exciting, anticipated year of Broncos football since I became a fan. I think the new offense that McD is going to incorporate with the Broncos is going to be stellar. He does make it sound like it’s going to be difficult to learn though. This year’s offense is going to be a scoring machine!!!

I think your charts show only a piece of a bigger puzzle. The Pats defense has been more consistent than the Broncos over the same span and helped give them a shorter field to score on. At the same time the Broncos over that span haven’t always had a short field to play on thus having ot make up yards and not necessarily score.

I posted yesterday that I expect the Broncos to make less yards but more points, and going with a better defense and special teams play, we should win more games then we did last year. There is no reason not to. 13-3 Baby!!! Until we’re not.

I think your conclusions are correct. What we learned from the Broncos is the concept of “empty yards” (my term), which means a lot of yards to nowhere.

The Pats have “efficient yards” (again, a made up term) which are yards that actually lead to an endzone or field goal.

As a defensive coordinator who used the bend don’t break philosophy, I was always happy to give up empty yards. The other team took time off the clock, and had more time to make mistakes (turnovers), but were not going to score without spending a lot of time (and just plain likely not to score at all).

Yards are nice, but without points they are a stat without meaning.

I had to back to the 2004 and 2005 stats in order to see for myself what the difference was.

It looks to me that AFTER 2005 the Broncos got away from what we always did best. Running the ball. Each year we became less and less balanced and leaned more and more on the passing game.

2004-4089pass, 2333rush (Balanced,maybe heavy pass)
2005-3373pass, 2539rush (Balanced)
2006-2995pass, 2152rush (terrible all around)
2007-3759pass, 1862rush (Heavy pass)
2008-4545pass, 1957rush (whoa Nelly, heavy pass)

Great visual of one of our downfalls last year. Of course one of our problems last year was not having a RB to help with the load—but we definitely had a problem.

Obviously McDaniels saw the problem also thus the Moreno pick.

The problem with predicting the portability of the NE offense to Denver is that over the NE Dynasty they’ve had two pretty special players in Brady and Moss. I guess with Brady you can always make the chicken or egg argument: Did the system make him or vise-versa? (I personally don’t know the answer to that one) But the evidence is clear that it was Moss that elevated the NE offense from merely effecient to explosive and sometimes seemingly impossible to defend. I think the Moss factor is vastly underrated in the making of both McDaniels and Matt Cassell’s legend (although I’m still very pro-McD at this point).

The fact is, Randy Moss isn’t reporting to Dove Valley any time soon. Because of that, though I’m excited about the new offense, my expectations come with nagging restraint. I like the personnel we have for the offense as I understand it, but the lack of a deep threat and the lack of a feared QB might have some major implications. We’ll see, I guess.

Like you, my time is maximized right now, but I would love to see more of your findings. These are great visual aids.
Maybe you can get some help with this(like Aimee does for Agent Jerry). :-)

I like the way the Broncos have gone, but I still believe that 8-8 would be a huge step forward from last year…all things considered.

This goes back to the predraft and postdraft discussions when McD coyly claimed that there will be something in our running game that hasn’t been done before. Now he’s stating that in general terms for the offense. It’s something to look for, and it’s a chance to permit him to explore new ways to employ our players. I can’t wait

Shanahan and the players were always saying IF they did this or that then “good things will happen” at the end of every sentence. (Maybe it was “opportunity to be special”).

I’m not hearing that phraseology this year. Maybe it is that the amazing grasp of the obvious statements are no longer felt to be necessary?

“Another 100 catch season, go to the playoffs, hopefully make it to the big game — that is the best scenario for any football player,” he said of his goals. “I’m excited. I’m on track to being 100 percent. I’m on track to do some big things and hopefully I can get to the playoffs and win some games.”

This will be one of the most exciting seasons of this new century thus far. That much is for certain.

What isn’t is my (our?) general understanding of exactly what our O will look like via schemes and play calling…. I can’t wait to see the style we use, or what kind of finesse we show while performing. Oh, grandeur, will thou be-eth present and endure with Us, for the entirety of the season?
(Yes and) Thanks again super7!