A Look at the Broncos from the East Coast

As some of you know, I am from NJ, and have been all my life. I have also been a fan of the Broncos all my life, and I still don't know how I became one. I wanted to post this because I want some of you to see what the rest of the country thinks of our team, and how their non-homer opinion might be useful

First off, being from NJ, and living 15 mins away from Giants stadium, there are a lot of Gmen and Jets fans. However, surprisingly I know a couple Eagles fans as well. This is because when your in Northern Jerz, "the city" is NY, while "the city" in Southern NJ is Philly.

I mention the Gmen because their isues I feel are very similar to ours. For some reason, our once dominant OL's are now our team's weaknesses. I, and Giants fans as well, have no clue as to why this happened, as our personeel's are identical to last yr. I guess for us it could be pinpointed to the loss of Harris, but Polumbus hasn't been our only problem. with the Giants they have the same exact guys, the same one that led one of the best rushing attacks in history. What's the problem? I don't know, and neither do they.

The main reason for this post, was to discuss the Eagles. I know a couple Eagles fans, and usually I catch their games when they play. They are a very good team, however, they have plenty of weaknesses. Watching their games, you can tell they live on the big play, and that's usually with DeSean Jackson, a good, young receiver.  I say only good because beyond the deep routes (fades, posts, corners etc.) he has no impact on the game. He is easily blanketed by shutdown corners, so with Champ I rly dont fear him too much. However, if we are in zone, I worry our safetys might get beat deep, so we must be aware of that.

We also cannot afford to ignore the rest of the WR's. These other guys have made the O go. Maclina nd Avant have had good seasons, and Brown has been a good #4 WR. And dont forget Celek. It will be tough, but our veteran secondary has to account for all these guys.

One of our only struggles on D has been our run D. against this eagles team, this shouldn't be a problem, as McCoy has been unimpressive. I remember when he was drafted, all my Eagles friends tried to convince me McCoy was the steal of the draft and was much better than Moreno. Although Moreno hasn't had an Adrian Peterson type rookie year, I am glad we have Knowshon over McCoy.

Their OL, which was supposed to be dominant bcause of the acquisition of Peters, has been pretty average. They are not good in run blocking, and their pass blocking errors have been masked by McNabb's feet. This OL can easily be exposed by a good front 7, and I think we can do just that.

Now, a QB that never gets enough credit, McNabb. The guy does so much for this team, and gets more crap for it than Cutler does for his INTs. We need to stop him if we wanna win. Now most of the time, you hear teams say to beat a QB, you need to pressure him. With McNabb, this isn't so. Even Eagles fans agree that McNabb actually does better when pressured, as it allows him to leave the pocket and either beat you with his feet or with his arm.

So the way I see it, our run D should be fine, but we need to emphasize keepin Donovan in the pocket with containment from Ayers and Doom.

On O, we have been disgraceful as of late. I think one of the biggest reasons why we haven't had much O success was because we havent spread the ball around like we used to. I feel that Orton is just looking for BMarsh on every play, and is ignoring our depth of pass catchers. I remember during the 6 game win streak that we would have 8-10 different guys in the catch column. Now, its been about 3-5 a game. We need to spread the ball because, although Samuels aint the greatest cover corner, if you throw at him too much (and we will if we throw it to BMarsh too much) he'll get a pick or 2.

And going along with spreading it around, we must use quick passes as well. The Eagles are notorious for their zone blitzes. The best way to defeat them is quick passes, and spreading the ball around. With the way our OL has been playing, and the way the Eagles can rush the passer, I think our best bet is to use plenty of 3 step drops and expose their ferocious blitzes.

With the run game, dont expect too much. The Eagles have quietly (if you dont know eagles fans) ammased a top 10 run D. We should use the run game, but dont expect it to win the game. To win, were gonna have to spread the ball, and expose the Eagles lack of depth at CB, and the lack of the diference maker of this game: BDAWK!!!!!!!!!!!

Key points summary:

D:

1. shut down big plays from Jackson

2. keep McNabb in pocket

3. depth at corner must overcome Eagles surprising depth at WR

O:

1. spread ball around

2: dont throw to BMarsh too much, and dont throw at Samuels too much

3. Quick passes to expose blitzes and protect Orton.

Go Broncos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!