Brady Faces Former Coordinator For First Time

Josh McDaniels spent two seasons running the New England defense so he knew what he was up against when he became the Patriots quarterbacks coach in 04. Now, as head coach of the Broncos, he should have a great idea of what he’ll face when Denver hosts Tom Brady and the Patriots on Sunday. McDaniels spent the previous three seasons with the Patriots as the offensive coordinator. But for Brady, knowing what to expect doesn’t always lead to victory. The Patriots could line up Sunday in an arrangement they used the previous year to run a certain play. But they could change that and run a diverse play out of it.

While the Patriots’ defensive players have changed radically this year, more or less all the offensive starters are the ones who started under McDaniels. Brady hasn’t been nearly as dominant as he was in 2007 when he threw 50 touchdown passes for an offense, masterminded by McDaniels that set one more league record with a total of 589 points. So far, Tom Brady has only thrown four touchdown passes and is just 17th in quarterback rating. Right now, the Patriots don’t have an offensive coordinator, so Bill Belichick has a large role in running the offense.

Romo-To-Williams Not Producing Much for Cowboys

Tony Romo’s first two passes of the season went to Roy Williams, a powerful, symbolic beginning to their connection as quarterback and top receiver. That’s all it was, though—a start. Romo and Williams have hooked up only nine times ever since the initial drive of the initial game. That’s a total of 11 catches through four games, hardly what Jerry Jones is paying either of them to produce. It’s also not what Williams was expecting after he and Romo spent about four weeks throwing together before the start of offseason workouts.

Their lack of tempo was especially apparent on a fourth-quarter drive in a loss at Denver on Sunday. On the first play, Williams was very much open going across the field on a short course. Romo threw to him but it was so low and behind him. On third down, Romo overthrew Williams on a long ball. He leaped to catch it and was solidly hit in the ribs. Williams now has cartilage injury around three ribs. It still hurts to get in and out of bed, and his car, so he did not attend practice Wednesday. His status for Sunday’s game at Kansas City is doubtful.

Merriman Not Happy With GM’s ‘Soft’ Comments

Chargers outside linebacker Shawne Merriman wasn’t too happy reading a comment from general manager A.J. Smith that the team’s play at times this year has been “soft and bewildered.” The Chargers were defeated 38-28 at Pittsburgh on Sunday night, falling behind 28-0 and allowing the defending Super Bowl champions to pile up 497 yards of offense. San Diego is at 2-2 heading into its bye week, and already is two games behind the Denver Broncos in the AFC West.

Merriman returned to the lineup this season after having surgery on his knee sidelined him for the final 15 games of 2008, plus two playoff games. He’s been in and out of the lineup this season as he works to regain full strength, and has been affected by a groin injury he said he got from overcompensating for the knee injury. Nicknamed “Lights Out” because of his hard hits, Merriman said he’s willing to shoulder the responsibility of the Chargers playing with more attitude and aggression.

Broncos Statistics Show They Are a Team

The introduction of new head coach Josh McDaniels to the Denver media was what most would probably anticipate. It was a lot of coach speaks about players and forging a vision of how to build a team. This squabble might look good on paper, but with such a young guy in Coach McDaniels making the declaration, it was met with watchful confidence. Some in the media doubted the coach due to his age and lack of practice as a head coach. Others began to qualm the coach when he let team guys like Nate Jackson leave. Then there was the signing of a multimillion-dollar contract by long snapper Lonnie Paxton over Mike Leach, who had been doing a wonderful job at the position.

Through the chaotic water came an ocean of change, much of it along the defensive front line. There are now only three defensive starters from last year that are starters this year in Champ Bailey, D.J. Williams, and Elvis Dumervil, and only Champ is playing the exact same position. This system brought change, and after the miserable performance on defense last season, it would seem that the only way would be up for this team. What has come to be an astonishing statistic to this point in the season is that the Denver Broncos are now the best team by a mile in points allowed on defense. Currently the Broncos are holding opponents to an average of 6.5 ppg. The idea all offseason has been about team, and so far in 2009 the strength of the Denver Broncos is that they are a solid team that will be mentally prepared and will not give up during games.

