.
Pressure on Orton, sacks and turnovers against a team like the Steelers is a disaster waiting to happen. Good football teams can barely win a game with one or two turnovers…barely. The Steelers had two turnovers and we scored on one but when you give away three that’s tough.
The stats were a little discerning with average rushing yards of 6.0 per carry and very lopsided across the board, which equates to being dominated at the line of scrimmage again. I’m not panicked by all this because it’s somewhat the way of the league this year with many teams taking it on the chin a game here and a game there. Nothing that can’t be fixed in my view. The press in the papers are getting carried away already. It really must get tired jumping on and off the bandwagon, don’t ya think. I guess it sells papers 
)
Take the Cowboys early and the Giants of late and I could keep going on and on. The only team in the league in my view that’s a standout, is the Saints. They manage to win when they play poorly. That’s a sign of a GREAT team. Some might say the Vikings, but I disagree, they’ve pulled a few out in the last second. In the middle of the schedule there’s plenty of time to re-tune things and get in gear.
Turnovers and (T.O.P.)Time of Possession are the enemies of this team. When we control the ball and dink and dunk our way down the field (not sexy) and keep mixing it up, we’re scary good. YES, scary good.
We go to Washington and and get ready for the improved Bolts, that simple, right?
One game at a time, you agree??
Tags: Pittsburgh Steelers, Postgame, Week 9
Great blog Coop!
We need to get the running game going and we need to take some shots down the field. Should Orton take a shot even though that’s maybe not what McD wants. McD always talks about the “open” receiver, well being “open” is relative, does it mean “no one within 5 yds or him” or “he has a step on his man.” I hope Orton isn’t worried about losing his starting job if he takes a shot downfield. It all starts with protection, lately the line has been getting dominated and Moreno needs to learn how to pass protect, I think he’s too eager to get into his pass route.
The D, man they keep playing well, but we need the O to step up and start scoring points too.
So if we do happen to lose agains Washington (for goodness sake I hope not) but if we do is it time to panic yet?
Cheers Coop!
I agree with brian. We need our running game to be a menace, even if we don’t use it. We run a couple of times, no gain, then become 1 dimensional, and Orton can’t play well that way. Even the OL can’t hold all day in a 1 dimensional offense (and is hard to say it, but Hamilton has been badly exposed in these 2 games). If running smoothly (with Buck or Moreno) doesn’t work, then try other way with Jordan, Hillis or this new guy Ball. I guess at least they could pass protect better.
And about throwing it deep, I think we should do it at least twice in the first half, even for incompletions, just to let their D know we could do it and keep them watching their backs, opening the short passes and running game.
The D must be prepared for fast substitutions. Every team ahead will be playing no-hurdle offenses in the second half. And that’s killing us.
I hope for better preparation and play calling each week. We were just doing that great… what happened in the bye week?
Go Broncooos!
I agree with all need to stretch a defense even if its incomplete it makes the saftey’s and corners back off the line of scrimage, and moreno needs to man up on his blocking he gets paid to block along with runnin the ball he was pathetic trying to cut block a linebacker gettin orton hit in the process, I wish Mcd would use hillis more in the passing game he is great out of the back field and will jack up a blitzing backer I like buck and moreno but with teams like the steeler’s and raven hillis is a preferred back tough finish runs very seldon has ever taken a loss and pass protects as good as a tightend. one last thing mitch berger has had 2 GAMES and looks horrible kern has one bad game where he gets on returned and is cut last time I checked 10 other guy’s got paid that night to make a tackle they r still on the team, just a guy’s random thought’s love everyones thought’s the best fans anywhere
Nickel and Diming defenses down the field works when its effective….Like Cooper says, we look scary good when we can do that AND run….TOP…giving our Defense Rest
I second what yall have posted…while the short dunks and runs give us TOP and is sometimes effective…we ahve to get vertically so those defenders will back off. If alll we throw is less than 20yrds….they will blitz and sit on short routes…which means they have the shirt pass game covered and as a result the run game because the rungame is less than 20 yards
Dont get me wrong I know its easier said than done but McD said he watched every tape of Ortons games, the man can throw deep when neccesary…lets do that and like they said even if its incomplete it gives us more room. Plus he cant only practice short all week in practice and spring up a deep ball on him in game…has to be part of the game plan and playbook and he needs to practice it more because its not his strongest suit so his deep ball accuracy may need improvement but from what I have seen in college and pros he is capable.
