Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm not Benjamin Albright, I'm Brandon Chrissol, but that is
Nick Ferguson to my right. We are at Sam's Number
three in Glendale. If you are looking for a place
to watch Thursday night football, cannot recommend a place more
highly great food. You know, if you've ever tried to
eat breakfast or brunch at Sam's Number three, how long
you're gonna be waiting for Well, there's a couple of
(00:21):
tables opening here if you want to come on buy
and get a good dinner or right here in Glendale
next to the King Supers, not too far from the
Jewish Community Center as well as the Greek Orthodox Church.
Shotgun Willie isn't too far either. Jerry Greek Walls nearby.
But we were right here in the heart of Glendale
before we get into this game. Nick. One of my
favorite things that I saw misreported was when John Morant
(00:43):
had his incident that Shotgun Willie's a little while back,
and someone who definitely does not live here said something like, yeah,
you know, he had the gun on him. It wasn't
in he wasn't in the best part of town. I'm like,
hang on, I know for a fact that one of
the owners of a handful of major teams. UH lives
nearby about you know, within a within a half mile
(01:06):
of that, and I'm like, and there's the Jewish Community Center,
very very other expensive homes and the Denver Country Club.
To say that the area where John Morant was was
unsafe would be inaccurate.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, usually anytime in these United States where you say
that someone was visiting, dare I say a shoe model club,
usually you think about the surrounding areas and you're like, okay,
well that's not once of understanding citizens.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, this just happens to be
an exception, and they appreciate and you know, I know
the fine folks with Glendale that lived nearby and out
up there listening to us around than the folks here
in the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I want to talk about Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Now that's a different conversations talk about you talk about
in a lot of cities, and it can be a
much different conversation. And I get it. A lot of
very nice, big cities that have lots of establishments like that.
So we're here all the way until eight o'clock will
hand things off to Buff's primetime. But keeping an eye
as we're about to get going with this Thursday night game,
and we're going to get into all things related to
(02:07):
the to the Bucks and Broncos, no question but it
we might as well preview this a little bit or
share our thoughts leading into the Jets wearing throwback uniforms
tonight on Thursday Night Football. Mark Bavarro, Mark Mark Gastino style,
New York Stack Exchange. We haven't seen a lot from
(02:28):
this Patriots offense. You have to love they stole win
Week one, or got a win Week one against Sin Seed.
They weren't great in Week two. The Jets haven't been
world beaters either. Obviously, the game one against the Niners
is going to be a challenge out on the West Coast,
and then they bounce back with a win over the
Jet or a win over the Titan. Sorry, so, how
do you see this shaken out? As they're in MetLife
(02:49):
Stadium where the Broncos will be taking on a well
rested Jets Team's gonna get ten days off after this.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, I'll say this about the Patriots. I didn't really
expect them to come out and play as well as they.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Have played thus far.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
But the one thing that let me back up for
a second, there are two things that stick out to me.
Because Drake may was considered to be by most like
the most NFL ready guy coming out of college out
of North Carolina, and he's not the starter, and obviously
we heard the things coming out about him doing training
camp that he wasn't living up to those types of expectations.
(03:25):
But I'll say the ability to run the ball. This
is something that the Patriots have done well. They have
their two headed monster, Ramandre Smith. He's playing well. And
what it reminds me of is just like when you
think about Jacoby Brissett. He is not your prototypical A
list quarterback, right he would be that stand in, but
(03:47):
he's doing a great job in that role because he
has a defense that can back.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Him up and run the ball. And it made me
instantly think.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
About where the Broncos are and their inability to run
the ball.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
What with the Bronkers and the deficiency in the run game.
And we've obviously just seen two games and we know
that Sean Payton certainly has no problem running the football
over the years. We also know that they're top five
and passing the backs out of the backfield. But you've
got running backs that they're gonna gain yards in a
Shawn bayten offense. And so when you look at their
(04:22):
attempt to run, it feels like they haven't even attempted
to run, like they haven't stayed committed to it. And
I understand the circumstances easy to say of the game
and on first time you're not getting it. But in
order to run effectively, you just have to keep doing it, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
You have to, because I mean on every single play,
on every single possession, you're not going to have positive
yards in the run game.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
You're not gonna really have that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So when you have yards for no game or minus yards,
do you bail on that particular play or do you say,
you know what, what was the reason why was it successful?
Was it because an offensive lineman didn't sustain their block?
Was it because a wide receiver didn't go down and
dig out a safety or a linebacker? But the ideas though,
(05:07):
you don't abandon the run game, and so many times
we've seen it across the league where if their run
game is struggling, you may have some offensive coordinators who
bail on it and all too soon, And kay, I
say that because I've been around two guys who have
done an effective job of being really creative and sticking
with the run, and Kyle Shanahan and Mike Shanahan, and
(05:29):
both of those guys have committed because they the way
they look at is different from other coaches. Some coaches say, well,
we want to pass to set up the run. They
run to set up the pass. And the reason it
makes sense for me the festival, I think about what
problems it may cause for me trying to defend a
team that's trying to run the ball, because now they
want to make you defend both vertically and horizontally. But
(05:50):
the big part about it it opens up play action.
But if you don't run the ball and say committed
to it, you have no play action.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And we know that. It's it's been fun to kind
of keep an eye on where things are maybe I
don't say evolving, but revolving back to because the teams
that are winning in these first couple weeks have been
running the ball effectively. There's you talk about that commitment
and we've seen we've seen the success you mentioned Kyle Shanahan,
the Niners have had. We know what Jimmy Garoppolo is,
(06:20):
and we know what he isn't, right, right, He wasn't
the reason they lost that Super Bowl. He didn't miss
a pass to Emmanuel Sanders late. But when he played
the Super Bowl against the Chiefs, he played really well,
and played well down the stretch and played well in
the playoffs. And you were around him right where you
around him when you when you're out there on your
coaching internship, right, so you you were in that building,
you understand what it's about. But no one's going to
confuse Jimmy Garoppolo with the guy that he was drafted
(06:41):
to and Tom Brady, right. Uh. And so when we
understand who Jimmy Garoppolo is and who he isn't And
I don't know who brock Pretty is, I know that
he's a guy that in the playoffs against a really
good Detroit team made enough plays, when I say on
his own, but made enough plays, made enough throws to say, Okay,
I have to think about this guy a little differently,
or at least certainly put him on I'll put myself
on alert that. Okay, we have to let's see what
(07:03):
it is in the coming years. But I'm saying all
that to say RG three, when Kyle and Mike had
him in in d C. The quarterbacks after John Elway
that Mike had here and then that Kyle had in
Houston with Gary, they always were able to run the
ball because of what they were able to do. And
none of those quarterbacks were anywhere close to who John
(07:24):
Elway is or even you know, they got a little
bit of Kirk Cousins kind of at the end before
they got fired. You know, Kyle ran his offense in
in Cleveland. It didn't go great. He has to get out.