Once Dismal Broncos Defense Thriving Under Nolan

The Denver Broncos’ defense was the butt of all the jokes of the league over the last few years, giving up a profusion of points and forcing precious few turnovers – this is no longer that defense. The Broncos are now in fact relying on the defense to save them, like it did in a 17-10 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday that kept Denver unbeaten through the first month of the season. That defense disenchanted a possible tying drive when Champ Bailey swatted away a pass in the end zone on a fourth-and-goal play with 1 second left.

The recovery project began abruptly after rookie coach Josh McDaniels took over. One of his first hires was defensive brain Mike Nolan. And while Nolan has brought solidity, the Broncos’ fast start on defense was dismissed by many a critic as nothing more than a product of a weak premature schedule. Elvis Dumervil has been thriving in Nolan’s system, using his long arms and low center of gravity off the edge of the line as a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker. Dumervil sacked Romo twice on Sunday, giving him eight this season and is leading the league in that catergory.

Bailey Saves Potential Game-Tying Touchdown Pass

Champ Bailey thought to himself that last play was his to make. Why not? Tony Romo had been trying him all afternoon, even though he kept succeeding. His amazing play came with a second left when he knocked the ball away from the probable tying touchdown pass from Romo to Sam Hurdon 4th-and-goal from the 2. With the blitz quickly approaching, Romo swiftly fired toward Hurd cutting towards the middle. Bailey reached just about and swatted the pass away with his left hand at the last second, giving the Broncos their first 4-0 start since the 2003 season, a 17-10 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Bailey, who intercepted a pass from Romo at his 6 in the third quarter, wasn’t taken aback that Romo would test him one last time because the blitz was designed to force a quick pass to his man. Denver limited the league’s best rushing attack to just 74 yards on 25 carries, a 3-yard clip. In the last half, Romo only completed 11 of 24 for 201 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.

Denver Broncos Offense Earns a “B” vs. Oakland Raiders

First and foremost it’s important to understand the Broncos offense played very well against the Oakland Raiders over the weekend.  Additionally, they managed the game very well and had two rushers nearing a hundred yards.  That is impressive. The Denver Broncos defense was remarkable early in setting up opportunities for the offense.  The Broncos went for it on the fourth and goal from the one.  Teams usually reconcile for points in tight, competition types of games. You only go for it if you have faith in your offense and your defense.

That should be the one that must stand out loud and clear about this Denver Broncos team.  They have faith in the defense and they know they can score points.  That is the type of team whcich really needs to continue shaping into if it has hopes for future success. The reason they don’t get an “A” is because they left a lot of points out on the field on Sunday and they would admit as much. On the up side is the Broncos ran remarkably well and controlled the ball and the tempo on both sides of the ball.  It’s this type of a game that makes the perfect template for the team to look at and recognize this should be their pattern to success.

Cleveland Vs. Cincinnati

The Brady Quinn era ended pretty quickly in Cleveland, as the Browns’ Quinn-led offense has averaged just 3.9 ypp. Cleveland has played 3 teams that are good defensively (Minnesota, Denver and Baltimore), but those are bad numbers even when you take that into account. Derek Anderson takes over and should be better, but Anderson has not been able to back up his very good 2007 season. Anderson has averaged just 5.1 yards per pass play in 11 games since the beginning of last season and that’s where I’ll rate him heading into this game.

The Browns have to face another good defense this week, as Cincinnati has allowed just 5.2 yppl to teams that would combine to average 5.6 yppl against the normal defensive team. Cincy has been about average offensively so far (5.1 yppl against teams that would allow 5.1 yppl to a normal team) but the Bengals’ attack should have flourished against a sub-par Browns’ defense which couldn’t stop the run (5.6 ypr allowable) and has only gotten worse than the usual contrary to the pass too (6.8 yppp allowed to quarterbacks that would combine to average 6.4 yppp). My ratings favor Cincinnati by 7 points and using this year’s games only (and adjusting for Anderson at QB for Cleveland) results in a prediction of Bengals by 8 points. There are good situations favoring both teams in this game, so I’ll stick to the math and lean with Cincy minus the points.

