With our secondary as it has been...

[Kurb]

Denver could pose a big match-up problem.

They basically are Cardinals lite right now.

Marshall is very good.

Stokely and VT kid both very solid.

Culter has also been solid all season.

I'm still not sure what has happened in the secondary. Going into the season they were possibly our best unit on defense.

I still keep coming back to something being added during the bye that has thrown off all of them.

Godfrey almost seems to be regressing. Lucas and Marshall both are putting up poor performances. I'm not sure if this is a product of Godfrey being out of position or what. I do seem to notice "I THINK" more of the blow coverages are on Luc/Gdfrys side of the field. Gamble and Harris don't seem to be so far out of position so much.

Also of concern is the dreaded No-Name RB fiasco of 2004 coming back to haunt us. The Panthers basically made Ruben Droughns careers that game.

The boys are gonna have to bring the same intensity to this game as they did MNF or all there work could be wasted.

[X-Clown]

Tatum Bell goes from being on the Lions roster, to stealing Rudi Johnson's clothes, to selling cell phones for a living, then to starting at running back for a playoff team all within one season. I think this might be brought up roughly 200 times during the broadcast on Sunday, especially if he scores a TD.

[Carolina Husker]

Good post.

Obviously you match-up Gamble on Marshall. That leaves Royal to be covered by Lucas primarily. I think a deep Cover II was made just for these guys. Nickel and Dime packages on 3rd downs to negate the deep and sideline threats. Let them take their shots. But don't give up the big pass play.

They are severly banged up, especially in the backfield, and I think our front 7 can stop their run. Our safeties need to concentrate on keeping everything in front of them, because Denver has arguably the 3rd or 4th best WR corp in the league. Scheffler is a great TE too. I'm worried about him as much as I am Marshall.

A lot of what we do defensively will be predicated on ball control and how much our offense can keep their D on the field.

[Mr.Ponche]

I made this statement on another thread,but it applies more here.We shouldn't have to stack the box,therefore giving the secondary that extra man to defend the pass.I know Captain Obvious there.What scares me is what Turdo will do with extra man.I really hope Fox gets involved heavily in the D gameplanning and calling.Shannahan vs. Turdo isn't even close to a fair fight!

[hdevonxz]

Our secondary has and will always be flawed as long as we use the same scheme. Basically if peppers doesn't get a sac its up to our secondary to make a play. We need to mix things up and I don't mean showing blitz and backing out like we always do. Wco always tear us up.

[Kurb]

Our secondary has and will always be flawed as long as we use the same scheme. Basically if peppers doesn't get a sac its up to our secondary to make a play. We need to mix things up and I don't mean showing blitz and backing out like we always do. Wco always tear us up.

FWIW A well run WCO will tear most any secondary up. It is next to impossible to cover a 5 yard slant when the ball is there 1 second after it hits the qb's hands. This was what Zona was doing to us, and really the only thing you can do is let them get the yards and stop them when their lack of a running game can't punch in the score. Which is basically what we did in that game.

As for blitzing I was actually pleased with the blitzing this year, they need to be more effective tho. Marshall really has a knack for it. In a cover 2 he would be the next Rhonde Barber IMO.

If you try and jump those short routes and miss, they could get 20 more yards. If you press them to hard, they will audible out of the short route, and unless you have over the top coverage you will get Burnt.

[Mr.Ponche]

Maybe this time when Pep falls into coverage and intercepts in the endzone,he can run it all the way back,since we will be home and not at Mile High!

[chbright]

we better not punt to royal. he is a good speedy wr, but a very good returner, and with crossman, thats a horrible matchup. also eddie has 69 rec, 799 yards, and 5 rec tds, leading all rookies. when we drafted ryne, i knew eddie wasnt on our radar going into the 2008 draft, and denver gota steal. kid is filthy good.

then there is brandon marshall who has been on fire most of the season, like smitty after a suspension. cant focus on him, or eddie will burn us (as he has when marshall was out).

[Seamonk]

I think we can contain Royal, while with VT, he was always pretty easy to frustrate. I'd take my chances with Lucas covering Marshall with safety over the top. (Marshall gets a lot of passes his way, but he doesn't get a whole lot of yardage out of them a lot of the time). I'd put Gamble on Royal. Our D-line will have to repeat what they did against the Bucs. Our linebackers will have the responsibility of covering their TEs which Cutler seems to love to use in the passing game.

Their running game will be successful, this is Shanahan, it doesn't matter who is back there, so people will have to wrap up. One thing with the tampa bay game was, there weren't that many missed tackles by our defense as you probably thought.

Defense will have to make their stops count...

Because on offense, we will have to run down their throats. We will have to continually put ourselves in scoring position. With offensive powerhouses you have to match them step for step and make the stops on defense and continually pound away.

[Delhomeboy]

Jam at the line.

Jam at the line.

Jam at the line.

Repeat ad nauseum.

[Delhommey]

Scheffler concerns me greatly.

[PantherPearly]

Cutler is a good mobile quarterback similar to Garcia so nothing would make me happier than to see some blitzes. I think we had one corner blitz the entire Tampa game, and that ended up with Garcia with a face full of Richard Marshall. Their two tackles have only given up like 2 sacks in the last 12 games combined, so its gonna come down to getting pressure from someone other than just our front four.

Although I think we all know how it ends....the linebackers and corners showing blitz then dropping back into coverage, how many teams are actually fooled by that at this point? Im not worried about stopping the run, Denver is a one dimensional team if Ive ever seen one.

[Snake]

FWIW A well run WCO will tear most any secondary up. It is next to impossible to cover a 5 yard slant when the ball is there 1 second after it hits the qb's hands. This was what Zona was doing to us, and really the only thing you can do is let them get the yards and stop them when their lack of a running game can't punch in the score. Which is basically what we did in that game.

As for blitzing I was actually pleased with the blitzing this year, they need to be more effective tho. Marshall really has a knack for it. In a cover 2 he would be the next Rhonde Barber IMO.

If you try and jump those short routes and miss, they could get 20 more yards. If you press them to hard, they will audible out of the short route, and unless you have over the top coverage you will get Burnt.

Zone blitzing dose the trick if you dont use it alot. You have to disturb the timing of the WCO or it will tear you up all day with dinks and dunks. I think we have taken more of a zone approach in the 2nd half of the season and thats why Godfrey is regressing because he plays the run too much then cant get back in his deep coverage.

The fact is though our offense can run the ball on Denver. Controlling the clock and limiting the time they have the ball is gonna be huge.

[frash.exe]

I don't think we have a snowball's chance in hell of keeping Cutler to under 200 yards passing, or even 250. Against TB we did a pretty good job of stopping the run, but the three games before that we've been giving in the ground game as well. This defense hasn't been particularly dominant at anything, and that's an area that we need to repair. First half of the season our pass d was stifling, like 150 pass yards a game, and then the wheels fell off the wagon at some point.

I really want to say that our defense can win the battle, but I really think this is going to be another game our offense is going to have to carry us because the D just isn't up to the challenge. Hope they get in stride soon though.