Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Freemasedist Nick ferguson Last Hour. We had met Jesney on
talking about Broncos and Buffs. Nick I had mentioned it
a little bit off air earlier that I didn't feel
like the Denver Broncos when.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
They made the decision about Lloyd Cushion Barry.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I think it was an idea that they couldn't afford
to keep Cush and now I feel like it was
an they couldn't afford not to. And Matt was talking
about the offensive line and the players needing to step up,
and you know you're getting paid, you got to go
in there and do the work. And I wanted you
to respond to that portion first because it's been a
(00:39):
hot topic of conversational night.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well, the way I look at it, as far as
the Broncos offensive line, I felt as though cush did
a good job, decent enough job, but with the money
that the team had invested in Russ and known as
though Russ was not going to be here, just trying
to put a team together that was competitive in twenty
(01:03):
twenty four, that was a tall task and you had
to look at guys who you were going to keep.
Just like there's some guys who I would have loved
to see what they would have done this season, but
those guys are no longer here, Tim Patrick being one
of those guys. But I know how the business of
football actually works. But I do personally feel as though
(01:23):
if Cush was here, the line may be playing a
lot better. And the reason I say that is because
the game is about continuity. And even though you have
four guys who have now playing together in their second year,
I mean everyone except the center. So could you imagine
if you were able to keep the entire line together
(01:47):
what this line could do as a group. And not
to undermine the center position, but when you play the center,
you're essentially the quarterback at the offensive line. You have
to be a to see pressures, you have to be
able to communicate, because some of that is on the
quarterback too, being able to identify where the pressure is
(02:08):
coming from to get the offense in the right set.
But that center and having that chemistry would be be key.
And I know someone's probably screaming at me right now saying, Okay, well,
Cush wouldn't have had any kind of continuity with bow Knicks,
But that is something.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
That you come up tour.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yes, you lean on that, but Cush experience, you know,
Wattenberg is just jumping in this, you know, being a starter,
full time starter for the Broncos for the first time.
And I'm thinking with Kush there that would have kind
of allow bow Nicks to kind of settle in because
he doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting. All
(02:48):
you have to do post that, find the right target,
deliver the past.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, you're not worrying about the I like that.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
The continuity too, is you look at the offensive line
so many times as moving pieces, but it's a and
you remove that centerpiece, your anchor point, you're putting a
lot of pressure on.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Those guards and those tackles to make up for that.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So although Nick, I love the point, there's four returning
your main guy, your middle is not. And I don't
think you could successfully plug in anyone there and see
the results that you wanted to. And again that's why
we're talking about it in week two of the regular season.
There's still a lot of season to go. But now
you got to Mike McGlinchey down with injury, so Pochesky's
(03:26):
going to have to come in and fill in, and
then you might see more Matt Pert the depth is
good along the line, but how would it be, you know,
functioning for bone Nicks behind an elite line that's been
working together for quite some time. I also wonder if
it's the year that the Denver Broncos draft, develop, and
pay a tackle like this is long term goals that
(03:47):
you're hoping to see because it hasn't been done since
what twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well, to say that is to say that the Broncos
haven't drafted and develop a quarterback or a right tackle
right mean, could the Broncos be on the verge of
doing that by default? Absolutely? Now, obviously you want Mike mcglitchy,
you know, in the game protecting the right side of
(04:12):
bow knicks, but we know injuries are part of the game.
I wish him a speedy recovery, But this game continues
to move on. It's going to exactly so right now,
it's can the individual stepping in for mcglitchy. Can you
give bo enough confidence that, hey, my right side is
(04:34):
going to be protected. We talked about earlier about my
thoughts on somewhat taking the handcuffs off of bow allowing
him to be a little more free in the offense.
Putting some plays in plays that are similar, right, maybe
not exactly the same, but plays that are familiar for
(04:56):
him that he's run with the Oregon ducts. Because we
haven't seen Troy Franklin, and that was the whole thing. Well,
you get bow next, you get Troy Franklin. Oh man,
we can't wait to see what that conbo is going
to look like.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, we have yet to see that.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
And it was interesting when you pointed out how I
guess badly, Barren, it has been to not see that.
Because you've built this wide receiver core to function in
a certain way, and then you have those outlying pieces,
why wouldn't you lean on kind of mixing things up
a little bit to try to get different results. Is
that maybe a little bit of stubbornness to not want
(05:35):
to change directions?
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
You got to go slow about that? Do you have
to trickle in that variability? There?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Is it too variable right now?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Is it too convoluted to move in that direction?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I'm not in Coach Peyton's head, so I'm not going
to sit here and say, well, oh I know what
he's thinking. Yes, I'll just tell you from my standpoint
what I think that should be done to help the
offense and to help out bow next who you drafted,
and everything is centered around his level of success. Because
I've always looked at this first year for Bo as
(06:10):
a redshirt year. If something happens where the team was
going to be ahead of schedule, like the Houston Texas,
I'll take it. But I always looked at this season
as being somewhat of a redshirt year. But I do
believe that when you have guys on your team and
Troy Franklin who runs a four to one, and you
have Marvin Mamms, who runs a four to three to eight,
(06:31):
you gotta find ways to get these guys involved. Now,
I don't know if any of those guys have somehow
found themselves in the doghouse, But at the same time,
winning is the more.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Important, and setting your quarterback up for success.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
It's the most important. Those two guys, I guess I
just gave to you.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Those are the fastest receivers that the Broncos have, and
Mims has three targets one reception for ten yards on
the season thus far.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It seems criminal when you put it that way.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Listen, I'm just staying facts. I'm not throwing anyone on
the bus. I'm not throwing Shaye. I am just giving
you raw data, raw facts. You do with what you
want to do.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, I'm over here presuming and assuming, Nick, That's just
what I do. You give me data, and I got
to figure out what's the worst case scenario that's going
to happen here. This is I'm going to start catastrophizing soon,
is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
But hopefully we see that progression here. We've seen bonicks.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
We're us week over week, we're headed into week three.