But like they all say…it comes down to the offensive line protecting…But Ortons gotta get mobile…not his strongest suit but its is required to be an elite QB or even just a good/solid QB. I think McD needs to take trianing wheels off. Even tho we are a mistake free first offense let Orton know taking shots down field when theirs a good chance of completion is not a bad idea….nothign is 100percent…even the short high percentage passes. If he is too scared to upset McD with the long ball and is always second guessing and fears for his job….probelems will continue
But we did lose to 2 of the most consisntent top defenses over the years…so no need to panic yet but to win in playoffs and the big game…we are gonna need to be able to move the ball on elite defenses.
This was a rant. Typed more than I planned too….anyway….
GO BRONCOS!!!
I think some people get “mobility” confused with “the ability to run”. Just a simple side step or dropping of your shoulder so the defender can’t grab your jersey, picking up your feet so the guys on the ground can’t grap your ankles. Little things like that will really help Orton. He’s not going to out run anyone, but those little tricks can buy you enough time to find that open guy down the field.
Precisely…Mobility not scrambling lol…although that would be nice tooo when necessary but like u said, he aint out running no body lol…Ill give him one thing, he is pretty tought, takes shots never complains and holds on to the ball.
“He tied a school bowl record with two rushing touchdowns vs. Georgia in the Capital One Bowl, despite suffering a DISLOCATED left thumb, SPRAINED toe and CRACKED rib in that game, prompting head coach Joe Tiller to say it was “one of the two truly COURAGEOUS performances I’ve seen in all my years of coaching.”
Hahahaha, Ill say this again……I WANT THAT GUY!!! lmao
No matter how bad we’ve played the past two games, NO ONE thought we would start out 6-0 this year. We still have 8 games to go and I think we can pull off yet another shocker, making it to the playoffs. The defense is still playing great despite what the scores tell you. 21 of Pittsburgh’s points were off of turnovers. They had a breakdown on the 4 play drive for the touchdown but other than that the D played well enough to win the game.
I’m ALWAYS in the bandwagon, win or lose.
GO ORANGE AND BLUE!!!
Great post Coop, couldn’t have said it better. Sounds like you guys were pretty close to being in the eye of a bad storm… should be very thankful Hurricane Ashley wasn’t there too after that game. Mylanta… what a mess that would’ve been. LOL
Turnovers & TOP have been our enemies but so is our red zone offense. Frustrates me to a boiling point. We had that problem with Shanny in his last seasons & we still have that problem with McD. Our offense has lost its touch in the red zone and I’m officially annoyed by it. McD is a smart guy/coach… all these enemies of ours can be conquered but for some reason we still make those little mistakes that cost us everything in the end (like the game). In our first 6 games we were better at red zone offense but still had some work to do with it. Now that Baltimore & Pitts is over, we got a major problem on offense but nothing that can’t be fixed.
McD is the coach, he needs to come up with some smart & clever playcalling. Conservative playcalling has its days and purpose but in this game taking risks is a necessity. Last time I checked McD was all about taking those risks… what happened dude? He needs to unleash Orton and trust him. Holding back Orton will only cause us similar problems to what we saw against Pittsburgh.
6-2 isn’t where I wanted us to be but it IS one of the best records right now in the AFC. We lost to 2 very good teams so it shouldn’t be that much of a shock. I’m more shocked at how we played those games. No consistency; no accuracy; offense can’t take advantage of what our D did causing our D to become worn out and sloppy at the end; ST still needs work. I honestly think our ST is worse off now that we have acquired Berger. I don’t like him at all. Is it really that hard to make a good punt?
