Some Clarification is in Order - Off-Season Stats: Rookie Quarterbacks

Some Clarification is in Order - Off-Season Stats: Rookie Wide Receivers

In this segment I wanted to look at how the offense of the Broncos has changed over the seasons and as coaches have come and gone. This will cover how the team moved the ball as well as how the team scored, along with efficiency as well. This will be looking at each coaches time here and how often they ran, passed, and scored in those two ways. Well, lets jump.

Moving the Ball, a History:

This section will deal with how the Broncos moved the ball, how often they did it, and the ratio between running and passing plays. Let's begin with the table, it will list each coach, broken down by season, and look at: passing and rushing attempts, passing and rushing yards, and a ratios between rushing and passing attempts and a ratio dealing with rushing and passing yards. For example, in 1983, Reeves the was the head coach, we passed the ball 499 times and ran it 471 times, so we have a ratio of 1.06 passes per run. But another factor recorded here is the yards, we had 3466 passing yards and 1784 rushing yards, so that would be a ratio of 1.94 passing yards to 1 rushing yard. That means that passing was 94% more often used to move the ball than running was that season. Whereas in 2003, the team had a yardage ratio of 1.13 passing yards to 1 rushing yard, a more even balance of moving the ball.

By having these two ratios we can see how often they attempted to run or pass the ball, and how often they succeeded doing one or the other. I realize it's a bit complicated, but it makes sense once we get to the table.:

Review:

So what did I find, well Wade Phillips actually ran the most pass heavy offense Elway played in, Reeves came in second, and Shanahan actually came in third. Actually, you remember those two Super Bowl years, we actually ran more rushing plays then passing plays those seasons. Shanahan and Reeves were almost identical in their ratio, both in attempts and yards, well actually, Reeves had a better passing yards ratio then Shanahan did. Shanahan had a much higher average yards in both rushing and passing, but the average ratio actually went down. McD ran a very pass heavy offense, no surprise, but even when he tried to run the ball, it wasn't very successful, partly due to a young/old running back corp and a patchwork offensive line.

This table is purely a look at how the offense moved the ball, and it looks like it has largely been a passing team, but when it really mattered, 1997 and 1998, we ran it more then we passed it. Maybe that says something about the future...

Scoring, a History:

This next table will look at how the team scored. It will cover how many passing and rushing touchdowns there were that season, and will look at how often either scored on a passing or rushing attempt. By examining the past this way, we can see how often the team tried scoring passing or running the ball, and if they were a goal line rushing or passing team.

For example, 1983, we had 17 passing touchdowns and 15 rushing touchdowns, that's a ratio of 1.13 passing touchdowns for every rushing touchdown. Now another key statistic here is the ratio of touchdown per attempt, which is converted into a percentage. In 1983, for every passing attempt, we had a 3.41% chance of scoring a touchdown, and for every rushing attempt, we had a 3.18% chance of scoring. Now in 2002, it was flipped with the running attack having a better chance to score then the passing offense.

Now obviously there are other factors at play here, but it gives one a feel for how each season went and what parts of the team ran effectively.

Review:

Now one thing that stood out to me was how effective it was to score by passing the ball sometimes because the running game struggled that season and how quickly things changed the next season. Another thing I noted was that McDaniel's offense was actually fairly effective at scoring through the air, more so then during the Phillips or Reeves era, but struggled mightily when trying to score on the ground. We already knew short-yardage situations we a problem, but we didn't struggle scoring while passing these past couple seasons, but a piss-poor run game really hurts a team in goal line situations.

This team has changed with each coach, Reeves using a pass heavy offense (even if we don't remember it that way), Shanahan and Phillips running more balanced offenses, and McDaniels returning to the pass heavy offense. But even within each coach there was fluctuation, as players come and go, as injuries set in, teams have to change. One of the biggest revelations to me though was that the best years this team had, we weren't a gunslinging team, we didn't pass a lot, we were balanced, and if we want regain that glory, we need to remember there is more to this team then just the QB, and we need a balanced team to win another ring.

Next time on Some Clarification is in Order - Off-Season Stats: Running Backs