In the microwave world of the NFL, there doesn’t seem to be much time for anything.
Until now.
Normally, the pressure on a team to win now borders on ridiculous. Granted, no team wants to struggle but please, there are a lot of good coaches, players and teams in the league.
The good teams are trying to get better and the bad ones are as well. Many of the bad teams go for the quick fix. The Broncos have been there, done that and don’t even have the T-shirt anymore because it didn’t work.
Now, the Broncos seem to be trying the old fashioned way: Give some guys a chance to play and see what develops.
Certainly that is the case with quarterback Tim Tebow. In his first three starts, Tebow played poorly but still helped pull out a win against a bad Miami team. Then he played really poorly against a really good Detroit squad before turning in a solid performance against a puzzling Oakland team.
In the win against the Raiders, the Broncos turned to Tebow’s old friend, the read option, for success. Tebow looked more at ease in the offense he has run virtually all of his football life.
“As I’ve said all along, we’re trying to put guys in positions where they can succeed,” head coach John Fox said. “In his particular case, it’s something [QB Tim Tebow] is more comfortable with, he has a lot of background in it, he’s got a lot of confidence in it. We’re asking a lot, not just of Tim, but our entire offense—the coaching staff, everybody involved. We’ve kind of grown it as we’ve grown with Tim. There is no question that we are looking for balance in the run and the pass. We’re probably leaning a little bit more on the run right now. We have to improve in the pass game because in this league, you have to be two dimensional, not one dimensional, and it’s something that’s I’m sure he’ll grow, we’ll grow, in time.”
The question is: Can an NFL team experience long-term, championship-level success with that offense?
“I’ve spent a lot of time in the NFC South, and we competed against the Atlanta Falcons when they had Michael Vick,” Fox said. “Call it what you like, it was that quarterback having the ability to run that creates havoc on defenses because they don’t count that guy as a runner. Whether it’s taking off or not, they led the league in rushing for about four straight years, and Michael had a lot to do with that. He’s grown as a passer. He’s in the ‘West Coast Offense’ now, but he’s made some things happen in the Philadelphia Eagle offense, and that’s just the nature of his abilities. It’s kind of been done, but maybe not to the exact level where we’re kind of at right now.”
That sounds like a definite, “I’m not sure yet.”
And there is no reason Coach Fox should be sure. Teams that have dominated the NFL recently, such as the Patriots, Colts or Steelers, rely on quarterbacks who can dominate a game by passing the football. Sure, Pittsburgh usually has at least a really good running game, but the Steelers also have a quarterback who can throw with the best of them.
I’m hard-pressed to name a recent Super Bowl champion that has relied on the option game. That’s not to say it can’t happen. But it certainly is to say that if it were that easy, more teams would be trying it.
Only time will tell how successful the Broncos can be if they rely on an option-oriented offense. Defenses will no doubt adjust to what the Broncos did against the Raiders, that is, using the option to primarily run the football. One would think Denver will have to mix in more of a passing game into their version of the option.
How the offense evolves will likely take some time to develop. How much success the Broncos can have remains an open question.
It sure looks like the Broncos are going to take at least a little time to find out.
Kansas City is up next. How do you think this game will go? Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
Best,
Mike
I’m with Ryan Grant… if you hit em high you get a fine, hit em low their career is over…so you might as well put em to sleep. When do we get a new NFL commissioner because some of those hits don’t even have helmet to helmet and they draw 15yd penalties.
Yep, from what I heard on ESPN last evening, the NFL charities are going to be making a lot of money off of these players that get flagged for these hits. The fine dished out this past weekend for a hit was $40K. Stiff!!! to say the least.
I hope your right but does the Johns think that way. In all honosty, I do not know what they are both thinking. If it was up to me, I`d keep Tim Tebow as our QB. In my estimation as for our next draft come April, the holes we need to fill are RB,CB,DT, and LB. And lots of added depth at many positions.
These fines are a joke. Real insanity on the commissioners part. It`s rather confusing to me.
That is exactly what I was saying strand, but, like you, with their actions concentrating on these college qb’s, there is no telling what their thought process is. I personally don’t think TT will have past this season to prove himself here. If that is the case they should have traded him when they had the opportunity to do so. IF my memory serves me, which most of the time it doesn’t, it took Elway two seasons to produce a winning season, so giving TT just these
11 games is an injustice.
I must have hit enter before finishing. sorry.
What would be really funny is that if he continues to improve with his passing game each week and we ended up in the playoffs, winning the division this season. I wonder what they would do then at the draft, or better yet, what their comments would even be?
In John Elways 2nd season the Broncos went 13-3 and the media still said that he`s just a prima donna. It`s still the same noise. Go figure?!
Thats a good problem to have though.
How quick people forget, Elway got us in the playoffs in his first season, it’s only his first few games that were real bad.
