Gabe Stein Posts

Well, Shanhan's already been busy this off-season. Following up on the earlier story about the firing of Larry Coyer, yesterday Shanahan also fired defensive line coach Andre Patterson, which I also think is a good move. The line was far in a way the weakest link in the Broncos defense. They were never able to rush four and get any pressure at all on quarterbacks, and Coyer was too predictable and wouldn't call a blitz to make up for it.

Mike Shanahan's new people have now moved in. Taking over as defensive coordinator is defensive back's coach Bob Slowik. I don't know a lot about Slowik, but I think promoting the person who runs one of the best parts of the defensive is, inherently, a pretty solid idea. However, Shanahan also brought in Jim Bates, a 14-year coach in the NFL, to be assistant coach of the defense, and word on the street is that he'll have most of the defensive control, just like Mike Heimerdinger, the assistant coach of the offense, has more control of the offense than the current offensive coordinator.

I don't honestly know a ton about Bates. He was the interim head coach during the 2004 Miami debacle, but his most recent stint was as Green Bay's defensive coordinator. Of course, it's hard to know how much his season at the Pack reflects how good he is, because that team's great defensive tradition has fallen on hard times recently. But what we do know is that Shanahan has been connected to Bates for some time. Bates' son works as an assistant for the Broncos, so it's plausible at least to think that Shanahan has been targeting him since earlier this year when the defense started its collapse.

The one thing I want address about this is that while I agree with the defensive shakeup in general, I don't think that's where the work needs to end. Larry Coyer and Andre Patterson weren't solely responsible for the lack of defense late in the season. I think Shanny's Cleveland experiment has failed. The Broncos need some new personnel on the offensive line, and Shanahan shouldn't stop overhauling the defense until we have the players and the coaches that can put the Broncos in a position to be successful rushing the quarterback.

Remember a week ago when I posted that the Denver season was defined by defense, not offense? Later on during the this playoff-less post-season stupor, I'll get to dissecting the move to put Cutler in at QB. Afterall, it was a pretty big deal. But it wasn't as big of a deal as the defense that, in the final ten games of the season, could not stop an opponent from driving down the field when it mattered.

The base defense, especially in final-minute situations, was too predictable, too conservative, and well, too basic. The story of the Indy, Kansas City, San Francisco, and at least the first San Diego game was that the defensive line couldn't get near the opposing quarterback, and no one on the sidelines (or up in a box, as the case might be) was adjusting. The story was predictable all throughout the year, and yet the Broncos never blitzed, hurried or even attempted to do more than rush four at the quarterback when it mattered.

I implicated the coaching staff in all of this, and now it looks like someone agrees with me. Coach Mike Shanahan, apparently, because Larry Coyer, the Broncos' four-year defensive coach (and former linebacking coach) is gone.

It'll no doubt be interesting to hear your reactions to this - that is, the fans who prasied Shanahan for being able to win with Plummer early in the season, then begged Shanahan to give Cutler a shot, and then criticized the coach for putting Cutler in and being too conservative with his play calling. So Broncos Country, is this Shanny doing the right thing, or just dumping the blame off on someone else? For what it's worth, my opinion is that this is definitely something that needed to happen this off season.

I don't want to distract anyone from the real news - Darrent Williams was shot and killed outside of a club in Denver at around 2 a.m on Monday. Our condolences to his family. But regardless of the tragedy, the Broncos will play next year. The show will go on, as they say. And so will this show.

No matter what people tell you, and no matter what the idiots say about the state of the offense or Mike Shanahan's choice to switch quarterbacks, don't believe them. This season was all about defense. At the start of the year, it was about a defense that just didn't let opposing offenses score. By the end of the year, especially after successive injuries to Sam Brandon and Nick Ferguson in the secondary, it was about a defense that couldn't stop the run, and couldn't stop teams in late winning drives.

In fact, I posted about both things last week. And sure enough, the defense couldn't stop Frank Gore (153 yards), and they couldn't stop San Francisco's offense as they drove into field goal range late in the overtime period. As Alex Smith dropped back to pass just outside of field goal range, on third down, the Broncos put no pressure on the young quarterback and he completed the pass that secured the game for San Francisco.