Then he goes with Landing. He has an MVP because
Matt Ryan is a tier above. But it's hard to
sit here and say that bo Nix isn't at worst
(07:46):
in the same sphere as some of those, you know,
the Jimmy Garoppolos of the world. Like with Bonox. I
guess he's only two games in, right, But my point
being that even if he's not a future Hall of
Fame or a perennial pro bowler or an MVP, you
can't say that yet We don't know, but I'm saying,
but you should still be able to he's at least
as good as what rock Perty was two years ago
(08:07):
when he started as the last pick of the draft
and K and I understand the weapons are different and
everything's different, but we're seeing teams with quarterbacks that you
would say bon Nicks is in the same realm as
not Patrick Mahomes, not Josh Allen, not a healthy Aaron
Rodgers or Peyton Manning or obviously you know Tom Brady.
I'm just saying that bon Knicks feels I think he's
a competent. I guess we'll see my point being there,
(08:31):
the passing game is non existent, and thus the run
game is also non existent.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well to say that, you have to go back to
what kind of systems each of those quarterbacks were in
that you described. Now when you talk about Rock Purty
and what type of quarterback he is, I know what
type of quarterback he is. He is a type of
quarterback that's going to keep the offense on schedule. And
here's the thing where you look at where both Mike
(08:56):
and Kyle have been and a type of quarterbacks that
they've had.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
H you hear about Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Kirk Cousins, I mean, if you're in fantasy football, I
mean that's a guy that you definitely wanted your team
because the volume passing is going to be.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
There where you were going to get someone of a slide.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
And this is what affected Jimmy in the game that
you were talking about against Kansas City. See, I was
in San Francisco when Jimmy got hurt in Kansas City three,
and before that, Jimmy would pull the ball down and run.
And the game you were referring to, they lost that
game because there were opportunities where Jimmy could have ran the.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Ball but opted not to. So for me, the way
I look.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
At it is that the game has definitely changed from
what it was years ago when you had Boomer Sires
and Dan Fouts and Dan Marino. Right, even though when
we don't when we look at John Elware, we don't
look at him the same way as we look at
Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Kler Murray.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
But Mahomes is yes.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
So you look at him in that way.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
He has the capabilities to run when he wants to
take stend playes and when you look at and this
is what I've seen from Bow over the past two weeks,
even when he was in Oregon. The guy is mobile,
and he's athletic, and he reminds me of what Russell
was when Russell first came in the league. Now, most
Broncos fans may dislike that because Russell didn't have a
(10:17):
great teaenure here, and for me, it is what causes
the opposing defense the most issues. Some coordinators want to
keep guys in the pocket, and I'm like, no, if
you keep a quarterback in the pocket, for me, you're
playing right in the hands of the defense because they
don't have to worry about him as a potential threat.
And if you look around in the league, there's thirty
(10:38):
two teams. How many of those teams now have quarterbacks
who can't actually threaten the defense with their feet.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Well, and Aaron Rodgers, it's a bummer that he hurt
his achilles in Jenn, I'm saying as a football fan
because up until Patrick Mahomes came along, I don't have
a hard time saying or a problem saying that I
think he was my favorite quarterback to watch. Does that
make sense? James isn't my favorite player, but I love
watching him play like spectacular. Yeah that it's like he's
(11:07):
doing something that almost no one else can do. And
the way Aaron Rodgers could throw off balance and make plays.
But the one thing Aaron Rodgers could also do was
extend plays with his feet, similar to how John Elway did.
And I think Joe Burrow before all these injuries probably could.
Josh Allen clearly can and maybe even still at times,
has run too much in his first six seven years.
(11:28):
But Patrick Mahomes, And it's funny because I got into it.
This is years ago now with Chiefs fans on Twitter
calling Patrick Mahomes a clone of John Alway, Like no,
look at his completion percentum, like the game has changed.
They're both six to three, they both waited to twenty
two thirty. They're both baseball players that can make every
single throw. They've got the biggest arm or right in
the very short list of the biggest arm of their era.
(11:51):
And but they'll hurt you with the run of that
out looking to run though extend, and they're literally built
about the same. And so that's why that level of running,
what Rogers did before he was hurt, what Joe Burrow
did before he was hurt, Lamar's different. Well, there you go.
Rogers runs the thirteen yards and slides. What's I got
(12:11):
equip playing baseball in about third grade, but he still
knows how to slide a little well. So seriously, brother,
there's only you know, we're not even a minute into
the game to actually give our predictions. I'm picking the
Jets to win. I don't think it's gonna be the
highest scoring game. What do you got your former team?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, I'm gonna pick the Jets. And listen, this is
definitely gonna be somewhat of a close game. But when
you look at well, who has the better quarterback, who
has the better skilled players, you have to lean heavily
towards the Jets, even though the Patriot's done a great
job in the first two weeks of being able to
run the ball and control the tempo of the game
(12:45):
by doing just that. But it's for me, it's interesting
how if you talk to different people, everyone is looking
for different things when it comes to the quarterback position,
and we always see the same thing high football IQ.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
I got a strong arm. I mean a guy with
a fast processor.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So for me, we're talking about quarterbacks in that particular way,
why don't we just go ahead and accentsion weight that
skill set and allowing them to do certain things well.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And it's funny too, because I asked Jill Lombardi this today,
Sean Payton said, maybe we're trying to do too much
with our personnel groupings and all that. And we know
that Sean Payton's play calls can be lengthys pretty pretty verbose, right,
the one thing you can pick on college football, but
the one thing they've gotten right. And we saw where
years ago Nick Saban went down or I'm sorry Bill
(13:35):
Belchick went down to visit Nick Saban and Alabama to say, okay,
how do we shorten this up? And you know, I
always think about because al always loves on the on
the Gruden Quarterback school back in the day, Cam Newton
coming out like, hey, we call this you know, arrow right, zipper,
you know nine words and he's like, what do you
call it? He's like, we call it blue or what
it right? And they got the pictures and the signs,
(13:56):
and I'm just saying you need to get to that
point because the NFL has enough sophistication that they could
steal a lot of that if you're doing nonverbal stuff
from the sideline, but you can still make it shorter.
As Rogers hits his receiver right on the money and
it's penalty and no cats for that's the heck of
a throw rolling right. He might be back a little
bit and this could make the Jets a much harder
opponent next week than they already were. But going back
(14:18):
to what I asked Joe Lombardi about simplifying things, because
Sean said it Sunday, he said it again Monday. He
kind of was asked about it Wednesday. And I understand
that when you start go into and you don't score
a touchdown in your home opener and you only have
one touchdown in your season opener, and it's the quarterback
running just kind of being a good athlete, you're going
to start to question things. But I said, how do
you stay committed to what has worked for you? And
(14:39):
I'm just saying that everything they've done forever works versus saying, oh,
we need to make all these changes and you know,
and just that they'll work that out. And a lot
of it is just simplifying the play the play sheet
and what they're practicing during the week and kind of
dialing on works really well. But what's kind of interesting
about this is the issue isn't with bo Nick and
(15:00):
not understanding the offense it's kind of the offense as
a whole. I don't think that it's Bonnix doesn't know
the entire playbooker doesn't know to get into whatever call
or even what check he's supposed to make it. It's
just that it feels like Sean Payton and his staff
maybe aren't clicking the way they need to, in the
way they certainly did with Drew Brees, but not because
their rookie quarterback can't handle the information.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Well, it's interesting that you bring that up, because I
haven't really heard anyone take that particular approach, but it
is true, Like, look this Sam's number three men you
there's about eight page.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Not a cheesecake factory, but it's pre darn close, right.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So when you look at any side line on Sunday,
you'll see a coach with that me and you in
front of his hands. And I really think that reducing
the play sheet to the things that you do well
are very important because it eliminates the amount of thinking.