Something has to change. We got to get bo that
confidence that he needs. You got to set your quarterback
up for success. What does it mean? How does it
play out? I don't think that we're there just yet,
but we'll talk about that to close out the store
the show.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
This is Broncos Country Tonight after all.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
But I did also want to touch on something else
that Matt was talking about, because the conversation is interesting
with you know, your your fellow team, right, you're you're
up against. Let me just paint the picture for you, Nick,
I guess it's easier this way. You love visual aids,
I like I like waxing poems across the airwaves. We're
gonna talk about football mindset, right, and you're up against arrival,
(08:05):
no matter if it's bigger or smaller or more conducive
to success. But the other team, they've had words and
the words were rude, maybe rude and uncalled for, and
they painted the picture that your program is the rude
and uncalled for program. Maybe I'm biased here, but there's
a little bit of trash talk, and then there's taking
it to the next level in which you are making
it personal. I'll ask you up next to how many
(08:28):
Instagram followers you have here? But I don't want to
get off on another tangent. The game goes your way,
you win. At the end of the game, are you
shaking BfN's hand the strador make the right call?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And is that? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
We thought we were gonna have a Kodak moment last season, right,
you had coaches coming together. We thought that was going
to be the chaos that it was. But this went different.
What was your initial reaction and should it have been
handled differently?
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Well, it should have been handled differently.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
But in order to set this up, I think just
just pay attention to the audio.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
And it's going to set the stage for everything.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I think it goes to show that the hype, the
media train all that it only gets you so far.
At the end of the day, you have to line
up eleven guys against our eleven guys and we'll find
out who wants it more and we'll see how far
Instagram followers gets them.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
See that's Brandon Fowler Nicolosi, the starting quarterback for the
CSU Rams. And I know it became a topic of
conversation in saying, wells Shadors Sanders show, you know, poor
sportsmanship not shaking his hands. But when someone says something
like that, especially in this day and era, you're not
(09:49):
going to walk across the field and shake someone's hands.
And this rivalry got off to especially a bad start
in primes year, like last year when j Novello said something,
so that was kind of carried over and there were
other comments made about the CU bumps.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
But here's the other thing that happened.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
And I know camvas Field they were hosting the game
for the first time in years, but and I don't
know if you've seen it, but when the CU Rams
were coming out of the tunnel, there were CSU rams
players that were kind of standing and walking through them
coming out. That only agitated the bus even more. So
(10:32):
you had to figure like, look, they say talk is cheap,
but to the victor goes to spoils. So if you
talking trash, I'm talking trash, and I win. I can
do whatever I want to within reason, within reason.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Within reason.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I basically jumped out.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I was like, yes, that's what I'm saying. You mess
around and you're gonna find out. You can't be standing
in the tunnel. You can't be saying all of these
things on the public airways. Can't be pointing fingers and
running your mouth and then lose a game and then
expect a different result. And I understand the sportsmanship key
of it all, but you also don't want those two
sides interacting too much after the game or before the game.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Reminded me I was watching.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I don't know if it was a thirty or thirty,
but it was the Miami Notre Dame matchup of like
what was it?
Speaker 4 (11:18):
They called the Christians versus Convicts of something?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, where they got they met up.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
For whatever reason, the opposing in the home teams were
coming out of the same tunnel at the same time,
and they just start going at it, and I'm like,
you want to prevent that. Even if you have the
best anticipatory reaction for what you think your teams are
gonna do, and they're on their best behavior, but if
you're calling them Christians and conflicts, probably don't mesh them together.
CSU and CU. Is this rivalry and this little brother
(11:44):
big brother sort of effect that happens where you're expecting
this type of drama, And maybe a little bit of
this was played into because it's fun, right, Football is
fun and fighting against your brothers is fun. And at
the end of the day, though, I don't I don't
like the uh. I don't like the idea that Shador
did anything really wrong when you have all of this
(12:08):
heat and you kind of are the target of some
conversations that don't paint you in a great light on end,
And we were talking about haters earlier. We're talking about
haters with Steve Atwater and cracks in the foundation and
people trying to dig in there and balance the Livie there.
But why why would it have gone in any different direction?
(12:29):
I don't blame him, but I also think BfN sort
of was gonna quickly run by Shador and sort of
like tap him up, and that was just gonna be
all of it. I think Shador took offense to that, right, like,
you're gonna say all of this stuff, but you're not
gonna come face to face to me and hold the
same level of energy. And that, to me was the
disrespectful piece where I was like, you know what, I
(12:49):
don't blame him. I don't I don't blame him for
shaking him off and kind of throwing his shoulder back.
And it'd be different if Shador was running in his
mouth and saying some things.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I thought it was handled in a way where I
was like, I respect that.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
But also if I was on the other side of
the you gotta remember I got biases and I'm going
to be aware of them, I'd probably be like, hey,
what the heck? I couldn't handle that differently away to
go well.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Well, Nicolosi. When he walked away, he even had some
parting parting words like keep talking.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
And I'm lying, but dude, you just lost yeah at home,
you lost the last It's just.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Like, man, just just take the l and keep it moving.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But this is going to stick in a crawl of
Nicolosi for a while because he's not going to get
a chance to face your door again because they don't
play again until twenty twenty nine. Yeah, that's a long
time for Ryan Edwards and CSU rams fans and really
thinking about that, you got that's a lot.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
You know how many pumpkin spice lotta as he's gonna
have to drink to forget that.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I would order a double or a triple shot for that.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, it'll be interesting, and it's a disservice to fans
too to not have that game more often. But the
track up to CSU and the rivalry and the environment,
I think it's a great thing, but also maybe it
needs to cool down on the edges just a little bit.
You want to fire it up with all these super
cozy the fuel can into the yes being.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Formed is taking away the great things, the great rivalries
between programs, away the lore.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, absolutely, And it changes all the conferences coming together,
And it's going to be interesting trying to navigate what
college football means now and the era that is in
front of us, because I feel like that's going to
undertake a major makeover.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I don't like all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I'm like, I like looking forward to Rivalry Week that's
usually taking place in November.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah right, but now it's happening. Is too soon?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeh see who's going?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Nebraska and CSU were at to start the season. I
didn't even get a chance to get my sweatshirt on.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Is too warm?
Speaker 1 (14:56):
That'll change this weekend looks like it's going to be
cold and rainy. Who knows what will talk about next,
but we'll probably talk some more Broncos.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
You never know.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
With Nick and I together this Broncos Country Night, eight
fifty AM ninety.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Four one FM.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Breemaistist Nick Ferguson, we had a great show tonight. I
want to shout out our guests, obviously the one and
only Steve Atwater and Matt McChesney for joining the show
talking a little bit of Broncos, talking a little bit
of buffs.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Had a good time tonight, Nick, how about you.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
I always have a great time when I'm sitting in
this chair.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, it is a good time to be here here
in the studios over at iHeart.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I wanted to talk a little bit about.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
The little life lessons that you always teach me when
I'm here in studio, and this one was a very
pertinent one for exactly how I function. I'm talking over here.
I'm like, listen, Nick, we have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It's an away game. Then they go to the New
York Jets, and then we got to figure out how
they come home and beat the Raiders and the Chargers.
