and nice Dig. Thanks B.

I’ve been wondering if the defense is on the field more and have more plays against them giving opposing teams more film to see. Doesn’t that give advantage to opposing teams also?
When you add poor defensive coaching (as had been commented on many times) to all this, I believe the defense was much worse than its talent.
When I look at this years team on both offense and defense, the only weakness I see is the DL
Excellent research, I think its a powerful argument to your point.

I saw a lot of three and outs the last couple of years, it seemed they were especially prevalent in the second half, and while that is true (52%) it’s not as much as I thought. If we can let the defense rest a little bit, especially in the second half, I think our team will be immensely better for it.

Its fun to know that we have less than a month to see how Orton, Simms, and the rest of the offense perform with pads. I agree that the ‘Best defense is a great offense’ ………I remember a time when we had a truly great defense and had to face Dan Fouts……….How that Charger team did not win a Super Bowl is still a mistery to me.

It kind of closes the lid of doubt on the team not needing fixes of the O kind. What you illustrated could be seen in almost every game if people would just open their eyes and see the game as a whole instead of what they want to see. The major reason Bates and Slowik were soon to be idios amigos.

The majority (51%) of our scoring occurred in the 1st half, while the majority (52%) of our 3 plays or less drives occurred in the 2nd half. Which gives the impression that the team philosophy was to score points in the 1st half, then go conservative and depend on the defense to keep the other team from scoring in the 2nd.

Not only did we always start quickly and fade in games, we did that during the season too (Even during the Superbowl runs too). One of the things I was absolutely sick of.

however, I think the numbers you have don’t represent the true picture. Football Outsiders compiles a number of very interesting statistics on teams, including drive statistics.

Last season Denver had 164 drives averaging 38.4 yards per drive. That was the best in the entire NFL. Ind gained almost a full yard less per drive, NO almost 2 yds less per drive and NE almost 3 less. Furthermore, Denver had the worst average starting position in the NFL at their own 25.85 yard line. Denver converted a set of downs into a 1st down or points 74.1% of the time; that was 4th best in the league. Denver was the best team at moving the ball down the field, but they also have to go the farthest of any team. While the O sometimes created their own troubles the defense really was that bad. Denver’s defense averaged starting at the opponent’s 30.2 yard line (16th) but they gave up 36.9 yards per drive (31st). Only Detroit was worse.

Even the scoring issue has become somewhat skewed. Denver scored 2.16 pts per drive, 9th best in the NFL. The Broncos were also 9th best in TDs per drive. While the offense was not as efficient in the redzone as some other teams, much of their troubles were that they got the ball with worse field position then had to drive farther than any of the other “top” offenses.

However, as good as they were in other offensive categories, they were equally bad at taking care of the ball. At 17.7%, only SF had a higher percentage of drives resulting in turnovers. Denver was 4th in Ints/Dr (11%) AND 4th in Fum/Dr (6.7%). Furthermore the QB and a particularly receiver accounted for half of all of the Broncos fumbles. Those TOs stopped drives, backed the D up, took points off the board, and in some cases actually put points on the board for the opposing team.

Denver’s D was as bad as it has been made out to be. At the same time, while the O was elite in most aspects, they were very careless at taking care of the ball. The good news is that, while we may not crank out as many yards next year, if we take care of the ball and the D improves just a little bit, we probably won’t need to crank out as many yards to put points on the board.

Imagine playing in a scheme that doesn’t allow you to be aggressive and where frequent changes to the scheme have created a steady state of confusion. Now add in the lack of leadership on the sideline and on the field (especially after DJ and Champ went down). Now factor in an offense that moves the ball like a machine between the 20’s thereby creating hope but that invariably fails to score thereby crushing it. It’s no wonder that by the Sandyeggo game they had all but checked out. It’s also no wonder Bdawk was the first FA signed. That dude will crawl inside someones helmet if they fail to give less than 100% !!

I’m not saying that the offense wasn’t good. In most ways it was very very good. The only three real problem areas I can see the offense as having is:

1)Scoring on only 41% of our drives
2)Turning the ball over on 30% of our drives
3)Playing 3 downs or less on 29% of our drives

I draw two things out of those three statistics.

First, it would appear to me that those three things would have contributed to taking a dreadful defense and turning it into an abominable defense by not giving the defensive players the time to regroup mentally and/or physically.

Second, this seems to explain why McDaniels spent so much time and energy on the offense when our defense was so incredibly bad. In essence, our defense was so bad that the offense couldn’t cover the checks that the defense was writing.

So, knowing the defense was not a single season fix, and being committed to winning now, McDaniels addressed the problem areas on the offense, to at least reduce those three problems, in order to give the team time to improve the defense. In essesnce, he is making sure the offense can cover the defense’s bad checks.

that just as I’ve been suggesting that our offensive performance exacerbated the situation for a pitiful defense (too many short drives, too many turnovers, too little time of possession, etc) it can also be stated the the dreadful play of our defense wreaked havoc for the offense (too many points given up, too long a time off the field to get into a strong rhythm, etc), and that the play of our special teams created problems for both the offense and the defense (starting drives too deep in our territory, giving the opposing offense too short a field, etc).

All of which goes to show that all three units have to be functioning at least adequately; or if one is below par, the other two have to step it up. And that didn’t happen in 2008.

Which, again, suggests to me the logic behind McDaniels’ choices — fix the easiest part first (the offense), with good time spent on the middle (special teams), and treat the worst feature (the defense) as a work in progress. Personally, I believe McDaniels’ has done a good job of addressing all three units. I’m still of the opinion that if our offense clicks well enough, it would only take our special teams and defense moving into the middle of the league (becoming average in other words) to have a successful year.

But if I had to sum up my thoughts:

Last year’s defense was bad, no way around it.

The offense had a ton of firepower, and were a threat to score no matter where they started. However, they had some flaws. Turnovers were an issue, and inexprience (by both the players and the play-callers) translated into sporadic efficiency. Those two issues exposed the defense even further, turning a bad defense into a historically-bad defense.

Special teams weren’t exactly helping here, either. Now the offense AND defense are in the hole a bit more and exposing more problems.

And it all became a vicious cycle, with a defense that had issues, a potent offense that wasn’t designed to take pressure off the defense, and average special teams. Around and around and around…

I have not been on for long enough to read some stuff, including this post, but I love the compilation of data here, similar to your other post with by-quarter-stats… That and the following discussion opens up some doors of the mind on my end as well. Thanks again BShrout and contributors!

We just didn’t function as a cohesive unit last season. I think Coach has made some great moves so far. You guys are spot on. Fix the O and ST because they need the least amount of work and build the Defense over the next few seasons. I have never been this excited to see a pre-season game in my life. We’re just a few short weeks away.