Another enemy of ours – penalties. Oh me, oh my… the penalties. Make them stop!! Talk about an enemy that can ruin a game. I have to say the refs we had against Pittsburgh seemed a little too bias towards the Steelers for me but in other games penalties have killed a good drive. Its ridiculous how many penalties we accumulate in one game, let alone one half.
They just need to focus on Washington right now. I have a bad feeling they are all worried about SD creeping up on us. While that will be a concern when we face them in about 2 weeks… I got a little advice for the team… stop worrying about everyone else & just focus on what you have to do. We will have plenty of time to worry about SD in the week leading up to that game. Now is the time for all the focus to be on Washington and most of all this team playing better. They definitely have their work cut out for them right now.
Keep the faith Bronco Country…
GO BRONCOS!!!!
I’d love to say 6-2 is ok and is a great start, which I suppose it is, but to coin the phrase “what have you done for me lately” pretty much sums it up for me. These last 2 games has me just a little concerned with the direction the Broncos are headed. During the Baltimore game, their offense was running the no-huddle at us. Why didn’t the defense jam the receivers at the line? And why didn’t we just do some no-huddle of our own? Same goes with the Steelers game. I’m thinking other teams are going to plan on running the no-huddle as a staple of their game plan. It seems like a no-brainer for beating us, where we don’t seem to have an answer for it.
Also, as everyone else has been saying, Berger sucks! I don’t care if the punter kicks the ball clear out of the end zone. I’d rather the opposing team start at the 20 than to allow a potentially dangerous returner run it back for a TD. Bring back Brett Kern!!!
Go Broncos!!!!!
Half the nfl would take 6-2 right now
go Broncos !!!!!!
D played great till late in the 3rd Quater,then our 3 and out O killed the D because they could not get off the field. The D just plain got tired. O line needs to step it up, it all starts with the beef. GOT TO GO DEEP A FEW TIMES. Pittsburg was not even looking at the deep rout recievers, Troy just let them go and keyed the short rout. Running backs need to man up and put the face mask in someones chest, all they do is try to chop block every time. That will not get it done against very good D’s that Pitt and Baltimore have. Kyle had a bad game, it happens. He did however have a lot of pressure in his face all night. Throw a few up to Marshall deep and let him go get them, we all know he will either catch it or slap it down. Yes I will say it also, that will open up the running and short passing.
What happend to Eddie returning punts? This new punter is not doing to well either, I agree with other posts. ST have only had the one good game. At least MC D tried the adress the problem with punting.
The team needs to just focus. Stretch the field a little to open things up, give Kyle a little time to make the throws. We are 6-2 and still in good shape. Most teams have a stumble or Two in a season, really no need to panic. WE have started the season better than anyone expected, even us Broncos fans. Go to Washington and show what we are made of, thats all we need to do this week. One week at a time.
GO BRONCOS
Screw the MSM. You could crap more football knowledge out of your rear end than they could ever know. Yes, I agree with you about the Saints. The Vikings aren’t frauds, but when you live by the sword, you die by the sword. We’ll bounce back and show our true colors. GO BRONCOS!!!
Hey Coop,
I have a question for you being a retired O lineman. When we are on offense and we can’t move the ball, wouldn’t it make sense to have 2 to 3 plays called in advance and run the no huddle?. If we open in a 4 or 5 reciever set out of the shotgun we already have their nickle and dime packages out on the field. it should be easier to get the running game going because we are stretching the field without having their linebackers on the field to stop the run. I agree with most of the posts on here that KO has to help stretch the field by going deep, but if he doesnt have time to throw the ball because of inside pressure his recievers can’t get there. Another question is this?. Why have we completely shut down our bread and butter zone blocking scheme? We have faster, smaller, more athletic Olineman on the field that can get this done. When we run I think this would benefit our running backs especially Moreno who seems to run 100 mph into the line (1 cut and go). Also, when we pass out of this formation we can create misdirection by Orton faking the handoff ( which he is very good at I may add) getting the O line and Dline moving in one direction and Orton rolling out of the pocket the other way to buy time to get his recievers open down field. I realize this is not his most accurate, high percentage pass but, I also don’t buy into the notion that he can’t do it!. Given the time I know he can make these throws and I know our recievers can catch it and take it to the house. I think misdirection is the answer or a least part of it. comments??????????
