I'm not an expert in x's and o's, but I am an expert in human behavior.  I have my own take.   Normally, winning is what matters, and everything else is minutia.  I don't believe that's the case in this story.  The fans and analysts are missing something profound.  The Darrent Williams murder deeply affected Pat Bowlen.  He asked Mike Shanahan to clean up the team.  Mike made a few adjustments, but didn't really hear what Pat Bowlen was saying.  That gap formed a rift, and Mike was let go.   

The game changed...

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The three most common reactions are:
--Emotional meltdown, "This makes me so angry."
--Blaming, "Bench this guy", "Release this guy", "Fire that guy..."
--Distorting reality, "They all quit", "There's no talent", "He's the worst", "They will never be successful as long as..."

Just because these reactions are common, doesn't mean they are effective. Football teams and games are highly complex systems, with many, many variables, including group dynamics. You don't improve a football team or work through adversity, by "losing it", pointing fingers, or making stuff up.

I have listened to every press conference of every coach and player since pre-season, and I am impressed with how they are holding up, sticking together and supporting each other, letting go of the past, focusing on each game as it comes, not making excuses, and looking for opportunities to improve.  With the press and the fans screaming at them, name calling, and wanting heads to roll, doing the right things (emotionally and cognitively) is very challenging.  The teams comportment is impressive.  

Of course, I could be nuts. I'm human, so my view of reality is just one of many. I'm pretty sure of the following:

Loosing an all-pro outside linebacker, who led the league in sacks might be contributing to the reduced QB pressure and number of sacks this year. Less pressure on the QB means fewer forced turnovers. Losing the turnover battle is the number one predictor of a losing record. Doom appears hard to replace.

Goodman had the worst coverage on the day, giving up several key long plays, and Goodman was playing hurt (limping noticeably), and coming off nearly a month inactivity, but with Cox having a concussion and out for the game, Goodman had to man-up and play.

All-pro Bailey has been gimpy for 1/3 of the games. Dawkins, another all-pro, has been out several weeks with a knee injury, and didn't look 100% against SF.

Clady, another all-pro, missed all of the preseason with a very serious injury and is finally starting to regain his form.

Without Robert Ayers, the run defense sometimes breaks down, because Ayers was doing a excellent job of holding the edge and turning the runner back into the middle of the defense. Without Ayers, runners have been able to go inside or bounce outside.

Then there's two rookies on the OL. Other teams pull out the stops in the first quarter to rattle the OL, and so far it's working. It seems to take a full quarter or a half for the OL to pick up the stunts and settle down. Other teams are going to keep doing this until it stops working. Only lineup stability and experience can solve this problem. BTW, I believe the three teams with the least experienced OLs are Denver, Buffalo, and SF. Notice anything there?

I thought that McDaniels called a good game. The fake pitch and bomb, and the flea-flicker both were excellent, and if it wasn't for the odd-ball chop-block call, the Broncos would have been up 17-3 breaking open a tight game and forcing more challenging passing situations for Smith. The outcome could have been much different.

When teams are banged up, no matter how good the game plan and the effort, wins are harder to come by. Often a few breakdowns or a few fluke plays (or calls), can be the difference.

The week off will help heal, but I'm not expecting any miracles with the OL.

These are revealing times, indeed.

This post is conjecture.  This is an area where facts are hard to come by.

 

As we all know, negative comments are being said about the Broncos and McDaniels daily by the truck load.  Has anyone noticed that there's no attempt to defend the Broncos by the owner, the HC, the coaching staff, the PR team , or the players?  No attempt by McDaniels to defend himself against vicious attacks and name calling?   Like the commercial says, "That's not natural." 

Normally, verbal bashing triggers negative feelings (hurt, fear), and there's a defensive response.  Just look at all the troll behavior in the comment sections of the MSM columns for proof of the phenomenon: attack -- defend (and likely attack back) behavior. 

 

So how can we explain, Josh's and the organization's  "That's not natural" behavior, this non-response?  Here's my conjecture:  McDaniels sees all the predictions of a losing season as an advantage. In fact, it makes him happy. (Otherwise it would be eating him inside out like Ebola.)

Let's assume that Josh is the kind of coach that looks for any advantage over opponents he can get.  If the SD Chargers are "given" the division without even playing a game, then the Broncos are not on their radar, then that's a good thing.  Without a legitimate opponent in the division, most likely, SD won't practice as hard or prepare as well.   At the same time, McDaniels, staff and players can secretly be focusing on preparing to out-wit and out-compete the Chargers, Chiefs, and Raiders.  

We all know that the Patriots are secretive and love using surprise as an advantage.  What greater surprise is there than when a doormat team out-plays the division favorite?  Deception and confusion are weapons that help win games, is that not true?

To understand the silence in the face of verbal attacks, there must be a coordinated effort by everyone in the Broncos organization, from owner, HC, coaching starff, PR and players not to address these charges of incompetency, low morale, and disarray.  The HC is letting everyone think the Broncos are trash, while the team and organization are focusing on how to take all 6 games from our division foes.  

Isn't it interesting that the Broncos have former coaches from the Chargers, Chiefs, and Raiders?

Isn't it interesting that no one is trying to stop or counter all this negaive press?

It can't be an oversight.  My conjecture is that McDaniels is smiling and very content being compared to the Raiders and wants to keep it that way as long as possible.  

The more Woody whines, the better.

 

What do you think?

All the draft analysts and fans divide a football team into offense and defense. What about special teams? They are on the field 20 to 30 times a game, sometimes more.

Not only did the Bronco’s defense blow up last year, the special teams had net negative yardage.

When evaluating the draft, I think we all forget to look at not only upgrading offensive and defensive players, but also at who will start on special teams. That’s right, start! Special teams isn’t where you put your backups who are bored, it’s a place where you put your best open field blockers and tacklers, isn’t it?

Look again at this draft class. Four or five are special team studs who tie up blockers, strip balls, make open field tackles. Four or five better players out of 11 is a pretty good jolt in quality.

I don’t know if anyone has ever done the analysis, but I’m guessing that most players who are special team studs in college turn out to be just as good on the pro-level.

Part of the Denver draft strategy looks to me to dramatically improve our net special team yardage (and perhaps the special team turnover ratio too).

Isn’t this important to the team’s success?

 

The truth is last year, the Broncos were given a win against SD by a referee call. The Broncos were 7 – 9. Also true, the defense and the special teams were at the bottom of the heap. So two out of 3 units were bad and only the offense was good.

I think the Broncos just significantly upgraded the special teams to be average or positive. The offense is a tad better, with a downgrade at QB but an upgrade at RB.

Now what’s left to overhaul is the Defense. Lots of question marks still remain. Is there a free agent or two out there who can surprise? Will the new scheme work better? Can our current talent be reshuffled to better use their talents? I think no one knows, not even the coaches. At least not yet.

However, the idea that the Broncos didn’t address a major need in the draft is mistaken. They sure did, unless you think that special teams don’t matter. Is that really true?

I think the problem is we don’t measure and rank special teams productivity properly. If we don’t measure it, how can we “see” that we have a need and that we are addressing it? So, should our draft analysis consider special teams too? I think so.

What do you think?