Someone showed me a video of the other night that
somehow they kind of took of a right before a
(16:01):
play right, Yeah, and you saw a little confusion and
and it makes you think right away why was it
the confusion? Was it because the play call was so long?
And then they're competing with the play clock When you
come to the line as a quarterback, now you see
that play call. Now is druggling down? Can you look
at the defense and say, okay, well, which guy is
gonna move?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Can I do I need to get into a check?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
That's very difficult for even veteran quarterbacks and rookie quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So being able to.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Tell her the place to fit your guys that you
have on your squad is important. And sometimes people think
that well because you have to break it down to
maybe one word calls, that means as though your players.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Are not smart enough.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
No, no, no, no, no, not from my standpoint, because the
idea at the end of the game or end of
the day is did your players understand the play call
to be able to go out there and execute?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Those play calls sometimes along, I mean, Mike Stanminghan used
to get some play calls and sure, what is that?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Right? So you're on the other side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, So you want to remove the thinking part of
plays for your offensive players?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Well, kind of like everything in life, you're always looking
for efficiencies. Yeah, and that that feels like it can
be inefficient to have such long play calls. And it's
It's funny because Sean papers asked about pre snap motion
a few weeks ago, and I looked it up and
somebody else look at They were twenty fourth in terms
of most pre snap motion, whereas teams like the Niners,
(17:30):
they're getting out of the liddle quickly. I think Sean
mcvay's rams, especially in the Jared Goff days, we're shot
one in time to talk to Jared and in his
headset before it cut off in his helmet. But it
allows you to see what the defense is doing and
adjust on the fly. And I understand whether work quarterback
you may not be in a hurry to do that,
or a young offense. But the quicker you can get
out of the huddle, so the more efficient you can
(17:51):
make the play call. The quicker you can get to
the line of scrimmage if you want to go fast, great,
but you can also at least get a sense of
if I'm sending guys in motion, are they in man
or are they in zone? Most of the time, I
guess they can still disguise it with the sending a
dber linebacker in a certain direction. But most times when
someone's following emotion, you know, a player in motion, you
usually get the some form of man at least at
(18:12):
least in part of the coverage.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, the Broncos have shown that they have to capability
that's doing both of those things in the past two
games that they played similar to what happened last year
because it's always in the fourth quarter, eight minutes of
less in the game. Now they're playing with somewhat more tempo.
Now seem like it's a sense of urgency. There's more
rhythm guys, that's making catchers. The quarterback is seen in
(18:34):
the field. You're speeding everything up. You're helping the offensive
line so they don't have to protect that loan. Now
the receivers know whatever the coverage is, man or is oh,
I gotta find a space. I gotta get open flash
of my numbers to give the.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Quarterback an opportunity. My question is why don't they do
that more often?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, and it's tricky too, Right, you can go faster
without going no huddle, right because people here tempo and
they're like, oh that means no huddle. Well, no, it
just means u's pick the pace up a little bit
and get in an out of the huddle, and let's
see what we can come up with without going because
we saw, yeah, where they're still sending guys to and
from the sideline and getting different groupings in and that
allows the defense obviously to do that as well. But
we're going to take a quick time out and we
(19:11):
can ask Rick Lewis about this to some degree. He's
obviously in the broadcast booth on Sundays getting a bird,
you know, a bird's eye view of it with with
David Logan and last week Big Al in the first half.
But I'm sure Rick has thoughts on the efficiency this
offense is lacking right now. So we're going to talk
to color analysts for the Broncos Radio network 'ra at
Sam's Number three here in Glendale. Come on by and
(19:32):
see us and watch Thursday Night football with us. It's
scoreless as it stands now the Jets and puntings, so
we'll see the Patriots offense can can surprise anyone. Thirty
eight and a half is the over under. But he's
Nick Ferguson. I'm Brandon christall in for Benjamin alright, this
is Broncos Country tonight on KOA ninety four one FM.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Give me some more razzle dazzle.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
You like the razzle dazzle. I assume that came on
the tail end of the the end around flea flicker
forty nine yard toss to Josh Reynolds. Was that the
razzle dazzle play, Rick, that you were so excited about
or was it a different play that I missed the
other razzle dazzle?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
There was only one, and that was the razzle dazzle
pretty much of the entire game, probably of both games.
That was the one razzle dazzle. And yeah, I like
the razzle dazzle. You know, people call me Rick razzle
dazzle Lewis. That's what I'm all about, the dazz How
(20:33):
you guys doing, man, we're.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Doing We're doing good. And Rick of course joined us
on the Common Spirit health hotline. And so, like you said,
that was about the only razzle dazzle play you've seen
in two games you're in Seattle. It didn't go great,
although we saw bo obviously running that touchdown. He now
has four I in TS three that I'll h Dingham
for the fourth one at the end of the game.
(20:55):
You've been in a part of a lot of games, Nick,
and Ricky, you've watched a million games. Pick as the
you're in desperation mode there. Yes, it could have changed
the tie if they score. But I'm not going to
beat a kid up on that. But the three picks
no touchdown passes. What's your take on where things stand
with this very unproductive Broncos offense at this point?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Rick, Yeah, that third pick, that was the one that
really killed him. And that's the one when you look
at it's we're seeing bone Nicks now make mistakes that
he doesn't make. He didn't make mistakes like that in college.
He didn't make mistakes in preseason, in training camp. He
wasn't making throws off his back foot and sidearm. You know,
(21:38):
it's a tight coverage, which is what he did on
that play. It's a work in progress. You know, this
is what it's like for rookie quarterbacks of any era,
and this is how it goes. You know, you don't
see too many that come right out of the gate,
you know, slinging the football around and throwing a lot
(21:58):
of touchdown passes. You know, in this case, I think
with Bo. He just needs more support. We all thought
that the Broncos were going to be a running team
and Bo would be kind of a game manager quarterback
until they got comfortable. But I mean, they came right
out of the gate in Seattle throwing the ball all
over the field. Did the same thing last week against Pittsburgh,
(22:22):
and you know, I'd like to see them get back
to the run. I think they do have a chance
of running the ball this week against Tampa Bay. I'd
like to see their receivers not drop the ball two
games in a row. We've seen that happen with multiple
veteran wide receivers. That will certainly help the kid. We
(22:43):
heard Sean Payton in the pregame with Dave Logan or
postgame with Dave Logan last week talk about simplifying things,
and he indicated this week that they were looking to
do that type of thing. Reducing the variables is the
way he put it. And what's interesting about that, and
you guys probably saw this too. Nick in BK apparently
(23:08):
the Steelers thought that they knew exactly what was coming
with his offense. James Palmer reported that on Steve Smith
podcast that he was talking to some of the corners
after the game, and they were laughing about the small
playbook for bo Nicks, and they knew that, you know,
he wasn't going to take any shots. They wanted to
(23:31):
take away the run game and make Nicks beat them,
which is exactly what they did. But they thought it
looked pretty simple anyway, so simplifying it even more this
week is going to be interesting to see how it
goes against Tampa Baya. You know what, I'm getting optimistic
about this game against the Buccaneers. They won a big
(23:53):
game last week against the Lions. I hope they overlooked
the Broncos this week. Looking down the road for them,
they have Philly, they have Atlanta, they have New Orleans,
and if they think they can just show up, you know,
Sunday at home and beat the Broncos, I think that
Broncos maybe will will show them they got another thing coming.