(16:13):
And I'm like, God, and but before you know what
I'm talking about, like game eighteen over here, and you're like, WHOA,
settle down, Let's just worry about the Bucks. And in general,
I think that's a really great idea for life in general,
is just look ahead of you what you got right now.
Presently I'm sitting in the studio with you talking about
the Broncos on a Wednesday evening, and we.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Got a game on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Yeah, that's the most important thing, because the NFL is
a week the week league. And once you move past
that game twenty four hours later, whatever happened in that game,
it's over.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
You started looking forward. You look backwards only.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
For the sake of figuring out what you did wrong
so you can correct it moving forward. And as I
look ahead at this Buccaneers game, even though the Buccaneers.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Are too and zero. This is a winnable game for
the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
They can go down to Tampa hot, steamy Tampa and
get their first win of the season. Because when you
look at the defensive struggles for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, yeah,
I mean they only have two sacks on the season. Yeah, two,
that's it, right, and we can count them just on
(17:24):
one single hand. That plays well to the Broncos, who
offensive line has played pretty decent. But Mike mcglitchy is
going to be out, So what is that going to
look like from a team standpoint? And going back to
what I said before about cutting bowl loose, allowing him
to be who he is, and what I mean by
(17:47):
that every tangible skill that he has allow him.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Within the system to use that skill set.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Because when you look around the league and you look
at other quarterbacks, you can look at the Patrick Mahomes,
you can look at a Lamar Jackson, josh Allen, Kyler Murray,
and once again, I'm not trying to elevate bo to
their status, but what I'm pointing out is that each
one of those quarterbacks I just named, they have a
special thing that.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Is unique to them that makes them special, makes.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Them special, and to prevent those guys from going out
and being able to display that, to me, that's wrong.
So for bow, this is a game where he can
exploit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the ground, pulling the ball,
running it if he needs to, getting him out of
the pocket, moving the pocket for him and give him
some easy throws. But also this is a game that
(18:42):
the wide receiver group as a whole needs to be
better as a group, and they can do that if
incorporated in a certain way. Because there's no way you
can tell me that you can't put a couple of
plays in for Marvin MAM's and I'm not talking about
the Pat Sherman Jerry Judy that end a round orbit plays.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
No.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We saw on Sunday both Knicks trick play, gadget play,
drive the ball down the field to Josh Reynolds. Even
though it was a gadget play. We saw the arm,
we know it's there.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
It worked, It worked.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Marvin Mems was open too. He just overthrew them. He's
overthrow them. And even if you don't get the ball
to Marvin Moms, just the thread of his speed.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Sean Payton had a guy that would play for him
down in New Orleans, Ted again Jr. Right, He I
mean from a speed standpoint where you're talking about trying
to explore expose the defense vertically. He had that skill set. Troy,
Franklin and Mims have that skill set. The only thing
with Ted again was his hands were unreliable. But you
(19:54):
gotta threaten the defense in that way if you want
to back them off so you can open up the
short and other and immediate passes, which we know the
Broncos can.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Do very well.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, and you have to build the confidence there.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
We've been talking about bo Nick's confidence all night, talking
about re establishing that and putting your quarterback in the
right frame of mind to succeed as well. But also
the continuity that you need with your wide receivers and
getting them the reps necessary and building the confidence there
and not trying to spread the ball around so incrementally
that you're harming your receiver's confidence when it comes to
(20:27):
catching the ball. Because you're right, there's some concerns about drops,
there's some concerns about sailing the ball over receivers heads.
That only gets better with time, That only gets better
when you start to adapt your play calling and your
offensive production with the mindset of what's working, what can work,
and what do we need to change. My question to you, Nick, though,
(20:47):
is what if we see more of the same from
the first two weeks, then.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Someone's got to say something. Now.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I don't know who on the coaching staff has that
type of cachet and relationship with coach Payton to be
able to say, you know what, here's what we were
trying to do. We were trying to build this culture.
We were trying to do these particular things. And right now,
due to injuries or the fact that the system may
(21:16):
be a little confusing for guys as a group or individually,
we're going to have to make some changes. And that
doesn't necessarily mean that, hey, these guys lack the football
IQ to go out there and be more productive. The
idea is that, Look, I'm a visual learner. I learned
different from you and probably from Coover and anyone else. Yeah,
but for me, it's setting me up to be successful
(21:37):
because at the end of the day, you know, no
matters the most your quarterbacks and the guys on the field.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, that's the only thing that matters.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
It is, and we were talking about it too, is
that you can continue down the paths that you're presently
on and eventually you'll probably wear it down to where
you'll get to your desert, your destination. Maybe closer to
your destination, but you're not going to get there in
a way that's efficient for everybody, and it works for
your higher group because traveling with eleven other guys, you're
not just it's not just you, and so you've got
(22:04):
to figure out what's really working for the offense in general.
You need to make some let's say, marginal changes so
you can see some additional success down the road.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And I think that's how the Broncos tackle is we.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Want to talk about wholesale changes that the Broncos need
to make, all right, And both games the Broncos find
found the little success doing certain things. So the idea
is to go back to that, well, right, go back
and watch both games and say, well, what did the
team do well offensively?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
You may want to dip in double handed, put.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Your feet in there too as well, do what you have,
whatever you need to do. But here's what I know.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Even in both of these games, there were there were
certain things that the Broncos were able to do. I mean,
we saw Cortland able to find a spot in his
own Josh Renos, We even seen you know, Greg Dosage.
But in some of those cases, passes might have been
a little behind the receiver or a receiver.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Just blatantly dropped the ball right. But there were success there.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
But you can't put those numbers on the stat sheet
because that was an incomplete pass. But it tells you
that you're onto something. So continue to do that, exploit that,
and do that particularly well. And the one thing I
would love to see the Broncos do that. It's not
a main staple of a Sean Payton offense, and that's
(23:28):
has a lot to do with presnat motion, pre and postment, right,
and we see it all the time. You'll see two
or three guys moving before and after play and the
defenders are trying to figure out you know, it's the
right hand on my left hand. All you're trying to
do is create just subtle moments seconds.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Make the second guests second.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
That's all you're trying to do.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Where he's unsure, yep, And that's where the receivers who
are operating the offense during the week of practice, you
know exactly what you're doing, and it's on the guys
who are in the box. When you identify something on
the field that you see something, let them know. Coach
on that lad the last two possessions, let's just say
the end didn't really get upfield the way that he
(24:12):
needed to, or the linebacker didn't get to his landmark.