Even when the niners were ahead by four points with ten minutes left in the game, the defense couldn't give the Broncos offense a chance to win, letting San Francisco drive into field goal range to make it a seven point difference. This from a defense that was known early in the season for being able to make up for lackluster offensive play. So when Jay Cutler calmly lead the Broncos on a crucial 80-yard touchdown drive, all he could do was tie the game and send the Broncos into overtime.

You can say all you want about the offense that sputtered in the red zone, and gave up another interception for a touchdown. It's probably true that the Broncos should have scored 20 more points than they did. But with the game and the season on the line, the Broncos defense didn't even try to put pressure on Alex Smith. Whether it's bad coaching or lack of a defensive line, it's clear that the Broncos didn't deserve to go to the playoffs. And you can bet filling the holes on defense will be Shanahan's primary focus this off-season.

I know I just lampooned the defensive line for its lousy pass coverage late in games, but I do have to give them a break because of one thing: the Broncos have faced virtually all of the league's biggest, toughest running backs in the last few weeks, and when you look at it, this schedule could wear out any defensive line.

In case you're wondering, here's the list, starting six weeks ago: LaDainian Tomlinson, Larry Johnson, Shaun Alexander, and a repeat of Tomlinson. Then the Broncos got a "break" against Edge and Rudi Johnson. During the four-game stretch starting and ending with Tomlinson, the Broncos defense allowed an average of 113 rushing yards to their opponent's top runners, and lost all four games.

In the Broncos' longest winning streak this season, a five-game tear from weeks 2 to 7, the defense allowed an average of just 56 yards per game to top backs. Coincidence? Not at all. Even though the Broncos played some of those games against good running backs (they allowed 126 yards in the win over Larry Johnson and the Chiefs), the majority of them were against mediocre ones. When the team has faced a big running back behind a good offensive line this year, they've been absolutely run over.

Next week, the Broncos will face Frank Gore, who despite being on one of the NFC's worst teams (come on, they lost to the Cardinals), is the NFC's lead rusher. Gore can't carry San Francisco alone, but you can bet the Niners will try to exploit the weak running game this Sunday. If they're successful, the game might be a lot closer than anyone in Broncos Country wants.

This all brings me back to my point about the defensive line - something's got to change. The Broncos linebacking corps is really fast, so teams aren't running it outside anymore. They're stuffing it up the middle or running to the middle and cutting outside, and it's working. Yeah, the line has been beat up pretty bad late in the season, but if they can't stop Frank Gore on Sunday, I don't care if they win. They're not going to go very far in the playoffs because almost every playoff team in the AFC has one thing in common - a big running back that has torn up Denver's line.

This is a point that Sam and I disagree on, and he'll post a counterpoint later on, but here's the scenario for me. It's late in the fourth quarter, the Broncos are ahead by a score, and the other team has the ball with two minutes left. Sound familiar? It's the way we lost against Indy and San Diego, and the way we might have lost if the Bengals hadn't miffed an extra point. This years' Bronco defense is fairly good when offenses are in their normal sets. But when they get into their two minute drill, the defense has been powerless to stop teams all season long.

The reason is that our line gets no pressure on the quarterback, and Layer Coyer is too conservative to call blitzes late in the game. Once again on Sunday, Carson Palmer had all the time in the world to sit back and wait for his receivers to find an opening once the Bengals started their last drive from the Broncos' ten yard line. I don't care how good your secondary is - if you give a quarterback, and especially good receivers like Cincinatti has, that much time, they are going to beat you.

During that last sequence, Denver's defensive line didn't get anywhere near Carson Palmer. The key to disrupting a two minute drill is making the quarterback feel rushed - making him really feel the time winding down as he scrambles for his life. And most importantly, you have to get to the quarterback before his receivers find a way to exploit that soft zone, and make him wait to throw until the secondary can recover. But the Broncos haven't done it all season. In fact, they've been down right pitiful at getting to the quarterback, and it's cost the team several games already. It might have cost them this one, too, if Cincinatti hadn't been so self destructive.

