Stat Snip: Week 4 Broncos-Raiders

Another week, another game to review, another chance to dig into the game and see what statistics stand out as helpful to understanding the game or may be a trend that will affect future games. Now this is just a short article, like the title suggests, this won't be indepth or intense, just something that is, hopefully, interesting.

Onto this week's Stat Snip:

Broncos Turnovers Created: 3 Fumbles and 2 Interception (Ranked 26th)
Defenses Under Jack Del Rio in Turnovers Created: Ranked 19th on Average

Defenses under Jack Del Rio has only been a top 10 turnover creator once. That's important. Now Jack Del Rio has had some good defenses, and he's a a solid defensive coordinator, but I've noticed that a number of fans here are expecting a lot of turnovers, and are upset when defensive players drop interceptions or aren't fighting for the ball as hard, well there is a big reason for this, it's the coaching in practice.

Del Rio doesn't coach turnovers, it's not a focus in practice. Now this is purely his coaching philosophy, it doesn't make him a good or bad defensive coordinator, but it is in his makeup and it's part of his coaching mentality. Compare that to coaches like Lovie Smith, Tony Dungy, Mike Tomlin and Ron Rivera who at each practice makes sure they run two drills, the punch drill where a back or receiver runs a gauntlet of defensive players who try and punch the ball out. The second drill is the defensive backs and linebackers run mirror routes in front of the wide receivers and then they both have to go up and fight for the ball. Every practice these coaches do this.

So when Mike Adams and Rahim Moore drop an interception, while the easy, simple solution is to blame them, and it is their responsibility as well, take note that they don't practice these things in practice they are told to always knock the ball down.

This is just how it's done by Jack Del RIo. Does this make him a bad defensive coordinator, not at all, but Broncos fans should understand that turnovers aren't really a high priority for Jack Del Rio when he coaches. He preaches strong fundamentals and hard work, but we should understand the expectations for a defense coached by Del Rio, just like we have for Dennis Allen, Wink Martindale and Mike Nolan in the past, all had differing coaching styles and different focuses for the defense.