Is there a play in our game plan where we
can attack that specify area of the field or that player.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Is that the key to the missing separation that I
keep hearing about, that mysterious lack of separation and the
receivers from the defense, Well.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
That comes down to I guess a speed aspect, Like
if you're constantly facing teams that are playing man and man,
you'll be able to tell right away as far as
can your receivers actually separate. If you're playing against team
with zones, sometimes that's a little more difficult because those
guys are dropping back and allowing you to catch the
ball so they can run and tackle. And that's kind
(24:50):
of what teams are doing to the Broncos right now.
Since you can't get the running game started. Don't even
worry about it if they break. If the Broncos were
to break a running play for six yards that that's
kind of an explosive run in a sense. But defensive
units would be like, you know, what are they going
to consistently do that?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Are they going to lean into that?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Is that what's going to be working for them? And well,
maybe maybe they should and then they can change it
up a little bit and then go back to the
passing game. If it's not going to happen, but you
got to you gotta bend and maybe even break a
little bit there.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Well, why defend something that you're not forced to defend?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, no, exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
If they're not doing it, why would you even be
concerned about it. The Broncos have built this offense on
a run first, ground and pound kind of prerogative. Here
they're currently ranked thirtieth and rushing success rate. I don't
know how they fix it.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
I tell you.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
You said they have been built on the whole concept
of ground and pound.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
How about slash and dash, ziggon and zaggon?
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Because when I hear ground and pound, I visualize running
your running backs between like but between your your your
two guards, your A and B gap And for me,
I always look at at football like mathematics.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
If you have a crowded.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Box physics right now.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
But not really, it's made really elementary.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
But you know, the idea is that you got their
defensive line and then you got your linebacker, right, that's
your your your box. And that's when the quarterback comes
out and they say he has a run pass uh
concept in his head that that's the play call, and
he ran and he checks to a run based on
the number of guys in the box.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
If you got one guy in the box, you run
the ball.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Answer what the Broncos were doing by scheme standpoint empty
and out the formation, getting everyone outside the box and
then running quarterback draw. That's why they did it. They
had a favorable box. If you could do that with
a quarterback draw, why not do that with your run backs?
And also, guess what here is logic for you there
(26:58):
there there are very few guys outside, very few. Once
you get outside linebacker, you may get a corner out
there and you got open space. There are less defenders
on the outside than they are on the inside. So
why through blunt force trauma you try to get three
(27:19):
four yards, five six yards when there's less guys outside.
I want to see some pin and pool plays. I
want to see Quinn miners just get outside and just
row grade guys. That's what I want to.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
See, kind of reminiscent of what we saw is earlier
in his career where he was literally for a force
of nature through the entirety of the rest or the
opposing team.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yes, why not do that?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Why not more? We'll hit your running back up and
bowl him down the field?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
For me, Look, Breed, when the team knows that you're
going to run the ball, yeah, and you can run
with authority and physicality, that demoralizes that defense. You see
them line up in whatever formation they're going to run,
and you think you are aligned properly, you practice well
(28:11):
for it, and they still are able to do it.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Then I think the benefit there too is that we've
seen that the Buccaneers run defense maybe isn't up to
par for this might be the week where they're able
to turn it around. By they I mean the Denver
Broncos where they're able to really establish that, thankfully, But
you've got to where do you lean. Do you go
to the committee of running backs and get everybody those touches,
(28:35):
or do you do what we were talking about earlier
with the consistency and rely heavily on a Javonte Williams
to get his groove back.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Well, for me, if Javonte is your lead back, as
though all signs indicate that he is, we're going to
dedicate or the Bronco should dedicate everything they have for
setting him up. And the reason that that is my
plan because I can only lean on what I've been around,
and I've been around Mike Shanahan, and even though we've
(29:05):
had a stable of running backs, it was already always
or here is our league guy, here's our number two guy.
Here's how many rushing attempts. Number one is going to receive,
number two is going to receive. As a coaching staff,
you just have to decide how you're going to deploy
them and set them up. But we know, like we're
going to run this guy into the ground, he's going
to have thirty positive carries, thirty positive carries, or he's
(29:29):
going to touch the ball thirty times. And touching the
ball man made mean running the ball and also pass
catching ability. I think that's what needs to be done
with the Broncos running back because each one of these
guys have a unique skill set. There's no reason that
you could tell me that Jelil mcgoughlin cannot be used
like a Darren spros right. He could be used in
(29:50):
that same capacity. Get him outside. Yes, he's a smaller back,
but guess what he plays with speed and got to
get that speed on the edge.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
You do have to get this on the edge.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I was just looking at him being up real quickly
because I like how you said you have to use
Javonte Williams to you know his skill sets, but you
don't want Javonte Williams leading in targets necessarily. You want
to make sure that that run game is really what
you're leaning in if you're going to buy in. And
that's what I'm talking about. I've been talking about it
since we started the show with Steve, the idea that
(30:22):
maybe the buy in, maybe the effort isn't there, but
these guys are out here working, this is this is
their careers. You don't want to lean on Javonte Williams
as you're leading target. You want to lean into them
as you're leading rusher. Am I reading this correctly?
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Well?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
For me? Touches or touches, touches or touches, but you
want to make sure there's balance, just like in your
game plan, you want to make sure that bow is
not throwing the ball in Tampa forty two times. There
has to be some kind of balance and you just
don't just kind of abandon the run games.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Stick stick with it.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
And if what you have been as far as your
game plan, your go to plays are not working, guess what.
You flip the page over brief like that secret menu
at restaurants. Yeah, and you start ordering off of that.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
That's what you do.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
You have to go in a game with some alternatives, right,
because you have you have to know that maybe everything
you put on the call sheet it may not work.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, you gotta have all your plan b's and c's.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
That's contingency plans.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
You can't just got to your initial plan may burn
to the ground. And you have to be able to
change and pivot and adapt and evolve and work towards
the skill sets and maybe one day what your receivers
are having a bad one and you got to go
to another one?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
What was your point?
Speaker 3 (31:30):
But also use your bad plays for positive results. And
what I mean by that if there's a run play
that is stuff the defense thinks, Hey, same formation, same
down in the distance.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Here comes the same play. Oh no, we just got you.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
There is a play action passed down the middle of
the field. That's how you use your negative plays as positives.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
There you go spark some interest the Broncos and the
Bucks this Sunday. It'll be a fun one.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
We'll see how it turns out. I think it's fantastic.
You mean, I haven't such a fun time with you.