In my opinion, this is the team's biggest weakness, and one of the first things Shanahan needs to address during the off-season, either by finding some new personnel or finding a defensive coordinator who's not so conservative late in games. Clearly, Shanny's Cleveland experiment is not working, so the Broncos need to find another way to patch up their D-line if they want to be a complete team next year.

Cutler's fourth week marked the rookie's second win, bringing his career numbers to 2-2. Though the Broncos won the game against Cincinatti largely due to the Bengal's own incompetence, Cutler played no small part in the victory. The rookie's line on the day: 12/23, 179 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT. Now he's turning heads - even the gargantuan head of John Clayton.

Positives: Cutler continued to look confident and the complexity of both the plays he ran successfully and the throws he completed increased this week. Jay continued his streak of throwing two touchdowns per game, making him the first rookie in NFL history to do so in his first four starts. Cutler has now thrown eight touchdowns on the season, and just three picks. In 11 games, Jake Plummer had only 11 touchdowns, compared to 12 interceptions. The rookie also showed remarkable poise coming back to lead the Broncos on four scoring drives after being intercepted on the first play of the game.

And in the game's defining moment, with the Broncos down 17-14 and starting from their own one yard line, Cutler lead the Broncos on a 99 yard touchdown drive, passing for 60 of those yards. In addition, Cutler continued to show off his ability to throw down the field, connecting with Javon Walker for 39 yards and Brandon Marshall for 37.

Negatives: Cutler threw an early interception for the second straight week, this time on the first play of the game. This time, the interception was all his fault - he double-pumped and waited too long to throw the ball to Brandon Marshall, allowing Dexter Jackson to make a play on the ball. Cutler also fumbled the ball once under center, proving that he still has work to do getting used to Tom Nalen. On a few plays, Cutler overthrew his target or tried to force balls to receivers that could have been picked off. Once again, he needs to learn to move around a little bit to buy more time, or try using his speed to run the ball for a short gain when receivers aren't open, instead of forcing the ball. Cutler also couldn't lead the team down the field late in the game when another score would have basically sealed the game for the Broncos. A lot of this was very conservative play calling by Shanahan, something that has to stop. But Cutler also has to learn to look for first downs, not big gains or short passes, on those drives late in the game.

Improvement Over Week 3? Not statistically. But remember - even if Cincinatti's defense isn't the best in the league, they are definitely better, or at least played better on Sunday, than Arizona. Mentally, Cutler played another sharp game, and his stats weren't bad at all. He played a large part in all three Broncos touchdowns, and showed his ability to perform well under pressure during the aforementioned 99-yard drive. The real question is, would Plummer have given us a better chance to win the game? The answer is no. Cutler's play was certainly one of the brightest points of the game for the Broncos, and the big drive was by far the best of the season for the Broncos. Plummer never sustained a long drive this season like Cutler did, especially during such a crucial part of the game, and Plummer probably would not have been able to complete the long passes to Walker and Marshall, which lead to the other two Denver touchdowns.

It was the most talked about matchup of the day: recently named pro-bowler Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson against recently named pro-bowler Champ Bailey. Even though it wasn't Bailey's best game of the season, he "won" the contest, and it's not even close.

That said, I need to qualify my statement. Chad Johnson did find openings in the defense - enough that had the Bengals offense been able to execute, he would have probably been declared the winner. But as it stands, Chad finished the game with three receptions for just 32 yards. And in a defining moment when the Bengals chose to test Champ Bailey one-on-one by forcing the ball to Johnson, Bailey jumped the ball and recorded his eighth interception of the year.

As I said before, Johnson did get open - but only when the Broncos were playing in zone coverage or when the Bengals ran out of tricky formations to isolate Johnson against a different defensive back. After the interception, the Bengals didn't really test Champ again, and the stats speak for themselves: only three catches on the day for Ocho Cinco.

I think Bailey's performance in this matchup makes a pretty good case for Champ as the NFL defensive player of the year. No one else shuts receivers down, makes the interceptions, and still tackles as well (6 against the Bengals) as Champ Bailey.