Broncos Vs. Cowboys

Denver may be lucky to be the unbeaten team (they needed an 87 yard tipped pass to beat Cincy in week 1), but the Broncos surely deserve a bit more credit for their 3-0 start. Even with no 87 yard fluke pass play, which I took out of my stats, Denver is still averaging 5.4 yards per play with a nice balance between the run (160 yards per game at 4.8 ypr) as well as the same pass (187 yards at 6.2 yards for every pass play). Denver has faced the individual teams that would allow 5.6 yppl to an average team, but an offense that is 0.2 yppl worse than average is good enough when you have a defense that has yielded just 3.9 yppl. That quantity is considerably very good even when you adjust for the fact that Denver has faced a mediocre Cincy offense and the bad attacks of Cleveland and Oakland. Those three teams would probably combine to average just 4.9 yppl against an average defensive team, so the Broncos’ defense has been 1.0 yppl better than average under the guidance of brilliant defensive coordinator Mike Nolan. Denver’s defense is actually rated at 0.7 yppl better than average and an explosive Dallas offense that rates at 1.4 yppl better than average will be tough to stop. However, Denver’s offense should be able to keep up by moving the ball against a Dallas defense that’s allowed 6.1 yppl to a schedule of teams that would average only 5.2 yppl against an average defensive team.

Using this year’s games only would actually favor Denver by 7 1/2 points in this game, but I believe that Dallas is better defensively than they’ve shown (although still probably worse than average) and Denver is not quite as good on defense as they’ve been so far this year. Even with those assumptions my ratings still favor Denver by 1 point and 3-0 teams are 21-4 ATS in game 4 if they’re at home and not favored by more than 4 points. Nonetheless, teams that have permitted less than 10 points in 3 consecutive games are just 14-31 ATS the next game, including 8-25 ATS if the opponent has a win percentage of greater than .333.

Broncos Has 3-0 Start

Kyle Orton, Josh McDaniels and a newborn principal defense have that has quieted all the talk of offseason dysfunction in Denver with a 3-0 start. Orton threw a touchdown pass to Brandon Marshall, the defense kept a second straight foe out of the end zone and the Broncos besieged the Oakland Raiders 23-3. The performance to initiate the season is a far cry from the offseason. McDaniels caused an instant rouse when he was hired to replace the fired Mike Shanahan as head coach in Denver last offseason. He was on bad terms Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler before trading him to the Bears for Orton, then suspended Brandon Marshall in the preseason.

The Raiders were held back to 137 yards, their second consecutive week with less than 200 yards of offense. This is just the third time since the 1993 season that the Raiders has put together back-to-back games like that, with the other two coming 3 seasons ago. Maybe the Broncos have to thank the Raiders more than their defense for their 3-0 start.

New RB Still Learning Bronco Offense

The first round draft pick of the Denver Broncos, running back Knowshon Moreno, is confounded by the complex offense of the team. He feels like “running around like my head’s cut off.” He isn’t the only one as the Broncos new coach Josh McDaniels’ intricate offense is making many of the players are re-learning the terminology.

The errors are abundant over the three days has been many, just as expected. Coach McDaniels said, “they’re going to make mistakes for a while and that’s what these practices are for, to get those kinks and hopefully come to training camp and not have to iron them all out.” As for Moreno, it was an eye opener for him and he realized that he needed to bury himself in the playbooks. He said, “you’ve got to really study, you’ve got to be in the playbook at night when you get home, even though it’s late and it’s tough.”

San Francisco 49ers Need a New Offensive Coordinator

It was on December 30 that the 49ers decided to fire their offensive coordinator Micheal Martz. It was a good move on their part since their offense has been out of sync for quite a while. They still haven’t filled the position and are looking for someone that will give the 49er offense the spark that it needs.

On of the people that they have considered is Dan Reeves. He used to be the Denver Broncos before he was replaced during the last few games of their season. He was interviewed for the open position, and it he seems to be a very fit candidate, considering all that he has done.

As a head coach, Dan Reeves has had a record of 190-165-2. He was able to make the post season 9 times, and had 4 trips to the Superbowl. Hopefully, he becomes a great fit because just in case, he will be become the 7th offensive coordinator of the 49ers in 7 seasons. This clearly shows how bad their offense has become, and they need all the help they can get. They need someone that will turn around their whole offense, and make them fit to win a Superbowl.