My gut feeling is that the Broncos are going to do everything in their power to obtain Andrew Luck. I believe Andrew Luck is eyeing the Broncos too. I think that Elway and Luck are whispering in each others ear from a distance. I keep thinking of John Elway on the sidelines at the Colorado Stanford game. There`s a plan in the making. I really believe that.
See there Bay, I said IF my memory served me. You know it doesn’t. lol
Steve Deberg played in a few of those games but yeah Bay, your right.
strand, I believe that too. I just hope that if there is that it doesn’t backfire on him. Isn’t there rules about talking or whatever with these players or something like that? It could be really bad for us, him and Standford if they do.
John Elways famous words after his first NFL start against the Steelers and being sacked by Jack Lambert, ( You can have the 5 million back).
Elway’s famous words after lining up behind the wrong lineman for the snap:
“Where in the hell is the damn ball!”
Yes to a degree. I`m not sure how it works right now but once the season is over, the Broncos can only speak to the team that has the #1 pick overall. There are rules to engagement. I don`t know the extent of it. But you know that at the Buffs Cardinals game they both got to talking and thats a given.
LMAO!!
John Elway was the #1 scout on that day. Inside of his own heart he was saying WOW about the young stud of a QB.
I hope someone in the blog admnistration passes that one onto John, Elway will get a kick out of it, the 10:38 am post.
The O-lineman was probably saying to himself, what the hell? Oh it`s John, dude, I`m the Guard, not Center.
It would have tripped me out, only the C knows about the situation in football. LOL
Great piece Mr. Rice!
If this ‘offensive scheme’ allows us to gain 299 on the ground, I say go with it until someone stops us.
GO BRONCOS!!!
And K.C. stunk up the joint in their own backyard.
No Young didn’t run the option. That wasn’t my point. I’m just saying that young QBs like Young, Vick, and Tebow rely on their legs early in their careers to win games. The option offense is facilitating that but is not a long term solution that Denver is going to stick with. It is just our best option to win now
Hey Bay,
Are you referring to ’83 or ’84 as Elways first year?If ’83 you might want to go research a little more.According to ’83 manuel a majority of the games won and points put on the board were by DeBurg.1 W in ’83 can be credited to Kubiac and 2 W’s to Elway.Though we did go to the playoffs DeBurg gets the credit for gettin’ us there.
Checked the ’83 handbook twice to make sure I was correct in stating that.
I apologize if I misunderstood your posts but it seemed to me that you were giving Elway the credit for us getting to the playoffs in ’83.
Answer in the following blog and good job on you doing the research.
When I indulge in predictions, I assume an opponent will play to their potential. The way this season has gone, generally speaking, for all of the NFL, I would ban all short sideline passes — defensive backs seem to have become very savvy in anticipating them, and many of these passes are intercepted and taken back for a score. One of the things that impressed me about watching Rivers against the Chiefs, was, that, to me, he seemed to respect the Chief’s deep secondary — he didn’t go there, unless he absolutely had to. Even so, playing a game like this is an invaluable experience, and if it is decided to go deep, against coverage, and it does get intercepted, I am willing to take that in stride, even if it should happen several times. Let’s say an opening offensive series by the Broncos goes — run middle, 0 yards; run left tackle, -1 yard; run wide right, 0 yards, punt. I would say things are not looking up for the Broncos, since we are going to have to be forced to put the ball in the air. But even so, we still are going to need to call ground plays, because, even if it is asking our back to run into a wall, we need the defense to know that we are still going to attack on the ground. If the Broncos are forced to attack with a short passing game, running backs need to remember protecting the ball after a catch is a bit trickier than protecting the ball after a hand-off, since they cannot predict where exactly they will be receiving the ball — shoulder height, behind them, in their chest, and so on. Medium pass routes are still susceptible to being intercepted — but success with them would help open the game, including the run, and the ability to pass deeper. If the Broncos are caught in the mode of determining what works offensively, then good play by the punting unit becomes important. Defensively, I don’t expect the Broncos to come up blitz heavy against the Chiefs, unless they have reason to believe that the Chiefs are tiring. Most offensive units will predominantly utilize a ground attack, until reaching mid-field, (or, say, their own forty-yard line), before “switching” to an air assault. If Broncos are going to blitz early in a series, I would make them run-support type blitzes, (such as strong safety blitzes). Generally, most offenses with a lead, even with a modest lead, will predominantly use a ground game. But the Bronco defense cannot allow their own defensive call schemes to become too complacent, or predictable. If the Chiefs employ a punishing rushing attack, Defensive lineman will need to be judicious when to make an effort to penetrate and go after the quarterback, to help protect against unexpected pass calls. I would employ Mike Blitz packages to help pressure the quarterback in quick, short-step routes.
To me it doesn’t matter what happen back in 83″ or 84″ thats all history. All I hope is they have the Broncos ready to play tomorrow. When I say they I mean the coaches Fox, McCoy, Allen & the ST’s coach (can’t remember who he is).
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