(24:17):
Like Judas Priest used to say, you got another thing coming,
because I feel like this team did get better last
week in some ways, and I think we'll continue to
see that this week.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well. Rick, coming into the season, I thought that this
was going to be a red shirt year for bow
Knicks anyway, and that they were gonna have to lean
heavily on the defense, and we've seen that in both
the past two weeks that the defense has given them
an opportunity to win the game. And it's funny, you know,
when you look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yes, they
win the game last week against Detroit, but there are
(24:48):
a couple of areas that stick out for me where
I'm going ahead and I'm gonna predict the Broncos win
because on third down the Bucks were two for ten
and here's the bigger thing.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
They gave up five.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And knowing or watching Jonah Ellis come on the way
that he's been able to do, that might prove an
opportunity for the young kid to go out there and
be successful. So this could be another week for a
defensive a matchup. But when you break down the two
teams and the way they are at this point, I
believe you have to go further than.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Talking about the quarterback situation.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And yes, I listened to Dave talked to coach Payton
about slowing down or breaking down that game plan. But
we heard the same thing last year when Russell was here.
So do you think that after losing two games and
not wanting to lose a third game that this coaching
staff will.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Be able to do that.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
I do think they will certainly make an attempt to
do that. You know, coach Peyton wants to win football
games as bad as anybody you know, as bad as
any of the most hardcore Broncos fan out there, and
I think he wants to take some pressure off of
his young quarterback. Man. This is his guy, this is
(26:07):
his baby, and he's going to do everything he can
to make this guy succeed in the National Football League
and try to make him a good football player. So
I do think they will try to simplify things a
bit for him, however they choose to do that. I
also think you may see some different maybe personnel use
(26:29):
than what we've seen in the first two games. You know,
maybe some guys that haven't been cutting it will get
less snaps, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Defense.
I think they're solid on defense. I think the defense
might actually be pretty good. But on offense, they're looking
for playmakers, and the only one that seems like a
(26:49):
playmaker right now is Josh Reynolds. They're not getting anything
from the running back room. They're not getting anything from
the tight ends Courtland Sutton's been pretty They need some playmakers,
so I think you might see a little shuffling of
the deck and who gets more snaps this week than
we've seen in the past two weeks.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Well, and you'll be there to call it. In fact,
you'll be there to day, or at least you can
adjust to the heat and humidity like we often see
when the Broncos play in Florida. Hadn't gone great their
last few trips to uh the state where Nick was born, right,
and then they're from but where Nick was born, so Rick,
hopefully their fortunes change. But we appreciate you joining us
as always, and we'll be listening to you and Dave
and Susie on the call Sunday from Tampa. Thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Yeah, we appreciate you too. Buk and keeps sending me
those Uk texts every every week. K will send me
a very obvious point.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Well, I let him know.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Russell Wilson, Yeah, you tell.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Him, Yeah, this week he'll probably he'll probably touch me. Hey,
don't forget Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Number one overall traffick for the Browns. Yeah, you know, team.
I told him. I told Hi Russell the Broncos quarterback
last year, So yeah, there's a reminder. But yeah, week
I like to contribute. Did you use the Arthur Smith thing?
They probably wasn't really a chance to get it in there.
Uh No, I'm never going to next time they play
against Arthur Smith. All right, you're the best.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Rick.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
That's Rick Lewis joining us on the ka Common Spirit
Health hotline. We know one of two ways. Do you
want to go the way we were planning or do
you want to tell me why I think you can
save that that point about the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Let's we were playing.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, we're gonna get into why the Broncos can can
go in and steal a win if you will. In
Tampa coming up in a little bit. We're gonna go
to Tampa and talk to Bruce arians Son, Jake. But
right now, mel Kiper offered this on get Up and
you and I and anyone else that understands football had
some strong opinions, but here's mel Kuiper with get up
(28:43):
and Jason mccordy tweeted he should have gotten up and
left after mal Kuiper said this, But this was this morning.
Mel Kuiper offering how to make football quote unquote better.
I guess well pick it up from there.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Now that we've sort of set the table for exactly
what your problem is with it, how would you try
and solve it? Well, I grew up with the best
of the National Football ingue sixty seventies into the eighties.
You're talking about deep shots, right, the Gold Route, the
nine Route posts. You're going about Terry Bradshaw and the
Super Bowl hitting John Stalworth.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You see Leroy Irvin.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Diving right just off his Fingertaire is the receiver. They
laid it out there right, hit the receiver in stride,
sixty five yard touchdown.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It's a beautiful thing to watch.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
That's where I want to see brought back to the
National Football League. Check Down kings, bubble screen sensations, boring football.
Uh uh, game manager, I get it, But I want
to see those deep shots.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
That's what the NFL was built on.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
I grew up with John the Night Is, fran Tarkington,
Ken Stabler, Darryl Lemonica. You know you're talking about quarterbacks,
Joe names. It would just right Brett Fard when he
was doing what he did, Burt Jones with the Baltimore Colts.
You think about those quarterbacks who would throw the ball
down the field. I said, what Bradshaw did was Stalworth
and Swan Roger Stallbach.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
That's what I want to see brought back.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
Say, well, you can't do that right, Well, you have
a five yard rule with the quarterbacks, right, the melt
blunt rule right now with the push thing with hurts.
You gotta be a yard back now, so they'll tell
me you can't have those safeties closer to the line
of scrimmage than they are.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
I was in games where I'm thinking, hey, too high.
They're out now in space too.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
I could even find us that they're playing with nine
guys right one of the other two on the other
two there's so dag gone form back and even they're
part of dan play. I'm telling you, we gotta change
this thing, and we got to have Hey, you can
warn them an a rail they come up. Hey, guys,
you got to get up a little bit right, you're
too far back. Warn no safeties, But you gotta figure
out competition. Gummitty, somebody, Dano, somebody's got to figure out
(30:32):
what that depth is. But it's too far and back
right now, the NFL is being a ruined bodies too
high safety.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
So mel Kiper wants the competition committee to get involved, then,
of course, courtesy ESPN, and get up this morning. Once
the competition gimmy to get involved in an outlaw to
safeties deep, then if I can make whatever rules they want.