We'll be back with more Denver Broncos because guess what
this is Broncos Country Tonight here on KOA eight fifty
am ninety four one FM, reemassist Nick Ferguson
Freemasedist Nick ferguson Last Hour. We had met Jesney on
talking about Broncos and Buffs. Nick I had mentioned it
a little bit off air earlier that I didn't feel
like the Denver Broncos when.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
They made the decision about Lloyd Cushion Barry.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I think it was an idea that they couldn't afford
to keep Cush and now I feel like it was
an they couldn't afford not to. And Matt was talking
about the offensive line and the players needing to step up,
and you know you're getting paid, you got to go
in there and do the work. And I wanted you
to respond to that portion first because it's been a
(00:39):
hot topic of conversational night.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well, the way I look at it, as far as
the Broncos offensive line, I felt as though cush did
a good job, decent enough job, but with the money
that the team had invested in Russ and known as
though Russ was not going to be here, just trying
to put a team together that was competitive in twenty
(01:03):
twenty four, that was a tall task and you had
to look at guys who you were going to keep.
Just like there's some guys who I would have loved
to see what they would have done this season, but
those guys are no longer here, Tim Patrick being one
of those guys. But I know how the business of
football actually works. But I do personally feel as though
(01:23):
if Cush was here, the line may be playing a
lot better. And the reason I say that is because
the game is about continuity. And even though you have
four guys who have now playing together in their second year,
I mean everyone except the center. So could you imagine
if you were able to keep the entire line together
(01:47):
what this line could do as a group. And not
to undermine the center position, but when you play the center,
you're essentially the quarterback at the offensive line. You have
to be a to see pressures, you have to be
able to communicate, because some of that is on the
quarterback too, being able to identify where the pressure is
(02:08):
coming from to get the offense in the right set.
But that center and having that chemistry would be be key.
And I know someone's probably screaming at me right now saying, Okay, well,
Cush wouldn't have had any kind of continuity with bow Knicks,
But that is something.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
That you come up tour.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yes, you lean on that, but Cush experience, you know,
Wattenberg is just jumping in this, you know, being a starter,
full time starter for the Broncos for the first time.
And I'm thinking with Kush there that would have kind
of allow bow Nicks to kind of settle in because
he doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting. All
(02:48):
you have to do post that, find the right target,
deliver the past.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, you're not worrying about the I like that.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
The continuity too, is you look at the offensive line
so many times as moving pieces, but it's a and
you remove that centerpiece, your anchor point, you're putting a
lot of pressure on.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Those guards and those tackles to make up for that.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So although Nick, I love the point, there's four returning
your main guy, your middle is not. And I don't
think you could successfully plug in anyone there and see
the results that you wanted to. And again that's why
we're talking about it in week two of the regular season.
There's still a lot of season to go. But now
you got to Mike McGlinchey down with injury, so Pochesky's
(03:26):
going to have to come in and fill in, and
then you might see more Matt Pert the depth is
good along the line, but how would it be, you know,
functioning for bone Nicks behind an elite line that's been
working together for quite some time. I also wonder if
it's the year that the Denver Broncos draft, develop, and
pay a tackle like this is long term goals that
(03:47):
you're hoping to see because it hasn't been done since
what twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well, to say that is to say that the Broncos
haven't drafted and develop a quarterback or a right tackle
right mean, could the Broncos be on the verge of
doing that by default? Absolutely? Now, obviously you want Mike mcglitchy,
you know, in the game protecting the right side of
(04:12):
bow knicks, but we know injuries are part of the game.
I wish him a speedy recovery, But this game continues
to move on. It's going to exactly so right now,
it's can the individual stepping in for mcglitchy. Can you
give bo enough confidence that, hey, my right side is
(04:34):
going to be protected. We talked about earlier about my
thoughts on somewhat taking the handcuffs off of bow allowing
him to be a little more free in the offense.
Putting some plays in plays that are similar, right, maybe
not exactly the same, but plays that are familiar for
(04:56):
him that he's run with the Oregon ducts. Because we
haven't seen Troy Franklin, and that was the whole thing. Well,
you get bow next, you get Troy Franklin. Oh man,
we can't wait to see what that conbo is going
to look like.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, we have yet to see that.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
And it was interesting when you pointed out how I
guess badly, Barren, it has been to not see that.
Because you've built this wide receiver core to function in
a certain way, and then you have those outlying pieces,
why wouldn't you lean on kind of mixing things up
a little bit to try to get different results. Is
that maybe a little bit of stubbornness to not want
(05:35):
to change directions?
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
You got to go slow about that? Do you have
to trickle in that variability? There?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Is it too variable right now?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Is it too convoluted to move in that direction?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I'm not in Coach Peyton's head, so I'm not going
to sit here and say, well, oh I know what
he's thinking. Yes, I'll just tell you from my standpoint
what I think that should be done to help the
offense and to help out bow next who you drafted,
and everything is centered around his level of success. Because
I've always looked at this first year for Bo as
(06:10):
a redshirt year. If something happens where the team was
going to be ahead of schedule, like the Houston Texas,
I'll take it. But I always looked at this season
as being somewhat of a redshirt year. But I do
believe that when you have guys on your team and
Troy Franklin who runs a four to one, and you
have Marvin Mamms, who runs a four to three to eight,
(06:31):
you gotta find ways to get these guys involved. Now,
I don't know if any of those guys have somehow
found themselves in the doghouse, But at the same time,
winning is the more.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Important, and setting your quarterback up for success.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
It's the most important. Those two guys, I guess I
just gave to you.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Those are the fastest receivers that the Broncos have, and
Mims has three targets one reception for ten yards on
the season thus far.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
It seems criminal when you put it that way.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Listen, I'm just staying facts. I'm not throwing anyone on
the bus. I'm not throwing Shaye. I am just giving
you raw data, raw facts. You do with what you
want to do.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, I'm over here presuming and assuming, Nick, That's just
what I do. You give me data, and I got
to figure out what's the worst case scenario that's going
to happen here. This is I'm going to start catastrophizing soon,
is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
But hopefully we see that progression here. We've seen bonicks.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
We're us week over week, we're headed into week three.
