Denver Broncos and Bye week coaches film analysis

Originally posted by TheRatMan13:

Originally posted by defenderDX:
that's where losing Patrick Willis hurts ^ and makes a huge difference, and is a huge drop off with Borland

I remember a few times in the past where either Willis or Bow were 1on1 with a receiver, and it worked in our favor. Didn't Bowman stop a pass to Roddy White on the last play in ATL in the playoffs?

we were in zone on that play though

This game showed me Willis and Bowman are absolute monsters and we need at least one of them to play against the elites. Obviously Aldon is a super freak and his pressure changes the game, i hope to see this team in the SB and give them a beating of our own with all our all pro players against their stacked roster.

I like when we have been going 3 or more wide, Kap seems to be clicking with other WR's sans that INT at a crucial time where it seemed he got baited, would love to see that play and if its similar to what Philly and others have done to Kap. I would like to see breakdowns if possible of how we have been successful in multiple WR sets and to the point of another poster what is going on with Crabtree who is supposed to be our #1.

You guys are great with doing this for us, anytime you can elevate the knowledge of your community you are doing a really great thing, so Thanks!

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by TheRatMan13:

Originally posted by defenderDX:
that's where losing Patrick Willis hurts ^ and makes a huge difference, and is a huge drop off with Borland

I remember a few times in the past where either Willis or Bow were 1on1 with a receiver, and it worked in our favor. Didn't Bowman stop a pass to Roddy White on the last play in ATL in the playoffs?

we were in zone on that play though

Good point.

What I'm seeing from the few cut-ups is confirming the need for Aldon on the blind side. If he is in this game, some of these plays probably don't have enough time to develop because most of the coverage is good. Just one mistake, and too much time for Manning to find it. I can't wait for 99 to get back!

Here's another example of Manning using his eyes against zone coverage when we drop 8 in coverage.


Pre-snap we show a 2 deep look. This is immediately following the INT by CK.


Just before the snap, Bethea moves towards the middle of the field. From here, we're going to play a cover 3 zone. We're trying to bracket the underneath short out routes. We're trying to take away the short throws. It's an 8 man coverage with only 3 men on the route. In theory, this should be a perfect situation for the defense.


After the play fake Manning keeps his head down the middle of the field. This holds Bethea in the middle.


We've got Welker covered and bracketed and Cox has over the top leverage by several steps on D. Thomas, in theory, this is a win. But, Manning keeps his head down the middle of the field so Bethea can't provide any help that way.


Note where Thomas is when Manning throws the ball - this is important to show on the next pic how much air Manning puts under the ball. Because he held Bethea, he's got a long way to go to help Cox.


Because Cox was in zone coverage, he's playing with outside leverage, as opposed to inside leverage on man-coverage. That's what gave Manning any room to get the pass in. That's why it was so important to hold the safety against this coverage. Thomas catches the ball at the 4 yard line. That means Thomas was able to cover over 20 yards while the ball was in the air, that's a lot of air under the ball. I'd like to see CK be able to float more passes like that. You don't have to have a rocket arm to get big pass plays down the field. You just have to get the defense out of position and position the ball well.


You can see all the guys in to block and how Manning's holding the safety.

What's going on with Crabtree is that he's just average.

No rush. Manning could have taken a nap back there and wouldn't have gotten touched.

Originally posted by defenderDX:
Could it be? Press man!?

Not jam press...free release...like all night. Not even Willis would be able to cover Thomas on a crossing route w/o a jam at the LOS by someone. He's a mismatch on any LB running full speed across the middle of the field (BTW: Great design and target of Wilhoite with their best player; great scheme and game plan). And on the "press" notice how Bethea is in press but doesn't even touch Welker...clean release and instantly, Bethea is in trail mode giving Welker the immediate advantage. On all these gifs you'll see every receiver come clean off the line uncontested and as a result, you'll see a bunch of wide open receivers to choose from. I don't want to hi-jack this thread so let's just leave it at that or continue in the Fangio thread.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's another example of Manning using his eyes against zone coverage when we drop 8 in coverage.


Pre-snap we show a 2 deep look. This is immediately following the INT by CK.


Just before the snap, Bethea moves towards the middle of the field. From here, we're going to play a cover 3 zone. We're trying to bracket the underneath short out routes. We're trying to take away the short throws. It's an 8 man coverage with only 3 men on the route. In theory, this should be a perfect situation for the defense.


After the play fake Manning keeps his head down the middle of the field. This holds Bethea in the middle.


We've got Welker covered and bracketed and Cox has over the top leverage by several steps on D. Thomas, in theory, this is a win. But, Manning keeps his head down the middle of the field so Bethea can't provide any help that way.


Note where Thomas is when Manning throws the ball - this is important to show on the next pic how much air Manning puts under the ball. Because he held Bethea, he's got a long way to go to help Cox.


Because Cox was in zone coverage, he's playing with outside leverage, as opposed to inside leverage on man-coverage. That's what gave Manning any room to get the pass in. That's why it was so important to hold the safety against this coverage. Thomas catches the ball at the 4 yard line. That means Thomas was able to cover over 20 yards while the ball was in the air, that's a lot of air under the ball. I'd like to see CK be able to float more passes like that. You don't have to have a rocket arm to get big pass plays down the field. You just have to get the defense out of position and position the ball well.


You can see all the guys in to block and how Manning's holding the safety.