But when I saw this, it reminded me of something
I hate about the baseball Pitchclock's been great. It really
(30:59):
has things up and it's been fine. It's made games
go faster, it's made them exciting. But when they eliminated
the shift, it pissed me off. And I remember talking
about Blackett training camp or a spring training about it,
and he agreed, don't tell me where to put my players.
If I want to put all other you know, all
ten guys to the other side of the center, as
long as I'm following the basic rules, that's fine. So
(31:21):
don't tell me where to put my safeties. If I
want to put up all eleven defenders on the line
of scrimmage, that's up to me. I just think mel
Kiper's off the mark here.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Well, that tells me a lot about what mal knows
about the game of football. Because of all the things
that you can eliminate for the game. Cover two is
in one of those things. And if you understood Cover
two really well, he would know that you still can
attack Cover two down the field vertically.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
And that's for verticals. I think everyone who's been watching
football long.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Enough actually knows that there's other ways that you can
manipulate Cover two, and that's running the ball. You force
the middle linebacker to step up and guess what, there's
a void between the hashes that you can throw eight
to ten yards down in the field. So I don't
know what the hell Mail is talking about, and I
don't know what he was sipping on before they even
had that segment, but whatever it is, they need to
hold the intervention because he doesn't know what the hell
(32:10):
he's talking about.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, I could not agree. I cannot agree more. Mel
Kiper is way off there. Everybody that's played football, or
plays football or watches football with a you know, discerning
eye and understands about her coach the game thinks that
Mails one hundred percent just wrong here. And that's okay,
you're allowed to be wrong. But when you're that guy
who is considered an expert, I understand his expertise is
(32:34):
and is in a pre draft, and he brought up
a bunch of guys from the sixties and seventies, so
it kind of gives you an idea of of how
old he is.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
That's is fine, but this isn't Eric coriel Man.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah, no kidding, Darryl Lamonica is not walking through that door.
So uh but you know, I understand, I understand why
they put him on TV, and he's just wrong here
and everyone is. I think everyone has their different explanations.
Why as simple as running the ball when I talk
about changing strategy, don't tell me where to put my players.
(33:06):
As long as I'm meeting, I've got to have five
guys on the line of scrimmage. You know, I can
only have so many off the line script all that whatever.
I guess technically six online scrimmage. But anyway, that being said,
we will get into this a little bit more. There's
a couple other things we want to talk about, including
before we go to Buff's primetime, maybe some thoughts on
Shador Sanders and college players. We're gonna do all that,
but we're gonna talk to the son of Super Bowl
(33:28):
winning coach Bruce Arians, who took the Bucks to the
Super Bowl a couple of years ago and head out
to Tampa. Talk to Jake arians next. He's Nick Ferguson.
I'm Brandon christal in for Benjamin Albright. We are live
at Sam's Number three in Glendale and you're listening to
Broncos Country Night on KOA eight fifty ninety four one
FM
I'm not Benjamin Albright, I'm Brandon Chrissol, but that is
Nick Ferguson to my right. We are at Sam's Number
three in Glendale. If you are looking for a place
to watch Thursday night football, cannot recommend a place more
highly great food. You know, if you've ever tried to
eat breakfast or brunch at Sam's Number three, how long
you're gonna be waiting for Well, there's a couple of
(00:21):
tables opening here if you want to come on buy
and get a good dinner or right here in Glendale
next to the King Supers, not too far from the
Jewish Community Center as well as the Greek Orthodox Church.
Shotgun Willie isn't too far either. Jerry Greek Walls nearby.
But we were right here in the heart of Glendale
before we get into this game. Nick. One of my
favorite things that I saw misreported was when John Morant
(00:43):
had his incident that Shotgun Willie's a little while back,
and someone who definitely does not live here said something like, yeah,
you know, he had the gun on him. It wasn't
in he wasn't in the best part of town. I'm like,
hang on, I know for a fact that one of
the owners of a handful of major teams. UH lives
nearby about you know, within a within a half mile
(01:06):
of that, and I'm like, and there's the Jewish Community Center,
very very other expensive homes and the Denver Country Club.
To say that the area where John Morant was was
unsafe would be inaccurate.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, usually anytime in these United States where you say
that someone was visiting, dare I say a shoe model club,
usually you think about the surrounding areas and you're like, okay,
well that's not once of understanding citizens.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, this just happens to be
an exception, and they appreciate and you know, I know
the fine folks with Glendale that lived nearby and out
up there listening to us around than the folks here
in the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I want to talk about Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Now that's a different conversations talk about you talk about
in a lot of cities, and it can be a
much different conversation. And I get it. A lot of
very nice, big cities that have lots of establishments like that.
So we're here all the way until eight o'clock will
hand things off to Buff's primetime. But keeping an eye
as we're about to get going with this Thursday night game,
and we're going to get into all things related to
(02:07):
the to the Bucks and Broncos, no question but it
we might as well preview this a little bit or
share our thoughts leading into the Jets wearing throwback uniforms
tonight on Thursday Night Football. Mark Bavarro, Mark Mark Gastino style,
New York Stack Exchange. We haven't seen a lot from
(02:28):
this Patriots offense. You have to love they stole win
Week one, or got a win Week one against Sin Seed.
They weren't great in Week two. The Jets haven't been
world beaters either. Obviously, the game one against the Niners
is going to be a challenge out on the West Coast,
and then they bounce back with a win over the
Jet or a win over the Titan. Sorry, so, how
do you see this shaken out? As they're in MetLife
(02:49):
Stadium where the Broncos will be taking on a well
rested Jets Team's gonna get ten days off after this.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, I'll say this about the Patriots. I didn't really
expect them to come out and play as well as they.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Have played thus far.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
But the one thing that let me back up for
a second, there are two things that stick out to me.
Because Drake may was considered to be by most like
the most NFL ready guy coming out of college out
of North Carolina, and he's not the starter, and obviously
we heard the things coming out about him doing training
camp that he wasn't living up to those types of expectations.
(03:25):
But I'll say the ability to run the ball. This
is something that the Patriots have done well. They have
their two headed monster, Ramandre Smith. He's playing well. And
what it reminds me of is just like when you
think about Jacoby Brissett. He is not your prototypical A
list quarterback, right he would be that stand in, but
(03:47):
he's doing a great job in that role because he
has a defense that can back.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Him up and run the ball. And it made me
instantly think.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
About where the Broncos are and their inability to run
the ball.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
What with the Bronkers and the deficiency in the run game.
And we've obviously just seen two games and we know
that Sean Payton certainly has no problem running the football
over the years. We also know that they're top five
and passing the backs out of the backfield. But you've
got running backs that they're gonna gain yards in a
Shawn bayten offense. And so when you look at their
(04:22):
attempt to run, it feels like they haven't even attempted
to run, like they haven't stayed committed to it. And
I understand the circumstances easy to say of the game
and on first time you're not getting it. But in
order to run effectively, you just have to keep doing it, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
You have to, because I mean on every single play,
on every single possession, you're not going to have positive
yards in the run game.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
You're not gonna really have that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So when you have yards for no game or minus yards,
do you bail on that particular play or do you say,
you know what, what was the reason why was it successful?