Something has to change. We got to get bo that
confidence that he needs. You got to set your quarterback
up for success. What does it mean? How does it
play out? I don't think that we're there just yet,
but we'll talk about that to close out the store
the show.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
This is Broncos Country Tonight after all.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
But I did also want to touch on something else
that Matt was talking about, because the conversation is interesting
with you know, your your fellow team, right, you're you're
up against. Let me just paint the picture for you, Nick,
I guess it's easier this way. You love visual aids,
I like I like waxing poems across the airwaves. We're
gonna talk about football mindset, right, and you're up against arrival,
(08:05):
no matter if it's bigger or smaller or more conducive
to success. But the other team, they've had words and
the words were rude, maybe rude and uncalled for, and
they painted the picture that your program is the rude
and uncalled for program. Maybe I'm biased here, but there's
a little bit of trash talk, and then there's taking
it to the next level in which you are making
it personal. I'll ask you up next to how many
(08:28):
Instagram followers you have here? But I don't want to
get off on another tangent. The game goes your way,
you win. At the end of the game, are you
shaking BfN's hand the strador make the right call?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And is that? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
We thought we were gonna have a Kodak moment last season, right,
you had coaches coming together. We thought that was going
to be the chaos that it was. But this went different.
What was your initial reaction and should it have been
handled differently?
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Well, it should have been handled differently.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
But in order to set this up, I think just
just pay attention to the audio.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
And it's going to set the stage for everything.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I think it goes to show that the hype, the
media train all that it only gets you so far.
At the end of the day, you have to line
up eleven guys against our eleven guys and we'll find
out who wants it more and we'll see how far
Instagram followers gets them.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
See that's Brandon Fowler Nicolosi, the starting quarterback for the
CSU Rams. And I know it became a topic of
conversation in saying, wells Shadors Sanders show, you know, poor
sportsmanship not shaking his hands. But when someone says something
like that, especially in this day and era, you're not
(09:49):
going to walk across the field and shake someone's hands.
And this rivalry got off to especially a bad start
in primes year, like last year when j Novello said something,
so that was kind of carried over and there were
other comments made about the CU bumps.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
But here's the other thing that happened.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
And I know camvas Field they were hosting the game
for the first time in years, but and I don't
know if you've seen it, but when the CU Rams
were coming out of the tunnel, there were CSU rams
players that were kind of standing and walking through them
coming out. That only agitated the bus even more. So
(10:32):
you had to figure like, look, they say talk is cheap,
but to the victor goes to spoils. So if you
talking trash, I'm talking trash, and I win. I can
do whatever I want to within reason, within reason.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Within reason.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I basically jumped out.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I was like, yes, that's what I'm saying. You mess
around and you're gonna find out. You can't be standing
in the tunnel. You can't be saying all of these
things on the public airways. Can't be pointing fingers and
running your mouth and then lose a game and then
expect a different result. And I understand the sportsmanship key
of it all, but you also don't want those two
sides interacting too much after the game or before the game.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Reminded me I was watching.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I don't know if it was a thirty or thirty,
but it was the Miami Notre Dame matchup of like
what was it?
Speaker 4 (11:18):
They called the Christians versus Convicts of something?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, where they got they met up.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
For whatever reason, the opposing in the home teams were
coming out of the same tunnel at the same time,
and they just start going at it, and I'm like,
you want to prevent that. Even if you have the
best anticipatory reaction for what you think your teams are
gonna do, and they're on their best behavior, but if
you're calling them Christians and conflicts, probably don't mesh them together.
CSU and CU. Is this rivalry and this little brother
(11:44):
big brother sort of effect that happens where you're expecting
this type of drama, And maybe a little bit of
this was played into because it's fun, right, Football is
fun and fighting against your brothers is fun. And at
the end of the day, though, I don't I don't
like the uh. I don't like the idea that Shador
did anything really wrong when you have all of this
(12:08):
heat and you kind of are the target of some
conversations that don't paint you in a great light on end,
And we were talking about haters earlier. We're talking about
haters with Steve Atwater and cracks in the foundation and
people trying to dig in there and balance the Livie there.
But why why would it have gone in any different direction?
(12:29):
I don't blame him, but I also think BfN sort
of was gonna quickly run by Shador and sort of
like tap him up, and that was just gonna be
all of it. I think Shador took offense to that, right, like,
you're gonna say all of this stuff, but you're not
gonna come face to face to me and hold the
same level of energy. And that, to me was the
disrespectful piece where I was like, you know what, I
(12:49):
don't blame him. I don't I don't blame him for
shaking him off and kind of throwing his shoulder back.
And it'd be different if Shador was running in his
mouth and saying some things.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I thought it was handled in a way where I
was like, I respect that.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
But also if I was on the other side of
the you gotta remember I got biases and I'm going
to be aware of them, I'd probably be like, hey,
what the heck? I couldn't handle that differently away to
go well.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Well, Nicolosi. When he walked away, he even had some
parting parting words like keep talking.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
And I'm lying, but dude, you just lost yeah at home,
you lost the last It's just.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Like, man, just just take the l and keep it moving.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But this is going to stick in a crawl of
Nicolosi for a while because he's not going to get
a chance to face your door again because they don't
play again until twenty twenty nine. Yeah, that's a long
time for Ryan Edwards and CSU rams fans and really
thinking about that, you got that's a lot.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
You know how many pumpkin spice lotta as he's gonna
have to drink to forget that.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I would order a double or a triple shot for that.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, it'll be interesting, and it's a disservice to fans
too to not have that game more often. But the
track up to CSU and the rivalry and the environment,
I think it's a great thing, but also maybe it
needs to cool down on the edges just a little bit.
You want to fire it up with all these super
cozy the fuel can into the yes being.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Formed is taking away the great things, the great rivalries
between programs, away the lore.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, absolutely, And it changes all the conferences coming together,
And it's going to be interesting trying to navigate what
college football means now and the era that is in
front of us, because I feel like that's going to
undertake a major makeover.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I don't like all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I'm like, I like looking forward to Rivalry Week that's
usually taking place in November.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah right, but now it's happening. Is too soon?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeh see who's going?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Nebraska and CSU were at to start the season. I
didn't even get a chance to get my sweatshirt on.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Is too warm?
Speaker 1 (14:56):
That'll change this weekend looks like it's going to be
cold and rainy. Who knows what will talk about next,
but we'll probably talk some more Broncos.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
You never know.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
With Nick and I together this Broncos Country Night, eight
fifty AM ninety.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Four one FM.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Breemaistist Nick Ferguson, we had a great show tonight. I
want to shout out our guests, obviously the one and
only Steve Atwater and Matt McChesney for joining the show
talking a little bit of Broncos, talking a little bit
of buffs.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Had a good time tonight, Nick, how about you.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
I always have a great time when I'm sitting in
this chair.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, it is a good time to be here here
in the studios over at iHeart.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I wanted to talk a little bit about.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
The little life lessons that you always teach me when
I'm here in studio, and this one was a very
pertinent one for exactly how I function. I'm talking over here.
I'm like, listen, Nick, we have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It's an away game. Then they go to the New
York Jets, and then we got to figure out how
they come home and beat the Raiders and the Chargers.
