Sunday Nights Game / Bears Vs Broncos / I Predict

who=how.

I’m not as think as you drunk i am.

I used to live in St. Louis. Best tap water in the world! Great square pizzas, etc, etc.

Back to your question. The Broncos are not really running a 3-4. It’s more a 5-2 base defense with 7-technique players. You could say we still have a NT (Fields from SF and an very promising undrafted rookie named Chris Baker who is a monster), but the traditional DE’s on either side of the NT are bracketed on the line with what you would otherwise call OLB’s in a traditional 3-4 or the ROLB and LOLB in a 4-3. They are not off the line but rather they are on the line. The traditional MILB in a 4-3 is typically the LILB who you will often see at the far left of the defensive line. It has been a learning process for us Denver fans!

You should not think of last year’s Broncos when considering this defense. Last year’s DC Slowik was awful. This year’s DC Nolan used to be SF’s HC and has a long history as an extremely effective DC. We got rid of 3/4 of our defensive players and replaced them with extremely talented and experienced players and had 4 good draft picks (thank you very much). The LB’s should be divided into four categories: ROLB, RILB, LILB and RILB. Our weakside formations have been looking extremely good and our strongside need a little work in pass defense. Our safeties have been struggling a little because Brian Dawkins (a probable HOF candidate we picked up from Philly) broke his hand. I don’t know if we’ll see him in this game. Fundamentally I am more than a little surprised and extremely happy with what the team is showing so far.

Offensively we are picking up where we left off plus some. Denver’s running game will be effective, but you will probably not see as much of the zone-blocking schemes and a little more of the gap-blocking/man schemes because of McDaniel’s Patriots experience. Remember that our Oline and RB coaches from last year are still here. You probably won’t see our #1 pick Knowshon Moreno and that is a shame. He is an amazing talent and could very well become the face of the franchise. He was injured in the Seahawks game (I’m assuming in part because he was a holdout and was not in “game shape” for that game). It’s supposed to be a 2 week recovery, so we are all very relieved and hopeful he will be ready for the regular season opener in Cincinnati.

Another area of concern last year was Special Teams. Sadly we do not have anyone like Devin Hester. Who does? But the team has made significant improvements on special teams.

One thing Broncos are looking to improve in this game is our turnover ratio. We’ve not been doing a good job in that area. So you will probably see a lot of hard-hitting, helmet to ball tackling and ballhawking by the backs.

But we’ve only seen preseason vanilla offenses as you prolly know. There are times when they seem confused and times when they look great. Jury is out for me until at least midseason. How is your O-line looking? I haven’t been able to watch any of your games so far.

So far the D has impressed on runs. Not so much on our weakside pass and strongside CB D. Goodman, our strongside CB, has had excellent coverage but has not broken up the passes when they counted. We initially had Reid at our ROLB, but he was not doing well in pass plays and so the team now has Haggan there. If we have a D weakness, and I hate to say it, it’s probably at our LOLB position. You will probably see a lot of strongside plays using Olsen and with Forte flaring to the strongside.

J/K, thanks

But raw, hows that.

Things have a way of going in cycles. Maybe Orange Crush is coming back in style. Nolan, the DC, is a pretty good coordinator (although a crappy head coach – I live near SF). I think you’re right: we can only go up from last year. I don’t Forte is a top 5 back, though. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/rb
 Football Outsiders has him ranked 37. That said, he can break one at anytime and we know it: stats never tell the whole story.

The game will be the proof in the pudding. Good luck to the Bears, and here’s hoping that no one gets hurt.

The Orange Crush was unbelievable. I remember believing that they could stop any goal line stand. And they often did. It was almost religious. We’ll probably never see that from any other team and if we do it will feel just as miraculous. I know Chicago has experienced the same euphoria of believing that their D can stop ANY challenge. I respect and admire your proud tradition.

Boss was injury prone. It’s too bad. When healthy, he played well if not superstar calibre. He was and will never be an elite player. But Dawkins? He is almost a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame. Seriously! We may get a couple quality years out of him and he will be invaluable to our rookies.

You’re right. The Denver D has nowhere to go but up. From what I’ve seen so far, I promise you and will lay odds that the direction is up.

Forte is a stud. Denver will have trouble stopping him. But I, kool-aid drinker that I am, believe that we will. Frankly, I’m more worried about Olsen and flare routes by Forte than handoffs to Forte. As gently as I can, let me say that your WR’s , esp. Hester, leave me unimpressed.

It could be that we see the 1st stringers play 3 quarters. Emotionally I’d like to see Denver crush Chicago, but professionally I want to see what the reserves can do in pre-season. So the final score of the game really doesn’t matter to me at all.

and so was the wr core however, orton struggled making the right reads later in the season, and he was never able to bring opposing defenses out of 8 man fronts, we had to see it all year and so will you, hopefully your oline will do better against it than our did.