Regards,
Coach
Coop, one game at a time seems to be the consensus, but I think we all know, deep inside, that’s not the way it really works in a 16 game season in the NFL. I mean every coach I’ve known, even so they always say we think of nothing but this week’s game, is planning much more long term than that, even all the way to the promise land. They all hold plays and players back to have something left or someone fresh for later games. Shanahan did constantly play it too close to the vest each time we’d have a lead as to save his plays for other games. It’s the nature of the beast in the NFL, it’s not exactly like Alcoholic Anonymous, where one day at a time is a religion. I think we all know that if we truly played it one game at a time and let it all out, we would be much more successful on that particular game, but the long term results might suffer from it. IMO, one game at a time is good for what it is, just a way of telling everyone one game does not a season make, you lose some, you win some, let’s just think about winning the next one, but it really isn’t the way it’s all planned out by the coaches who have down the road post season aspirations, is it?
Sorry Coop, Here we are with loss number 2. The honeymoon is over. Mcdaniels still cant see that the Broncos are one dimensional. He says we have to get the running game going. Thats what the other teams are keying on. They are telling you, Mcdaniels beat us with the pass. Guess what we cant, we have no quarterback. Why, thats right Mcdaniels traded him. How hard is it for the other defense to stop a one dimensional team because thats what we are. The arguement I keep hearing is we were 6 and 0. Lets see we beat the Bengals on a fluke play, Browns,whats there record, Raiders; again whats there record, San Diego, Cowboys which arent playing well and the Patriots. The patriots is closes thing to a good team which we barely beat. Not a good test for a successful team. We start to play decent teams and are weaknesses are in the open. I guess when the owner wanted a defense Mcdaniels thought that meant we didnt need a offense because for one of the top offenses we had over the last few years this one is dismal at best. I guess Mcdaniels will cost us the season because his pride wont allow him to say Orton is a back up quarterback at best. Mcdaniels keep throwing 4 yard passes east and west because our qb cant pass over the top. But thats another story.
Nice post Coop. Sorry your outing was hampered by weather. I’m a little disappointed at some of the negativity being launched at our team now…both in the media and even on these blogs. I think we are in the middle of a tremendous re-building process that is very successful thus far. I compare us directly to the Buccaneers in the fact that they have a new coach/system and look what has happened….they just got thier first win. It takes alot longer to build an offense than defense. Let’s keep our heads up and realize what this year is REALLY….a successful re-building campaign.
I see we have replaced Ben Hamilton with Russ Hochstien at LG. I had mentioned in earlier posts that Hamilton was getting beat pretty badly….facing some awesome DTs. Don’t know if that will be enough against Haynesworth. I hope so. Improvements in the run game will open up the play action and get us moving the ball again/scoring points.
radeo: Keep your head up dude. I see us having a 10 win season at least. BTW the Cowboys lead thier division and just beat a very good Eagles team to get there and the Chargers are winners of 3 straight and coming right for us. Don’t sell those victories short. Hang in there with us man!!! If your not with us your against us.
GO BRONCOS!!!! South Stands Forever!!! The Orange Crush Lives!!
radeo, I respect your right to your opinions, but I’m with raidrhadr telling you to keep your head up, you’re just about on the outside looking in with your comments, be careful, you might look foolish if you need to get back on the wagon later on. You probably won’t be welcomed back with open arms, this is a tough crowd.
Im not able to post? what’s up
Looks like last one worked.