(16:13):
And I'm like, God, and but before you know what
I'm talking about, like game eighteen over here, and you're like, WHOA,
settle down, Let's just worry about the Bucks. And in general,
I think that's a really great idea for life in general,
is just look ahead of you what you got right now.
Presently I'm sitting in the studio with you talking about
the Broncos on a Wednesday evening, and we.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Got a game on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Yeah, that's the most important thing, because the NFL is
a week the week league. And once you move past
that game twenty four hours later, whatever happened in that game,
it's over.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
You started looking forward. You look backwards only.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
For the sake of figuring out what you did wrong
so you can correct it moving forward. And as I
look ahead at this Buccaneers game, even though the Buccaneers.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Are too and zero. This is a winnable game for
the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
They can go down to Tampa hot, steamy Tampa and
get their first win of the season. Because when you
look at the defensive struggles for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, yeah,
I mean they only have two sacks on the season. Yeah, two,
that's it, right, and we can count them just on
(17:24):
one single hand. That plays well to the Broncos, who
offensive line has played pretty decent. But Mike mcglitchy is
going to be out, So what is that going to
look like from a team standpoint? And going back to
what I said before about cutting bowl loose, allowing him
to be who he is, and what I mean by
(17:47):
that every tangible skill that he has allow him.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Within the system to use that skill set.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Because when you look around the league and you look
at other quarterbacks, you can look at the Patrick Mahomes,
you can look at a Lamar Jackson, josh Allen, Kyler Murray,
and once again, I'm not trying to elevate bo to
their status, but what I'm pointing out is that each
one of those quarterbacks I just named, they have a
special thing that.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Is unique to them that makes them special, makes.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Them special, and to prevent those guys from going out
and being able to display that, to me, that's wrong.
So for bow, this is a game where he can
exploit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the ground, pulling the ball,
running it if he needs to, getting him out of
the pocket, moving the pocket for him and give him
some easy throws. But also this is a game that
(18:42):
the wide receiver group as a whole needs to be
better as a group, and they can do that if
incorporated in a certain way. Because there's no way you
can tell me that you can't put a couple of
plays in for Marvin MAM's and I'm not talking about
the Pat Sherman Jerry Judy that end a round orbit plays.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
No.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We saw on Sunday both Knicks trick play, gadget play,
drive the ball down the field to Josh Reynolds. Even
though it was a gadget play. We saw the arm,
we know it's there.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
It worked, It worked.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Marvin Mems was open too. He just overthrew them. He's
overthrow them. And even if you don't get the ball
to Marvin Moms, just the thread of his speed.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Sean Payton had a guy that would play for him
down in New Orleans, Ted again Jr. Right, He I
mean from a speed standpoint where you're talking about trying
to explore expose the defense vertically. He had that skill set. Troy,
Franklin and Mims have that skill set. The only thing
with Ted again was his hands were unreliable. But you
(19:54):
gotta threaten the defense in that way if you want
to back them off so you can open up the
short and other and immediate passes, which we know the
Broncos can.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Do very well.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, and you have to build the confidence there.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
We've been talking about bo Nick's confidence all night, talking
about re establishing that and putting your quarterback in the
right frame of mind to succeed as well. But also
the continuity that you need with your wide receivers and
getting them the reps necessary and building the confidence there
and not trying to spread the ball around so incrementally
that you're harming your receiver's confidence when it comes to
(20:27):
catching the ball. Because you're right, there's some concerns about drops,
there's some concerns about sailing the ball over receivers heads.
That only gets better with time, That only gets better
when you start to adapt your play calling and your
offensive production with the mindset of what's working, what can work,
and what do we need to change. My question to you, Nick, though,
(20:47):
is what if we see more of the same from
the first two weeks, then.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Someone's got to say something. Now.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I don't know who on the coaching staff has that
type of cachet and relationship with coach Payton to be
able to say, you know what, here's what we were
trying to do. We were trying to build this culture.
We were trying to do these particular things. And right now,
due to injuries or the fact that the system may
(21:16):
be a little confusing for guys as a group or individually,
we're going to have to make some changes. And that
doesn't necessarily mean that, hey, these guys lack the football
IQ to go out there and be more productive. The
idea is that, Look, I'm a visual learner. I learned
different from you and probably from Coover and anyone else. Yeah,
but for me, it's setting me up to be successful
(21:37):
because at the end of the day, you know, no
matters the most your quarterbacks and the guys on the field.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, that's the only thing that matters.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
It is, and we were talking about it too, is
that you can continue down the paths that you're presently
on and eventually you'll probably wear it down to where
you'll get to your desert, your destination. Maybe closer to
your destination, but you're not going to get there in
a way that's efficient for everybody, and it works for
your higher group because traveling with eleven other guys, you're
not just it's not just you, and so you've got
(22:04):
to figure out what's really working for the offense in general.
You need to make some let's say, marginal changes so
you can see some additional success down the road.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And I think that's how the Broncos tackle is we.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Want to talk about wholesale changes that the Broncos need
to make, all right, And both games the Broncos find
found the little success doing certain things. So the idea
is to go back to that, well, right, go back
and watch both games and say, well, what did the
team do well offensively?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
You may want to dip in double handed, put.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Your feet in there too as well, do what you have,
whatever you need to do. But here's what I know.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Even in both of these games, there were there were
certain things that the Broncos were able to do. I mean,
we saw Cortland able to find a spot in his
own Josh Renos, We even seen you know, Greg Dosage.
But in some of those cases, passes might have been
a little behind the receiver or a receiver.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
Just blatantly dropped the ball right. But there were success there.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
But you can't put those numbers on the stat sheet
because that was an incomplete pass. But it tells you
that you're onto something. So continue to do that, exploit that,
and do that particularly well. And the one thing I
would love to see the Broncos do that. It's not
a main staple of a Sean Payton offense, and that's
(23:28):
has a lot to do with presnat motion, pre and postment, right,
and we see it all the time. You'll see two
or three guys moving before and after play and the
defenders are trying to figure out you know, it's the
right hand on my left hand. All you're trying to
do is create just subtle moments seconds.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Make the second guests second.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
That's all you're trying to do.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Where he's unsure, yep, And that's where the receivers who
are operating the offense during the week of practice, you
know exactly what you're doing, and it's on the guys
who are in the box. When you identify something on
the field that you see something, let them know. Coach
on that lad the last two possessions, let's just say
the end didn't really get upfield the way that he
(24:12):
needed to, or the linebacker didn't get to his landmark.
