Dumervil & Miller looking to contain Newton

[King Taharqa]

Fresh off a five-sack day in Cincinnati, the Denver Broncos are now tied for sixth in the NFL in sacks with 24.

Broncos linebacker Von Miller, after three sacks Sunday, is tied for second in the league with nine. Elvis Dumervil is among several players tied for 16th with six sacks.

Miller and Dumvervil are hard-chargers — they have 62.5 percent of the Broncos' sacks this season.

"That's my job, it's what I do," Dumervil said. "It's a big part of the defense and with Von we can come at a quarterback a lot of different ways in this scheme. We like to get the quarterback."

Sunday in Carolina, however, they can't like it too much.

The Broncos will face Panthers' second-year quarterback Cam Newton, who

is second among all QBs in rushing behind Washington rookie Robert Griffin III.

Newton is big — 6-foot-5, 245 pounds — as in bigger than Miller (6-3, 237) or any of the other Broncos linebacker.

The Broncos also have a history with Newton. Denver had the No. 2 pick in hand for the 2011 draft, and Newton was one of the top players on the board. So the Broncos gave him the full work-up, including a pro day visit.

But the Panthers took Newton with the No. 1 pick that year, so the Broncos took Miller at No. 2 and both players went on to win rookie of the year honors, Newton on offense, Miller on defense.

On Newton, Broncos coach John Fox said:

"He's a terrific talent. He's big, strong, fast, he's got a very strong arm. I think that was indicative of the kind of rookie season he had a year ago."

The Panthers have cocooned Newton in a playbook tailored for his ability to both run and throw on the run, including the kind of read-option attack the Broncos used last season with The Golden Calf of Bristol behind center.

But it is the Panthers' variation on the read-option that is the rub for Miller and Dumervil.

The Broncos' option attack with The Golden Calf of Bristol last season concentrated the bulk of the

work right over the center — the Broncos ran 50 percent of their rushing attempts last season over center.

But the Panthers are more willing to attack the edges.Carolina has averaged more than 7.0 yards per carry around both the left and right ends this season.

And the Panthers haven't averaged more than 4.04 yards per carry over any other spot across the offensive front, including just 1.78 yards per carry over the left tackle and 2.6 yards per carry over the right tackle.

That puts Dumervil, and often Miller, in the position of containment on both early downs as well as in passing situations. On early downs, they'll have to play with discipline, especially when Newton attacks out of the option.

The Broncos last season took advantage of opposing defenses that simply didn't play sound assignment football against an option attack. Defenses often had multiple players attack The Golden Calf of Bristol and leave the pitch man free, or they got too far upfield and let The Golden Calf of Bristol have an escape lane to the inside.

Teams did improve as the season went on and there was more and more video to watch, but the lesson is the same for the Broncos this time around.

In his rookie year, offenses often lured Miller up the field and worked plays to the space left behind. So much so, the Broncos pulled Miller from the lineup at times.

This season has been far different. Miller has shown himself to be a far more well-rounded player, who is consistently messing with offensive gameplans.

But if Miller and Dumervil lose the edge too often Sunday, the Broncos will lose the game.

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_21940603/elvis-dumervil-von-miller-broncos-vs-cam-newton

ATTENTION JORDAN GROSS AND THE O LINEMAN. These guys are going to look to play big for their guy Foxy on Sunday. Will we keep them off our QB?

[Kuech the Sneak]

We have good OTs....just can't be put in too many 3rd and longs because that's hard on every OT

[YoungPanthers89]

Chud help us all

[carolina-chuck]

Go head. Who said Cam was going to run wild. Do they still think we're running a college option system?

[Dpantherman]

Seemed like when Fox was here he didn't have much success vs. mobile QBs. I have no numbers to back that up though, so I can most certainly be wrong

[Jackofalltrades]

OG's and the read option crap have killed our interior rushing.

I imagine they'll have Von attack those two G's Sunday while using Elvis on the outside to create space inside.

[jake14wl]

I hope we crush Denver & Mr. Richardson rides his little golf cart past Fox & Manning after the game doing the crip lean holding a pie chart showing Cam's dominance.

[lightsout]

Miller is their TD, whereas Cam is our Vick (for the Foxy idea vs mobile QBs). The thing is....we're not running such a gimmicky offense anymore. If they think we are, they're in for a rude awakening. I sincerely hope they spend a TON of time scheming the read option, because we're not going to be running it that much. More chance to exploit their secondary and pound the ball between the tackles. As long as our offense keeps improving (there has been slight improvement, game to game, the past few weeks), and as long as the defense keeps performing at the level they have, we have a good chance here.

As far as our games in the past against Peyton, he's 1-2 and has historically had his worst games against us. Don't know how official these numbers are, but it is interesting.

http://www.peytonmanning18.com/eachteam.html

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

Seemed like when Fox was here he didn't have much success vs. mobile QBs. I have no numbers to back that up though, so I can most certainly be wrong

5 straight losses to the falcons when michael vick was the starting quarterback for starters. jeff garcia carved us up in 2007 and the first game of 2008 as well. freeman didn't put up eye popping numbers as a rusher but his mobility hurt us big time in 2010

[Herbert The Love Bug]

Miller is their TD, whereas Cam is our Vick (for the Foxy idea vs mobile QBs). The thing is....we're not running such a gimmicky offense anymore. If they think we are, they're in for a rude awakening. I sincerely hope they spend a TON of time scheming the read option, because we're not going to be running it that much. More chance to exploit their secondary and pound the ball between the tackles. As long as our offense keeps improving (there has been slight improvement, game to game, the past few weeks), and as long as the defense keeps performing at the level they have, we have a good chance here.

As far as our games in the past against Peyton, he's 1-2 and has historically had his worst games against us. Don't know how official these numbers are, but it is interesting.

http://www.peytonman...m/eachteam.html

I don't think they are that stupid. I'm sure they have film of our last 2 games and realize that we aren't doing it as much.

[Peppers90 NC]

is it just me or did we go back to running a bunch of options last game? of course washington's bad defense made it appear that it worked better. We need to score at least 28 to win this one.

[rayzor]

Fresh off a five-sack day in Cincinnati, the Denver Broncos are now tied for sixth in the NFL in sacks with 24.

who are they tied with?

panthers.

if you look at the pass defense stats for both teams they are pretty similar...except they've allowed 14 passing TDs. panthers have allowed only 9.

[Tarheels23]

Do Von Miller get most of his sacks from the DE position or LB position? I know they play a 4-3 so I'm confused.

[megadeth078]

O-line has been improving since we got rid of that read option garbage.

I'm interested to see how they hold up.