O'Dear the O'Line is
not Fine
When Kyle Orton played in the first half the OL protected
him well when he was in the shotgun formation but in the running game they were
horrible. The story line from the sports media was Orton is head and shoulders
above Brady Quinn and Tim Tebow. Why shouldn't he be? He has an entire season
in McDaniels offensive system he should look better.
This game gave no indication of how well he'll play once
they count. All it proved was he could complete some short dink and dunk passes
out of the shotgun in a meaningless preseason game, big deal. He could do that
last year, where he failed was scrambling out the pocket or getting the ball
deep or looking for other WR's not named Brandon Marshall.
With the Broncos 2 best OL Tackles Ryan Clady and Ryan
Harris still out with injuries they started Tyler Polumus and D'Anthony
Batiste. Never heard of them? There's a reason for it, Polumus is now in his 3
season only has 8 starts and Batiste who was with the Redskins only has 12
going into his 4th season.
At the Guard position it gets no better for the Broncos.
Starter Chris Kuper has been fighting an ankle injury in camp so Rookie Eric
Olsen saw playing time and at the other Guard position Rookies Zane Beadles and
Seth Olsen fight for that spot with Beadles getting the nod for now.
At Center Russ Hochstein a back up for Patriots last year
was signed and he competes for a job against Rookie J.D. Walton. Hmmm...
The short is the Broncos are very inexperienced on the OL.
It's very possible if Clady and Harris aren't ready by opening day the Broncos
could start an all Rookie OL. Not good guys, not good at all.
In the first preseason game the lack of experience showed in
pass protection for both Quinn and Tebow and performed even worse in the
running game producing a measly 36 total yards rushing. Even if Knowshon Moreno
were healthy enough to play in this one he certainly wouldn't have been able to
do much better than Lance Ball who had 6 carries for 27 yards or Bruce Hall 5
carries for -3 yards. Why you ask? Moreno actually had a better line to run
behind last year and he was relatively ineffective, one can only imagine what
he'd do behind this line.
For all the Big Time
Free Agents on the DL, No sacks
As I said before camp started the Broncos have tried and
tried again with free agents to improve the D, year after year for 10 years
without much success. This year they went after DL. Jamal Williams,
Ronald Fields nor Justin Bannan recorded a sack against the Bengals. Without
the Broncos best Defensive player Elvis Dumervil on the field no pass rush or
pressure came in the game.
The big wad they spent on these guys has got to produce
better results and by the time preseason breaks they must get better because
the Broncos LB's are the weakest link on the D. Without any help from the DL
even the Broncos secondary which may be the best part of the unit could put up
way worse stats than last year.
Champ Bailey had a nice game; he broke up 2 passes to the Prima D
onna Terrell Owens. It was fun seeing TO drop 2 passes too, no matter
where he goes or who the QB is for all is bloated stats he still drops way too
many balls.
Quinn's Nightmare
The first series Quinn looked horrible. Then on the second
he fumbled a snap and overthrew a wide open WR. Then the worst was he threw a
pick that went for a TD in his third series. He looked horrible out there but
in his defense the Broncos gave up trying to run the ball and he didn't get
good pass protection so the criticism while deserved seems overblown
considering.
Tebow made plays,
teammates didn't
For the hype surrounding his first game I thought he played as well as could be expected since it was garbage time with poor pass protection in the 4th quarter of a preseason game. Matt Willis dropped what would have been Tebow's first TD pass which was a beautiful throw.
I see now what the scouts mean by Tebow's delivery, it is a weird motion and on the fumble play called a forward pass that funny cocking motion nearly caused a turnover. Still, despite the cockeyed delivery he does get the ball there and does make plays.
I know he was a running QB in college but I hope he doesn't
run to many times straight up like when he ran in for the TD. He's a warrior
through and through but the big tough guys that play in the NFL will murder him
if he makes many more running attempts like that. Hit the turf Tebow, live to
play another day.
The Lions at home
next week
The Broncos should be able to have a better performance
against the lowly Lions next week. I'll be watching the line play on both sides
of the ball again. Without improvement, I'm sorry I tell it like it is the
offensive line is going to be the single most important ingredient of any
improvement the Broncos make this year. Without it, as I mentioned, I see the
Broncos winning 3 to 5 games, despite the weak AFC West Division.
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