Is there a play in our game plan where we
can attack that specify area of the field or that player.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Is that the key to the missing separation that I
keep hearing about, that mysterious lack of separation and the
receivers from the defense, Well.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
That comes down to I guess a speed aspect, Like
if you're constantly facing teams that are playing man and man,
you'll be able to tell right away as far as
can your receivers actually separate. If you're playing against team
with zones, sometimes that's a little more difficult because those
guys are dropping back and allowing you to catch the
ball so they can run and tackle. And that's kind
(24:50):
of what teams are doing to the Broncos right now.
Since you can't get the running game started. Don't even
worry about it if they break. If the Broncos were
to break a running play for six yards that that's
kind of an explosive run in a sense. But defensive
units would be like, you know, what are they going
to consistently do that?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Are they going to lean into that?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Is that what's going to be working for them? And well,
maybe maybe they should and then they can change it
up a little bit and then go back to the
passing game. If it's not going to happen, but you
got to you gotta bend and maybe even break a
little bit there.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Well, why defend something that you're not forced to defend?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, no, exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
If they're not doing it, why would you even be
concerned about it. The Broncos have built this offense on
a run first, ground and pound kind of prerogative. Here
they're currently ranked thirtieth and rushing success rate. I don't
know how they fix it.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
I tell you.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
You said they have been built on the whole concept
of ground and pound.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
How about slash and dash, ziggon and zaggon?
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Because when I hear ground and pound, I visualize running
your running backs between like but between your your your
two guards, your A and B gap And for me,
I always look at at football like mathematics.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
If you have a crowded.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Box physics right now.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
But not really, it's made really elementary.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
But you know, the idea is that you got their
defensive line and then you got your linebacker, right, that's
your your your box. And that's when the quarterback comes
out and they say he has a run pass uh
concept in his head that that's the play call, and
he ran and he checks to a run based on
the number of guys in the box.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
If you got one guy in the box, you run
the ball.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Answer what the Broncos were doing by scheme standpoint empty
and out the formation, getting everyone outside the box and
then running quarterback draw. That's why they did it. They
had a favorable box. If you could do that with
a quarterback draw, why not do that with your run backs?
And also, guess what here is logic for you there
(26:58):
there there are very few guys outside, very few. Once
you get outside linebacker, you may get a corner out
there and you got open space. There are less defenders
on the outside than they are on the inside. So
why through blunt force trauma you try to get three
(27:19):
four yards, five six yards when there's less guys outside.
I want to see some pin and pool plays. I
want to see Quinn miners just get outside and just
row grade guys. That's what I want to.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
See, kind of reminiscent of what we saw is earlier
in his career where he was literally for a force
of nature through the entirety of the rest or the
opposing team.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Yes, why not do that?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Why not more? We'll hit your running back up and
bowl him down the field?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
For me, Look, Breed, when the team knows that you're
going to run the ball, yeah, and you can run
with authority and physicality, that demoralizes that defense. You see
them line up in whatever formation they're going to run,
and you think you are aligned properly, you practice well
(28:11):
for it, and they still are able to do it.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Then I think the benefit there too is that we've
seen that the Buccaneers run defense maybe isn't up to
par for this might be the week where they're able
to turn it around. By they I mean the Denver
Broncos where they're able to really establish that, thankfully, But
you've got to where do you lean. Do you go
to the committee of running backs and get everybody those touches,
(28:35):
or do you do what we were talking about earlier
with the consistency and rely heavily on a Javonte Williams
to get his groove back.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Well, for me, if Javonte is your lead back, as
though all signs indicate that he is, we're going to
dedicate or the Bronco should dedicate everything they have for
setting him up. And the reason that that is my
plan because I can only lean on what I've been around,
and I've been around Mike Shanahan, and even though we've
(29:05):
had a stable of running backs, it was already always
or here is our league guy, here's our number two guy.
Here's how many rushing attempts. Number one is going to receive,
number two is going to receive. As a coaching staff,
you just have to decide how you're going to deploy
them and set them up. But we know, like we're
going to run this guy into the ground, he's going
to have thirty positive carries, thirty positive carries, or he's
(29:29):
going to touch the ball thirty times. And touching the
ball man made mean running the ball and also pass
catching ability. I think that's what needs to be done
with the Broncos running back because each one of these
guys have a unique skill set. There's no reason that
you could tell me that Jelil mcgoughlin cannot be used
like a Darren spros right. He could be used in
(29:50):
that same capacity. Get him outside. Yes, he's a smaller back,
but guess what he plays with speed and got to
get that speed on the edge.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
You do have to get this on the edge.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I was just looking at him being up real quickly
because I like how you said you have to use
Javonte Williams to you know his skill sets, but you
don't want Javonte Williams leading in targets necessarily. You want
to make sure that that run game is really what
you're leaning in if you're going to buy in. And
that's what I'm talking about. I've been talking about it
since we started the show with Steve, the idea that
(30:22):
maybe the buy in, maybe the effort isn't there, but
these guys are out here working, this is this is
their careers. You don't want to lean on Javonte Williams
as you're leading target. You want to lean into them
as you're leading rusher. Am I reading this correctly?
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Well?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
For me? Touches or touches, touches or touches, but you
want to make sure there's balance, just like in your
game plan, you want to make sure that bow is
not throwing the ball in Tampa forty two times. There
has to be some kind of balance and you just
don't just kind of abandon the run games.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Stick stick with it.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
And if what you have been as far as your
game plan, your go to plays are not working, guess what.
You flip the page over brief like that secret menu
at restaurants. Yeah, and you start ordering off of that.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
That's what you do.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
You have to go in a game with some alternatives, right,
because you have you have to know that maybe everything
you put on the call sheet it may not work.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, you gotta have all your plan b's and c's.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
That's contingency plans.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
You can't just got to your initial plan may burn
to the ground. And you have to be able to
change and pivot and adapt and evolve and work towards
the skill sets and maybe one day what your receivers
are having a bad one and you got to go
to another one?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
What was your point?
Speaker 3 (31:30):
But also use your bad plays for positive results. And
what I mean by that if there's a run play
that is stuff the defense thinks, Hey, same formation, same
down in the distance.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Here comes the same play. Oh no, we just got you.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
There is a play action passed down the middle of
the field. That's how you use your negative plays as positives.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
There you go spark some interest the Broncos and the
Bucks this Sunday. It'll be a fun one.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
We'll see how it turns out. I think it's fantastic.
You mean, I haven't such a fun time with you.
We'll be back with more Denver Broncos because guess what
this is Broncos Country Tonight here on KOA eight fifty
am ninety four one FM, reemassist Nick Ferguson
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.