Once again, Brooks is dropping back in zone to help defend the pass (no real pass rush with 3 while relying on an 8-man coverage), clean releases off the LOS by all, wrong high S (s/h/b Reid) and one hell of an anticipatory throw and catch by Thomas. At this point in the game, Fangio had moved Cox back to LCB and IIRC, tried to get additional help on Thomas but he used the wrong S here and with off coverage and zero pass rush it's still easy for Manning to beat. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't at least one other receiver open despite, basically, 8 in coverage.

Originally posted by defenderDX:
that's where losing Patrick Willis hurts ^ and makes a huge difference, and is a huge drop off with Borland

I was thinking to myself that losing Willis hurts our team more than losing Bowman does and I think last game was a good example.

Originally posted by NCommand:
Not jam press...free release...like all night. Not even Willis would be able to cover Thomas on a crossing route w/o a jam at the LOS by someone. He's a mismatch on any LB running full speed across the middle of the field (BTW: Great design and target of Wilhoite with their best player; great scheme and game plan). And on the "press" notice how Bethea is in press but doesn't even touch Welker...clean release and instantly, Bethea is in trail mode giving Welker the immediate advantage. On all these gifs you'll see every receiver come clean off the line uncontested and as a result, you'll see a bunch of wide open receivers to choose from. I don't want to hi-jack this thread so let's just leave it at that or continue in the Fangio thread.

Nope, there were hands on the receiver. Sorry, wouldn't have made a difference if it was the gameplan.

Originally posted by defenderDX:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Not jam press...free release...like all night. Not even Willis would be able to cover Thomas on a crossing route w/o a jam at the LOS by someone. He's a mismatch on any LB running full speed across the middle of the field (BTW: Great design and target of Wilhoite with their best player; great scheme and game plan). And on the "press" notice how Bethea is in press but doesn't even touch Welker...clean release and instantly, Bethea is in trail mode giving Welker the immediate advantage. On all these gifs you'll see every receiver come clean off the line uncontested and as a result, you'll see a bunch of wide open receivers to choose from. I don't want to hi-jack this thread so let's just leave it at that or continue in the Fangio thread.

Nope, there were hands on the receiver. Sorry, wouldn't have made a difference if it was the gameplan.

Come on, really? There isn't an ounce of "jam" in this jelly.

Just an ugly, ugly game. We got our 40-8 1994 Philly game, just totally overmatched on the defensive side of the ball. Unfortunately, that's what it looks like when you are missing your 3 top lbers.

Winning in Denver is tough with a full squad and damn nearing impossible with 2s-3s forced to play.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's another example of just how tough Manning is to beat.

You see the LB's dropping in zone coverage. It takes away the deep crossing route Manning wanted.


Manning doesn't panic though, he keeps his head down the middle of the field. This causes all the LB's to keep dropping towards that direction and Reid heads that way too. On the backside, the receiver is able to drive Brock upfield to open up his inside cut.


Because Manning's head kept all the defenders flowing that way, it opens up a space for the backside receiver to work.

The space he had was again, just enough. He gets the ball over the LB into the space for his receiver. We had 8 men in coverage against 3 receivers and he still beat us, just by his head movement and knowing that his backside receiver was going to have inside leverage.

Rusty Brock. I think he breaks on that better if he were 3 or 4 games in. That's my main concern when Bo gets back.

Originally posted by Joecool:
Rusty Brock. I think he breaks on that better if he were 3 or 4 games in. That's my main concern when Bo gets back.

Yeah, he'll get better. Despite the 20 yard cushion, the encouraging thing is we all know he's very quick out of his breaks and when he gets back to form, he and Cox are going to have a field day. We now know the secondary: Cox & Brock with Ward in the slot (when healthy) and Bethea and Reid. That's pretty damn good there. Cox can always slide inside to the slot as well to get more aggressive and bigger on the outside by bringing in Cully/Cook/Johnson. Aldon should add at least a sack a game overall plus a few pressures which may also help free up Lynch/Brooks. Dorsey may be back at some point...Dial can play, same for Dobbs and TJE as backups. Add Willis soon and Bowman "later, rather than sooner" and it will be a much faster and aggressive defense with tons of depth.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's another example of just how tough Manning is to beat.


Here we're playing man coverage out of our base personnel. We have Bethea on Welker - I think a lot of that had to do with Ward being out of the game. The LB's are playing, "back/TE out to their side". Meaning, they're in man coverage if a back or TE flares out on their side. But, Denver doesn't send either of them out in a pass patter, so, they all end up playing underneath zone coverage.


The run fake pulls all the LB's up for a step, but, they recover well.

You see the LB's dropping in zone coverage. It takes away the deep crossing route Manning wanted.


Manning doesn't panic though, he keeps his head down the middle of the field. This causes all the LB's to keep dropping towards that direction and Reid heads that way too. On the backside, the receiver is able to drive Brock upfield to open up his inside cut.


Because Manning's head kept all the defenders flowing that way, it opens up a space for the backside receiver to work.

The space he had was again, just enough. He gets the ball over the LB into the space for his receiver. We had 8 men in coverage against 3 receivers and he still beat us, just by his head movement and knowing that his backside receiver was going to have inside leverage.

LOL at 8 in coverage versus a 3 man route combination. All 4 underneath defenders get absolutely owned by Manning's eyes. I would just tell the defenders to turn around and find work. Don't bother reading Manning's eyes, they are there to deceive you.