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Broncos D Far From Orange Crush of Old

With the Denver Broncos’ playoff chances officially gone after both San Diego and Cleveland won on Sunday, it is time to take a serious look at one of the most disappointing Denver squads in recent memory. The offense was far from impressive, but the defense has been appalling at nearly every level and is in need of a serious reevaluation, if not a makeover.

As the 2007 campaign began, it seemed that every NFL expert in radio, television and print had a different opinion of the Broncos chances. Few questioned the level of talent and big names that lined the roster, but due to the plethora of off-season changes, many were unsure of whether or not the new players would gel. The offense saw new starters at four of the five skill positions (WR, TE, HB and FB) and the offensive line was quickly forced to make changes due to a ravenous series of injuries. On the other side, the season began without defensive stalwart Al Wilson and added an entirely new defensive line along with a new starting corner across from Champ Bailey in Dre Bly.

Jim Bates was brought in to shore up the defense and the franchise made a series of personnel moves that molded the roster in his image. The fact that Bates’ complicated defensive system often takes two full seasons to master never seemed to worry Shanahan and GM Ted Sundquist. Despite the fact that quality defensive tackles are often the scarcest commodity in the NFL, the front office seemed to think it would be easy to find the enormous inside linemen that Bates’ scheme required. Denver brought in veterans Sam Adams, Jimmy Kennedy, Simeon Rice and John Browning (none of whom remain on the team) to compete with the linemen taken in the draft for spots along the defensive front. Bates primarily used man-coverage in order to free up his linebackers to make more plays at the line of scrimmage and the Broncos brought in Bly to allow him to do so.

The system was an utter failure and the Broncos run defense was the laughing stock to the entire league, giving up 919 rushing yards in the first five weeks. The team was forced to abandon their original strategy and keep eight men in the box to stuff the run. When attending Broncos preseason workouts at Dove Valley, I honesty could not tell if the running game was spectacular or the defensive line was just horrendously sluggish. Today, it seems pretty obvious.

Even the worst cynic must acknowledge that injuries have played an overwhelming role in the downfall of the Denver defense, but there were surely signs from the beginning that this would not be the Super Bowl year that Shanahan and fans had envisioned. Jarvis Moss, Ebenezer Ekuban, Bailey and John Lynch have all missed extensive action with injuries, but depth was an obvious issue even in August when looking at the Broncos roster. The defense has youth and plenty of talent, but it seems that Bates defense has been a flop in Denver. Look for the Broncos to take on the look of official offensive coordinator Bob Slowik, whose blitzing ways have been far more affective this season.

I was lucky enough to be at last Thursday’s debacle at Reliant Stadium, attending the game with my father, who lives in Houston (the armpit of America). While the offense showed flashes and flounders, as always, the defense seemed utterly lost and unable to succeed in any phase of the game. The publicized battle between sack hounds Mario Williams and Elvis Dumervil turned out to be more of a beating than a battle as Williams racked up 3.5 sacks while Dumervil and the Broncos’ defense finished with none. Dre Bly constantly seemed out of position and dozens of missed tackles came from every Bronco not named Bailey.

Perhaps all the unit needs is another year to grasp the scheme that was so successful in other cities like Miami. Then again, maybe Bates will join a long series of “defensive gurus” that came and went faster than you can say “Mile High.”

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.