If I were the head coach...

Very good take on the preseason Bronco Nut.

Additionally for all of those who keep saying they haven’t seen anything revolutionary or exciting or that say the offense isn’t progressing fast enough consider this. By all accounts the offense that JM is installing is one of if not the most complex system in the NFL. If it were possible to completely install it in one offseason in all likelihood most teams would already be running it. It seems, as Bronco Nut has pointed out, that it is a building block process that requires each component level to be efficiently mastered before moving to the next sequence. I’m looking for steady progress early in the season and then hopefully at some point before the season is over for the players to begin to execute without hesitation.

I sure as heck hope that this is the case. I’m starting to worry a bit after the 3rd game. It is just the preseason though…nothing matters until Cincy

You demonstrate much more insight and knowledge than the doom & gloom crowd who are pigeonholing the 09 Broncos as a basket case based on what they have seen this preseason. WYSIWYG does not apply here. What you will get in the opening game against Cincy will be what you haven’t seen in the preseason. A dominant rushing attack that will open up deep play action.

It does make sense, but at what point do you, as a HC, say ok, we’ve practiced the short game enough? Lets work on medium range passes. I would think it would be after the first two games, because at some point, you do have to practice the other stuff.

I’m still optimistic about the team, I think they are on the right track, but my enthusiasm has been severely dulled by our performance so far. I sure hope McD is as smart as most people here think he is.

I totally agree, we work to turn any weakness into a strength during our practices. We still throw in the good stuff to stay sharp but we work way more on what we are poor at than what we are good at. It’s a fine line because you don’t want to lose the sharpness in what you do well but you have to emphasize weaknesses and correct them to get better as a unti.

Your opinion is a good one. It also seems to be what we are doing. Instead of running every play in the book, and instead of focusing on winning games, we are running the same plays over and again to get them down. Hence, a lot of short passes, and a lot of runs to the edges.

I think we’ll see more runs during the regular season, and a larger variety of passes (not just screens and quick curls).

Good thinking, and rec’d!

(By the way, there are plenty of children’s leagues that could use a coach or an assistent. You should check them out).

I also think that McDaniels is not going to give away his offensive and defensive strategies before the season starts. Every game that has been played so far is going to be watched closely by Cincy so that they can prepare. If you lay down all your cards before the game… you are going to give your opponent an advantage that you could have had yourself.

I am glad that the offense has been kind of “off-balance” and somewhat bland. Once we get into game mode, that is the time to open the playbook and play for keeps.

Thanks for putting into words and making sense of what I thought I was seeing.

I think that would allow the strengths of the team to become rusty, and would bring the things we are bad at up to an average level.

At that point, we would officially have no strengths.

I think you are onto something about the way McD approaches preseason….at least I hope you are. We really won’t know until after Cincy. I don’t like how that approach does not take confidence into account. I’m a little worried that while breaking the team down (focusing on areas of struggle), he is failing to build up a NEW team that needs confidence going forward as much as anything. This could easily be a mistake as I agree with your take and McD’s focus on the problem approach, but think for a NEW team (ie. not NE or other perennial power) it may have some disadvantages…..we’ll see. If we handle Cincy, you’re all over it….thx

I apply this concept in practicing my bass. I don’t work on the easy progressions very often, but I do repeat the complex ones until it becomes almost second nature. Only then do I move on.

Orton’s comment after his beautiful left handed prayer. “I wonder how many times in the regular season are we going to throw 4 times from inside the 5” "% = I’m way too old to remember the exact quote and you know what I mean anyway.

The most important aspect of installing this offense may be the timing patterns. They require a rhythm, excellent communication between the QB and receivers and a lot of practice. It’s working. Orton has the 4th highest completion percentage in the league right now. That’s one of the most important things that we can develop.

I understand your frustration. If this is all we see in the regular season (which is very unlikely), I’d be frustrated too. But this is preseason – a chance to develop the base skills, under game conditions, which will be used for more complex routes, plays and approaches during the season. Don’t fret. This is pretty normal stuff.

I haven’t watched a ton of NE games the past few years, but I have watched quite a few due to the national exposure resulting from all its success over the past few years. It seems to me that the short passes and screens are the foundation of the offense. Couple that with the fact that the short passing game and screens were not even close to the foundation of Shanny’s offense, and one can see why this offense comprised largely of Shanny-holdovers needs a lot of practice running these plays. After you pointed it out, it really makes sense.

If the offense can execute these plays with extreme efficiency in the regular season, the big plays in the running and passing games will come. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen many big plays in the passing game from our first team? They are on the bench at the time when all of the setup work pays off.

All this nonsense about judging the offense already is absurd. Shanny used to say a QB isn’t comfortable until he’s in his third year in his system. We’re not even giving the current crew three preseason games.

And someone mentioned above that it definitely helps players morale when they get a win—-especially after 3 losses. I think Tom B was airing it out a) everything in the system is new to him, b) he’s had very little in game situational practice, and c) McD probably saw things in his long game that he didn’t like

I know a lot of people are pulling for Tom B to start, but he’s as green as it gets right now, he will have his day though.

As for the rest of your points, I couldn’t agree more. In high school, in both band AND football practices, we worked 80% on the problem areas and by early to mid-season, we had them down almost flawlessly.

Our Achilles heel in high school was always the short screens to the outside. As a cornerback, it was highly my responsibility to make sure these plays never got significant yards, and I had a hard time getting used to it at first because I couldn’t cover my man AND watch out for the running back going into the flat. Eventually I learned how to watch the QB’s eyes, and anticipate where he’s going with the ball. Once we all got it down in the secondary, it became a strength of ours by the 4th week or so.

Nice post.

Throwing in a corollary here to back up your thoughts… I think we’re pretty safe in looking at how the offensive line has been used thus far in pre-season as evidence that this is not what our offense is going to look like when the regular season rolls around.

Just look at all the times Clady has been asked to sprint out to the flats and block for Royal or whoever is out there. I feel like I’ve seen Clady whiff on trying to block a DB or LB as they sidestep him and that mountain of a man rolls around about 15 times so far. Do we really think McD is dumb enough to think that is the strength of Clady and our line? I think not. It just lends more credence to our little theory here, McD is calling the plays our boys aren’t used to and aren’t yet good at during this preseason, so we’re better at them later. McD knows our line is a brick wall in pass coverage, and can open lanes in the running game as well, no need to run those plays to death up to this point.

No offense to Broncobear or Hoosier.

Amazing. We need to create another flag for posts like this:
“I Command You to Read This”
And don’t you dare abbreviate it!