Broncos Thoughts
- The Denver Broncos are currently reeling from their first loss of the season as well as having Head Coach Gary Kubiak on their minds with his sudden collapse and hospital stint. On Monday, Broncos General Manager and Vice President of Football Operations John Elway relayed that Gary Kubiak is going to have the week off and that during his absence Joe DeCamillis would be taking over. DeCamillis was given the nod over Wade Phillips who has not only been a full head coach in the National Football League, but has performed interim duties as well, Eric Studesville who performed the Interim duties when former head coach and current Patriot’s offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel's was let go and Rick Dennison who is a long time offensive coordinator in Denver and Houston and many felt he would make more sense do to Gary Kubiak calling the plays for the Offense already. I’ve heard some chatter about the reasoning for Joe DeCamillis being given the nod is because of a theory that he would get some attention for a head coaching job like a John Harbaugh in Baltimore who was also a special teams coordinator. Now John Elway mentioned that the reason for DeCamillis being given the nod was because it would allow Dennison and Phillips the opportunity to exclusively focus on their responsibilities for their respective sides of the ball in preparation for the game against San Diego on Thursday night. Elway also said that DeCamillis had been working with Kubiak in game management scenarios.
DeCamillis is a long time coach in the NFL and is league wide considered one of the top Special Teams Coordinators in the league, it should scare you if DeCamillis does well and it propels him to a head coaching job after the season because he is invaluable to the success of the Broncos Special Teams. I think any panic that may be out there that we are without Kubiak is for nothing, coaching and team sports are a collaborative effort and Dennison will be fine in play calling, he’s done the job before and has worked with Kubiak and the Broncos way for many many years including being a player on defense in Denver during his playing years.
2) The loss to the Falcons in a 23–16 loss that was nowhere near as close as the final score indicates should cause Broncos fans to come back to earth. Many Broncos fans including myself were pretty confident entering into Sunday that the Broncos would really only need to stop Julio Jones and that everything else would fall into place. The Broncos were generally unable to stop the run with Freeman and Coleman and Falcons Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shannahan whose name should ring a bell as his father Mike Shannahan was a great head coach in Denver who guided the Broncos to two Superbowl's. Kyle himself was a coach in Denver and also worked for Gary Kubiak in Houston with Wade Phillips. Shannahan was very familiar with what the Broncos were going to do to attack the Falcons and brilliantly used his running backs in one on one match ups with the likes of Todd Davis, Brandon Marshall, and Corey Nelson and allowed his quick running backs to run free and make people miss in open field. Shannahan successfully exposed the linebackers in this area. The Broncos need to be aware of the weakness but I’m not sure that to many teams on the Broncos schedule have the personnel to make this work. The biggest worry I believe is the Patriots who have not been shy to move to an empty backfield and put the RB on the outside, this was the case with the likes of James White, Shane Vereen, Danny Woodhead. Watch for the Patriots to try to do what the Falcons did.
3) The Broncos running game is atrocious, I was listening to a local station in Denver who said that the Broncos must be missing Ronnie Hillman. I don’t think it’s Ronnie Hillman the Broncos miss, it’s the outside running threat the Hillman provided. The Broncos need to compensate the up the middle running they have been running and allow Anderson outside and incorporate Fullback Andy Janovich into the fold as a short yardage (either run or pass) option. To my recollection there was one play where Janovich got stuffed going for it on 3rd and short and another where a throw to Janovich was incomplete. Janovich has the size and speed to create a mismatch and on play actions can provide an unaccounted for receiving threat or extra blocker. Janovich up until the game against the Falcons was the number one graded Fullback on Pro Football Focus. The Falcons used their Fullback Patrick DiMarco more efficiently then the Broncos used Janovich and Dimarco entered into week five as the number five graded Fullback on Pro Football Focus. CJ Anderson looked like he did at the end of last season during week one a the Panthers. I would argue that the Broncos running problems can be attributed to the Offensive line.
4) The Broncos offensive line was once again taken advantage of like it was last year when Khalil Mack got a five sack game, against Michael Schofield and allowed Vic Beasley to run wild with what might as well should have been a four sack performance. Beasley was viewed by many as not living up to his draft stock in terms of production as a first round pick and he looked like an all-pro against the Broncos. Ty Sambrailo is not healthy and should not have been on the field and the Broncos finally figured this out towards the end of the game when they allowed Training Camp surprise Darrion Weems to take over at guard and kicked Schofield out to right tackle where he’s looked much better than he did last year. The Broncos better hope that major free agent signing of Russell Okung can finally defeat his injury prone label and stay healthy because he and Matt Paradis look like they’re what is keeping things afloat on the Offensive Line. Max Garcia appears to have regressed after looking like he was a great find for a fourth rounder and has been bulldozed and gotten some really stupid penalty’s.
5) In the words of Bill Belichick we are on to San Diego. Okay that’s not an exact quote, but it’s the mindset the Broncos need to take. San Diego, who has suffered a lot of injuries this year like they did last year to up and coming star corner Jason Verrett and one of the leaders in Manti Teo among others such as Keenan Allen and Stevie Johnson will surely play hard as they have been in positions to win most of their games and even last year despite the injuries were coached well by old offensive coordinator Mike McCoy. Don’t forget the emergence of 1st Round RB from a year ago Melvin Gordon who is finally coming into his own combined with Phillip Rivers and Travis Benjamin who has taken over the 1st Wide Receiver position due to injuries who has played well. Antonio Gates who returned last week performed well and Hunter Henry who was the top Tight End taken in this years draft in the 2nd round has shown ability as well.
The Broncos defense can and will take advantage of San Diego’s depleted offense. San Diego has experienced some problems with ball security as both Travis Benjamin and Melvin Gordon have fumbled in the last two games. The Broncos offense who is optimistic it will regain it’s leader in Trevor Siemian can take advantage of the loss of Verrett and Teo as well as not having to worry about safety Eric Weddle who departed in the off season to Baltimore. The fact that you have DeCamillis taking over this week should be encouraging to Broncos fans, because after the loss last week, the Broncos needed all hands available on Offense and Defense where the Broncos struggled and not on special teams which was not an issue. The Broncos need to focus on stopping the run so the outstanding secondary can BE the “No Fly Zone”. My prediction? Broncos 24-Chargers 14. In the words of Aaron Rodgers “R-E-L-A-X”.