Was it because an offensive lineman didn't sustain their block?
Was it because a wide receiver didn't go down and
dig out a safety or a linebacker? But the ideas though,
(05:07):
you don't abandon the run game, and so many times
we've seen it across the league where if their run
game is struggling, you may have some offensive coordinators who
bail on it and all too soon, And kay, I
say that because I've been around two guys who have
done an effective job of being really creative and sticking
with the run, and Kyle Shanahan and Mike Shanahan, and
(05:29):
both of those guys have committed because they the way
they look at is different from other coaches. Some coaches say, well,
we want to pass to set up the run. They
run to set up the pass. And the reason it
makes sense for me the festival, I think about what
problems it may cause for me trying to defend a
team that's trying to run the ball, because now they
want to make you defend both vertically and horizontally. But
(05:50):
the big part about it it opens up play action.
But if you don't run the ball and say committed
to it, you have no play action.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And we know that. It's it's been fun to kind
of keep an eye on where things are maybe I
don't say evolving, but revolving back to because the teams
that are winning in these first couple weeks have been
running the ball effectively. There's you talk about that commitment
and we've seen we've seen the success you mentioned Kyle Shanahan,
the Niners have had. We know what Jimmy Garoppolo is,
(06:20):
and we know what he isn't, right, right, He wasn't
the reason they lost that Super Bowl. He didn't miss
a pass to Emmanuel Sanders late. But when he played
the Super Bowl against the Chiefs, he played really well,
and played well down the stretch and played well in
the playoffs. And you were around him right where you
around him when you when you're out there on your
coaching internship, right, so you you were in that building,
you understand what it's about. But no one's going to
confuse Jimmy Garoppolo with the guy that he was drafted
(06:41):
to and Tom Brady, right. Uh. And so when we
understand who Jimmy Garoppolo is and who he isn't And
I don't know who brock Pretty is, I know that
he's a guy that in the playoffs against a really
good Detroit team made enough plays, when I say on
his own, but made enough plays, made enough throws to say, Okay,
I have to think about this guy a little differently,
or at least certainly put him on I'll put myself
on alert that. Okay, we have to let's see what
(07:03):
it is in the coming years. But I'm saying all
that to say RG three, when Kyle and Mike had
him in in d C. The quarterbacks after John Elway
that Mike had here and then that Kyle had in
Houston with Gary, they always were able to run the
ball because of what they were able to do. And
none of those quarterbacks were anywhere close to who John
(07:24):
Elway is or even you know, they got a little
bit of Kirk Cousins kind of at the end before
they got fired. You know, Kyle ran his offense in
in Cleveland. It didn't go great. He has to get out.
Then he goes with Landing. He has an MVP because
Matt Ryan is a tier above. But it's hard to
sit here and say that bo Nix isn't at worst
(07:46):
in the same sphere as some of those, you know,
the Jimmy Garoppolos of the world. Like with Bonox. I
guess he's only two games in, right, But my point
being that even if he's not a future Hall of
Fame or a perennial pro bowler or an MVP, you
can't say that yet We don't know, but I'm saying,
but you should still be able to he's at least
as good as what rock Perty was two years ago
(08:07):
when he started as the last pick of the draft
and K and I understand the weapons are different and
everything's different, but we're seeing teams with quarterbacks that you
would say bon Nicks is in the same realm as
not Patrick Mahomes, not Josh Allen, not a healthy Aaron
Rodgers or Peyton Manning or obviously you know Tom Brady.
I'm just saying that bon Knicks feels I think he's
a competent. I guess we'll see my point being there,
(08:31):
the passing game is non existent, and thus the run
game is also non existent.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well to say that, you have to go back to
what kind of systems each of those quarterbacks were in
that you described. Now when you talk about Rock Purty
and what type of quarterback he is, I know what
type of quarterback he is. He is a type of
quarterback that's going to keep the offense on schedule. And
here's the thing where you look at where both Mike
(08:56):
and Kyle have been and a type of quarterbacks that
they've had.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
H you hear about Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Kirk Cousins, I mean, if you're in fantasy football, I
mean that's a guy that you definitely wanted your team
because the volume passing is going to be.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
There where you were going to get someone of a slide.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
And this is what affected Jimmy in the game that
you were talking about against Kansas City. See, I was
in San Francisco when Jimmy got hurt in Kansas City three,
and before that, Jimmy would pull the ball down and run.
And the game you were referring to, they lost that
game because there were opportunities where Jimmy could have ran the.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Ball but opted not to. So for me, the way
I look.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
At it is that the game has definitely changed from
what it was years ago when you had Boomer Sires
and Dan Fouts and Dan Marino. Right, even though when
we don't when we look at John Elware, we don't
look at him the same way as we look at
Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Kler Murray.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
But Mahomes is yes.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
So you look at him in that way.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
He has the capabilities to run when he wants to
take stend playes and when you look at and this
is what I've seen from Bow over the past two weeks,
even when he was in Oregon. The guy is mobile,
and he's athletic, and he reminds me of what Russell
was when Russell first came in the league. Now, most
Broncos fans may dislike that because Russell didn't have a
(10:17):
great teaenure here, and for me, it is what causes
the opposing defense the most issues. Some coordinators want to
keep guys in the pocket, and I'm like, no, if
you keep a quarterback in the pocket, for me, you're
playing right in the hands of the defense because they
don't have to worry about him as a potential threat.
And if you look around in the league, there's thirty
(10:38):
two teams. How many of those teams now have quarterbacks
who can't actually threaten the defense with their feet.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Well, and Aaron Rodgers, it's a bummer that he hurt
his achilles in Jenn, I'm saying as a football fan
because up until Patrick Mahomes came along, I don't have
a hard time saying or a problem saying that I
think he was my favorite quarterback to watch. Does that
make sense? James isn't my favorite player, but I love
watching him play like spectacular. Yeah that it's like he's
(11:07):
doing something that almost no one else can do. And
the way Aaron Rodgers could throw off balance and make plays.
But the one thing Aaron Rodgers could also do was
extend plays with his feet, similar to how John Elway did.
And I think Joe Burrow before all these injuries probably could.
Josh Allen clearly can and maybe even still at times,
has run too much in his first six seven years.
(11:28):
But Patrick Mahomes, And it's funny because I got into it.
This is years ago now with Chiefs fans on Twitter
calling Patrick Mahomes a clone of John Alway, Like no,
look at his completion percentum, like the game has changed.
They're both six to three, they both waited to twenty
two thirty. They're both baseball players that can make every
single throw. They've got the biggest arm or right in
the very short list of the biggest arm of their era.
(11:51):
And but they'll hurt you with the run of that
out looking to run though extend, and they're literally built
about the same. And so that's why that level of running,
what Rogers did before he was hurt, what Joe Burrow
did before he was hurt, Lamar's different. Well, there you go.