Radeo, come on bro, get your head up or I’ll have to re-name you sad-sack…you have to be kidding, you sould like Woody Paige saying change quarterbacks……….seriously?? I like Simms (a lot)
raidrhadr, yea Hamilton been struggling a little and maybe a little rest will help…we often don’t know if a guys playing hurt either….believe me on that one.
baylinorcrush, one game at a time is all you can do. Honestly, if you’re looking ahead you’re distracted, each week you have a specific gameplan cooked up for the exact opponent based on tendencies, trends, past film and experiences playing them in the past and personnel, etc. You can’t look ahead or you’re wasting time and energy elsewhere. It would be kind of like driving down the highway looking at two traffic lights ahead, you might run the first two…make sense. You can only worry about what’s directly in front of you FIRST.
coachemup, agree it does, but they haven’t shown that style of offense yet this year…don’t get me wrong on the dink and dunk, you can set up the long ball and open up the middle of the field on two deep coverage so I may have emphasized that more than I really mean.
whitebronco#1 & Brian, I agree we need to get the ground game going and someone said it above, I’d like to see Hillis more too but I’m not the coach. We need a running game going and pure and simple turnovers and pressure was the telltale and the line of scrimmage….all fixable.
Trivia Question: Who threw 5 picks last week in the NFL
)…sorry had to go there.
Answer?
WAITING??
Coop: I think you meant last night and not last week lol….
That would be our good ol buddy 12 td’s 17 int vajayjay huckdort……………..
COOP! Sound’s like you had a heck of a trip. I was going to post a link to a picture in The Steamboat Pilot of a 9yr old girl in Steamboat who caught a big rainbow this weekend but I couldn’t find it again. The look on Her face was priceless.
How ya been?
I’ve been to busy working two jobs and the third shift schedule has put a real damper on my posting. I also have to admit I did’nt post the last two weeks cause I felt The Broncos would lose those, and I did’nt want to bring anybody down. However I come on all the time and atleast read what’s out there, there is so many more posts this time of year as well it’s hard to be heard. You’ve been right on the money the last few weeks and I wanna say thanks for posting and responding to evreybody. YOU ROCK ! ! !
I feel for Ben He really has been playing poorly, and I do wonder if He’s been hurt or not.
As a former O-Lineman, what’s your thought’s on how a lineman feel’s about pass blocking as often as The Broncos did monday night. I played RG in high school and I have to tell ya I hated to pass block every down. Our mind set was alway’s to start a game strong with a good dose of running up the middle no matter what kind of yardage we got. The line would be moveing forward and in complete unison, this always created a rythum, a balance and it was as if a switch would turn on and BAM! Things would click and everything we did became easier. Did you ever feel this?
I also felt when your moveing backwards all the time you would trip or step on someone inadvertantly and fall backwards instead of forwards. Which leads to injury, I always liked to keep my feet under me.
I think this is why I always harp about running the ball on first down, and I don’t care how many yards we get. It just gets the O Line in sink.
Any way I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Here’s to that Switch turning on, BAM!
TIME OF POSSESSION ! ! !
GO BRONCOS ! ! !
Coop, thanks for answering us. There is nothing better than having a player to discuss our team with. I’m glad to know players play it one day at a time and only one day at at time as you explained it to me, it definitely gives us the best shot at a win every week. I still think it’s somehow different for the Head Coaches with post-season aspirations, they can’t show their hands every week, just like poker, you gotta bluff them sometimes and save stuff for later on. Just my opinion from the sideline, specially having watched Shanahan for so many years playing it close to the vest as soon as he established a lead, so he would show not an iota more than he had to in order to save it for other games. In fact he didn’t mind losing to Miami in the regular season, just so he could kill them in post-season. That was his MO.
COOP, I forgot to tell ya I met Karl Mecklinberg(spelling?) this week. He was at The Steamboat Grand (my part time job) giving a motivational speach. I got to shake His big hand and say hi all on the clock. Very cool. Talk to ya later.
Thanks for the feedback Coop. My son is now playing on the O-line… Center position. He really enjoys it and we go over the plays together. I was able to be one of the assistant coaches for the past 6 years for his Team. I played jr/sr high school football at SS/FS. At any rate, it’s great to hear from you here on the web.
Let’s see if we can get our running game going against the Skins tomorrow!
GO BRONCOS!!!!
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