For all of you who don't know - it snowed hard, really hard, in Denver this week. The city saw at least 24 inches of snow over 48 hours, making the storm one of the worst in Denver history. The Broncos have been practicing in their Dove Valley indoor bubble - but apparently it's been tough for the crews at Invesco Field. Yesterday the Broncos sent an e-mail warning fans of a few things about Sunday's game. But they weren't quite straight forward about it.

We would like all fans to know, that though these efforts continue, we do anticipate that snow will be present in many areas of the stadium, including in seating areas and around individual seats.

We do anticipate that snow will be present? Just give it to me straight, doctor. Will Broncos fans literally be sitting in huge piles of snow? The 'answer' from Joe Ellis, head of business ops:

"We would like everyone to be festive, enthusiastic and understanding."

Uh-oh...

"There's going to be snow in the bowl. People need to wear boots or warm shoes."

There you have it people, there's going to be snow in the bowl. What he really means is, your feet are going to be f--ing cold!! If you're going to the game, you'd better be wearing wool socks and heavy boots with foot warmers - and with the amount of snow that fell, I'd advise sneaking in a shovel too, just in case.

The injury report for this week's game against the Bengals is in - and it's good news all around for the Broncos. Darrent Williams will likely make his return to the lineup just in time to cover T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and it'll be interesting to see how Mike Shanhan handles the situation. Last week, the Broncos successfully contained the Cardinals' outstanding receiving pair of Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald without Williams, who's claim to fame this season was being torched by Reggie Wayne when the Colts came into town. I'm betting we'll see a lot of Domonique Foxworth (maybe playing safety like he did against the Chargers?) on Sunday, especially because Williams is still recovering from his toe injury.

Adam Meadows will also likely be available this weekend after missing a few games with hamstring problems. Just before Meadows was injured, he was promoted ahead of George Foster, who has been one of the weakest links in Denver's offensive line this year. Last week that line produced just 106 rushing yards for a team that normally racks up at least 150, so we could see Meadows starting ahead of Foster again, or possibly in place of Erik Pears, who took over when Matt Lepsis was injured earlier this season. Either way, the Broncos must re-establish the run if they want to win against Cincinatti.

Other notable Broncos on the list: Stephen Alexander is probable coming off of a rib injury, Jason Elam is still recovering (but probable to play) from his "rainbow right" hammy pull, Javon Walker looks to be ready after suffering a first degree shoulder separation last week, and as always, Al "Ironman" Wilson is ready to play despite his season-long thumb injury.

Mile High Report and FanHouse's own Adam Rank have already picked up on this - but Adam Schefter, former columnist for the Denver Post, has clearly struck a nerve with Al Davis by writing on NFL.com that the Raiders...might be firing Art Shell.

Not exactly earth-shattering or confidential news given the Raiders' 2-12 record and the complete disaster that has defined every aspect of Shell's tenure this season. Well, surprise surprise, Al Davis had something to say about this report, unlike everything else involving his team, so the Raiders released this statement in response to Schefter's article:

Adam Schefter has always been a false rumor monger with respect to the Raiders and Anti-Raider bias based upon his relationship with Denver and Mike Shanahan. No decisions have been made relative to the 2007 Oakland Raiders nor will they be made for some time. Adam Schefter could not have gotten his information from a 'reliable source' because there's only one reliable source and he doesn't trust Adam.

I'm glad the Raiders really debunked this "out there" rumor by saying they haven't made a decision yet. But Davis is also using this opportunity to reaffirm a startling policy very few fans knew existed: Al Davis does not like Mike Shanahan. Woh. To quote Ricky Bobby: "That. Just. Happened!"

Hopefully for Broncos fans, Al Davis will be tempted to bring Art Shell back for another season just to spite Mike Shanahan and that 'false rumor monger' he's in cahoots with. Because Art's just done a wonderful job for the Raiders this year - and as a Broncos fan, with all the respect I have for the Oakland organization, I hope to see a lot more of the same from the Silver and Black in years to come.