Rogers runs the thirteen yards and slides. What's I got
(12:11):
equip playing baseball in about third grade, but he still
knows how to slide a little well. So seriously, brother,
there's only you know, we're not even a minute into
the game to actually give our predictions. I'm picking the
Jets to win. I don't think it's gonna be the
highest scoring game. What do you got your former team?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, I'm gonna pick the Jets. And listen, this is
definitely gonna be somewhat of a close game. But when
you look at well, who has the better quarterback, who
has the better skilled players, you have to lean heavily
towards the Jets, even though the Patriot's done a great
job in the first two weeks of being able to
run the ball and control the tempo of the game
(12:45):
by doing just that. But it's for me, it's interesting
how if you talk to different people, everyone is looking
for different things when it comes to the quarterback position,
and we always see the same thing high football IQ.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
I got a strong arm. I mean a guy with
a fast processor.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So for me, we're talking about quarterbacks in that particular way,
why don't we just go ahead and accentsion weight that
skill set and allowing them to do certain things well.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And it's funny too, because I asked Jill Lombardi this today,
Sean Payton said, maybe we're trying to do too much
with our personnel groupings and all that. And we know
that Sean Payton's play calls can be lengthys pretty pretty verbose, right,
the one thing you can pick on college football, but
the one thing they've gotten right. And we saw where
years ago Nick Saban went down or I'm sorry Bill
(13:35):
Belchick went down to visit Nick Saban and Alabama to say, okay,
how do we shorten this up? And you know, I
always think about because al always loves on the on
the Gruden Quarterback school back in the day, Cam Newton
coming out like, hey, we call this you know, arrow right, zipper,
you know nine words and he's like, what do you
call it? He's like, we call it blue or what
it right? And they got the pictures and the signs,
(13:56):
and I'm just saying you need to get to that
point because the NFL has enough sophistication that they could
steal a lot of that if you're doing nonverbal stuff
from the sideline, but you can still make it shorter.
As Rogers hits his receiver right on the money and
it's penalty and no cats for that's the heck of
a throw rolling right. He might be back a little
bit and this could make the Jets a much harder
opponent next week than they already were. But going back
(14:18):
to what I asked Joe Lombardi about simplifying things, because
Sean said it Sunday, he said it again Monday. He
kind of was asked about it Wednesday. And I understand
that when you start go into and you don't score
a touchdown in your home opener and you only have
one touchdown in your season opener, and it's the quarterback
running just kind of being a good athlete, you're going
to start to question things. But I said, how do
you stay committed to what has worked for you? And
(14:39):
I'm just saying that everything they've done forever works versus saying, oh,
we need to make all these changes and you know,
and just that they'll work that out. And a lot
of it is just simplifying the play the play sheet
and what they're practicing during the week and kind of
dialing on works really well. But what's kind of interesting
about this is the issue isn't with bo Nick and
(15:00):
not understanding the offense it's kind of the offense as
a whole. I don't think that it's Bonnix doesn't know
the entire playbooker doesn't know to get into whatever call
or even what check he's supposed to make it. It's
just that it feels like Sean Payton and his staff
maybe aren't clicking the way they need to, in the
way they certainly did with Drew Brees, but not because
their rookie quarterback can't handle the information.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Well, it's interesting that you bring that up, because I
haven't really heard anyone take that particular approach, but it
is true, Like, look this Sam's number three men you
there's about eight page.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Not a cheesecake factory, but it's pre darn close, right.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So when you look at any side line on Sunday,
you'll see a coach with that me and you in
front of his hands. And I really think that reducing
the play sheet to the things that you do well
are very important because it eliminates the amount of thinking.
Someone showed me a video of the other night that
somehow they kind of took of a right before a
(16:01):
play right, Yeah, and you saw a little confusion and
and it makes you think right away why was it
the confusion? Was it because the play call was so long?
And then they're competing with the play clock When you
come to the line as a quarterback, now you see
that play call. Now is druggling down? Can you look
at the defense and say, okay, well, which guy is
gonna move?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Can I do I need to get into a check?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
That's very difficult for even veteran quarterbacks and rookie quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So being able to.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Tell her the place to fit your guys that you
have on your squad is important. And sometimes people think
that well because you have to break it down to
maybe one word calls, that means as though your players.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Are not smart enough.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
No, no, no, no, no, not from my standpoint, because the
idea at the end of the game or end of
the day is did your players understand the play call
to be able to go out there and execute?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Those play calls sometimes along, I mean, Mike Stanminghan used
to get some play calls and sure, what is that?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Right? So you're on the other side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, So you want to remove the thinking part of
plays for your offensive players?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Well, kind of like everything in life, you're always looking
for efficiencies. Yeah, and that that feels like it can
be inefficient to have such long play calls. And it's
It's funny because Sean papers asked about pre snap motion
a few weeks ago, and I looked it up and
somebody else look at They were twenty fourth in terms
of most pre snap motion, whereas teams like the Niners,
(17:30):
they're getting out of the liddle quickly. I think Sean
mcvay's rams, especially in the Jared Goff days, we're shot
one in time to talk to Jared and in his
headset before it cut off in his helmet. But it
allows you to see what the defense is doing and
adjust on the fly. And I understand whether work quarterback
you may not be in a hurry to do that,
or a young offense. But the quicker you can get
out of the huddle, so the more efficient you can
(17:51):
make the play call. The quicker you can get to
the line of scrimmage if you want to go fast, great,
but you can also at least get a sense of
if I'm sending guys in motion, are they in man
or are they in zone? Most of the time, I
guess they can still disguise it with the sending a
dber linebacker in a certain direction. But most times when
someone's following emotion, you know, a player in motion, you
usually get the some form of man at least at
(18:12):
least in part of the coverage.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, the Broncos have shown that they have to capability
that's doing both of those things in the past two
games that they played similar to what happened last year
because it's always in the fourth quarter, eight minutes of
less in the game. Now they're playing with somewhat more tempo.
Now seem like it's a sense of urgency. There's more
rhythm guys, that's making catchers. The quarterback is seen in
(18:34):
the field. You're speeding everything up. You're helping the offensive
line so they don't have to protect that loan. Now
the receivers know whatever the coverage is, man or is oh,
I gotta find a space. I gotta get open flash
of my numbers to give the.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Quarterback an opportunity. My question is why don't they do
that more often?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, and it's tricky too, Right, you can go faster
without going no huddle, right because people here tempo and
they're like, oh that means no huddle. Well, no, it
just means u's pick the pace up a little bit
and get in an out of the huddle, and let's
see what we can come up with without going because
we saw, yeah, where they're still sending guys to and
from the sideline and getting different groupings in and that
allows the defense obviously to do that as well. But
we're going to take a quick time out and we
(19:11):
can ask Rick Lewis about this to some degree. He's
obviously in the broadcast booth on Sundays getting a bird,
you know, a bird's eye view of it with with
David Logan and last week Big Al in the first half.
