FanPost

Screens From the Philly Game

During the Philadelphia game, I noticed that McDaniels called A LOT of screen plays. Even the commentators noticed this as well. The screens would work sometimes, but most of the time, they were stuffed, they lost yardage, or they gained very little yards. The redundant screen calls were annoying the heck out of me. I'm almost positive that our team called a screen play on every drive! When the team got the ball at or near the 50 yard line, on their last three possessions, they had trouble moving the ball because the screen plays weren't working. They would lose yardage, giving the team long yard situations to convert...which is hard for ANY TEAM to do, not just the Denver Broncos.

This is an Amoeba offense, from what I've heard, so if the screens weren't working, why did McDaniels keep calling them?

Well, as you know, our offensive line is truly mediocre. They can't give Orton any time to throw, and with Orton's lack of mobility, things just get worse. One thing that I liked about Jay Cutler was that he could move in the pocket. He made smart decisions when he was flushed...sometimes. Usually he would force the ball, but this isn't the point of my post. Jay was very good at avoiding the rush and he had good pocket prescence. Another thing he did well was throw INTs when he could've taken a sack. One reason why I'm thankful that we no longer have Cutler.

Another thing about the comparison of Orton to Cutler...Cutler is faster than Orton, so he has more confidence to tuck it and run. Orton seems to lack the confidence to scramble.

Now, back to the screens. Our offensive line has been horrendous this year (at least compared to last year). In the Philly game, Orton had absolutely NO TIME to throw (only on a few drop backs, did he have sufficient time to throw). Since McDaniels is a supporter of the Amoeba offense, the proper response for having less time to throw the ball is to run screens, to absorb the pressure...let the pressure get to the QB, leaving the halfback, or the wide receiver open. This is the only way to counter pressure from the other team...that and running draw plays, but IMHO draw plays are less effective than screens.

I didn't like all the screen plays, because they were too predictable, which allowed Philadelphia to stuff them. Since our offensive line couldn't protect Orton for as long as he needed, they had no choice but to do this. I'm pretty sure that screens are used to fool a defense when they blitz, but Philly didn't blitz that much at all. Our o-line would let the Eagles get pressure on Orton when they only rushed 4 guys! So they have 7 guys in coverage waiting for that screen! Since McDaniels was calling it so much (because he had no other choice) the 7 guys in coverage knew what was coming. It all starts up front with our offensive line. I think that once we get new guards in the draft, our offense will be able to sustain drives, and we'll see McDaniels' playbook open up a bit more. Right now, with our o-line being what it is now, our offense is limited.

We can hang tough with the elite teams, for a while, but when it matters the most (at the end of games) this team just can't hang on. If Chris Kuper isn't called for that holding penalty when they were backed up inside their own ten, then they would've either won the game, or it would've went into OT. Like I said, it all starts up front.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.