But I'm sure Rick has thoughts on the efficiency this
offense is lacking right now. So we're going to talk
to color analysts for the Broncos Radio network 'ra at
Sam's Number three here in Glendale. Come on by and
(19:32):
see us and watch Thursday Night football with us. It's
scoreless as it stands now the Jets and puntings, so
we'll see the Patriots offense can can surprise anyone. Thirty
eight and a half is the over under. But he's
Nick Ferguson. I'm Brandon christall in for Benjamin alright, this
is Broncos Country tonight on KOA ninety four one FM.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Give me some more razzle dazzle.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
You like the razzle dazzle. I assume that came on
the tail end of the the end around flea flicker
forty nine yard toss to Josh Reynolds. Was that the
razzle dazzle play, Rick, that you were so excited about
or was it a different play that I missed the
other razzle dazzle?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
There was only one, and that was the razzle dazzle
pretty much of the entire game, probably of both games.
That was the one razzle dazzle. And yeah, I like
the razzle dazzle. You know, people call me Rick razzle
dazzle Lewis. That's what I'm all about, the dazz How
(20:33):
you guys doing, man, we're.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Doing We're doing good. And Rick of course joined us
on the Common Spirit health hotline. And so, like you said,
that was about the only razzle dazzle play you've seen
in two games you're in Seattle. It didn't go great,
although we saw bo obviously running that touchdown. He now
has four I in TS three that I'll h Dingham
for the fourth one at the end of the game.
(20:55):
You've been in a part of a lot of games, Nick,
and Ricky, you've watched a million games. Pick as the
you're in desperation mode there. Yes, it could have changed
the tie if they score. But I'm not going to
beat a kid up on that. But the three picks
no touchdown passes. What's your take on where things stand
with this very unproductive Broncos offense at this point?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Rick, Yeah, that third pick, that was the one that
really killed him. And that's the one when you look
at it's we're seeing bone Nicks now make mistakes that
he doesn't make. He didn't make mistakes like that in college.
He didn't make mistakes in preseason, in training camp. He
wasn't making throws off his back foot and sidearm. You know,
(21:38):
it's a tight coverage, which is what he did on
that play. It's a work in progress. You know, this
is what it's like for rookie quarterbacks of any era,
and this is how it goes. You know, you don't
see too many that come right out of the gate,
you know, slinging the football around and throwing a lot
(21:58):
of touchdown passes. You know, in this case, I think
with Bo. He just needs more support. We all thought
that the Broncos were going to be a running team
and Bo would be kind of a game manager quarterback
until they got comfortable. But I mean, they came right
out of the gate in Seattle throwing the ball all
over the field. Did the same thing last week against Pittsburgh,
(22:22):
and you know, I'd like to see them get back
to the run. I think they do have a chance
of running the ball this week against Tampa Bay. I'd
like to see their receivers not drop the ball two
games in a row. We've seen that happen with multiple
veteran wide receivers. That will certainly help the kid. We
(22:43):
heard Sean Payton in the pregame with Dave Logan or
postgame with Dave Logan last week talk about simplifying things,
and he indicated this week that they were looking to
do that type of thing. Reducing the variables is the
way he put it. And what's interesting about that, and
you guys probably saw this too. Nick in BK apparently
(23:08):
the Steelers thought that they knew exactly what was coming
with his offense. James Palmer reported that on Steve Smith
podcast that he was talking to some of the corners
after the game, and they were laughing about the small
playbook for bo Nicks, and they knew that, you know,
he wasn't going to take any shots. They wanted to
(23:31):
take away the run game and make Nicks beat them,
which is exactly what they did. But they thought it
looked pretty simple anyway, so simplifying it even more this
week is going to be interesting to see how it
goes against Tampa Baya. You know what, I'm getting optimistic
about this game against the Buccaneers. They won a big
(23:53):
game last week against the Lions. I hope they overlooked
the Broncos this week. Looking down the road for them,
they have Philly, they have Atlanta, they have New Orleans,
and if they think they can just show up, you know,
Sunday at home and beat the Broncos, I think that
Broncos maybe will will show them they got another thing coming.
(24:17):
Like Judas Priest used to say, you got another thing coming,
because I feel like this team did get better last
week in some ways, and I think we'll continue to
see that this week.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well. Rick, coming into the season, I thought that this
was going to be a red shirt year for bow
Knicks anyway, and that they were gonna have to lean
heavily on the defense, and we've seen that in both
the past two weeks that the defense has given them
an opportunity to win the game. And it's funny, you know,
when you look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yes, they
win the game last week against Detroit, but there are
(24:48):
a couple of areas that stick out for me where
I'm going ahead and I'm gonna predict the Broncos win
because on third down the Bucks were two for ten
and here's the bigger thing.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
They gave up five.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And knowing or watching Jonah Ellis come on the way
that he's been able to do, that might prove an
opportunity for the young kid to go out there and
be successful. So this could be another week for a
defensive a matchup. But when you break down the two
teams and the way they are at this point, I
believe you have to go further than.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Talking about the quarterback situation.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And yes, I listened to Dave talked to coach Payton
about slowing down or breaking down that game plan. But
we heard the same thing last year when Russell was here.
So do you think that after losing two games and
not wanting to lose a third game that this coaching
staff will.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Be able to do that.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
I do think they will certainly make an attempt to
do that. You know, coach Peyton wants to win football
games as bad as anybody you know, as bad as
any of the most hardcore Broncos fan out there, and
I think he wants to take some pressure off of
his young quarterback. Man. This is his guy, this is
(26:07):
his baby, and he's going to do everything he can
to make this guy succeed in the National Football League
and try to make him a good football player. So
I do think they will try to simplify things a
bit for him, however they choose to do that. I
also think you may see some different maybe personnel use
(26:29):
than what we've seen in the first two games. You know,
maybe some guys that haven't been cutting it will get
less snaps, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Defense.
I think they're solid on defense. I think the defense
might actually be pretty good. But on offense, they're looking
for playmakers, and the only one that seems like a
(26:49):
playmaker right now is Josh Reynolds. They're not getting anything
from the running back room. They're not getting anything from
the tight ends Courtland Sutton's been pretty They need some playmakers,
so I think you might see a little shuffling of
the deck and who gets more snaps this week than
we've seen in the past two weeks.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Well, and you'll be there to call it. In fact,
you'll be there to day, or at least you can
adjust to the heat and humidity like we often see
when the Broncos play in Florida. Hadn't gone great their
last few trips to uh the state where Nick was born, right,
and then they're from but where Nick was born, so Rick,
hopefully their fortunes change. But we appreciate you joining us
as always, and we'll be listening to you and Dave
and Susie on the call Sunday from Tampa. Thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Yeah, we appreciate you too. Buk and keeps sending me
those Uk texts every every week. K will send me
a very obvious point.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Well, I let him know.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Russell Wilson, Yeah, you tell.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Him, Yeah, this week he'll probably he'll probably touch me. Hey,
don't forget Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Number one overall traffick for the Browns. Yeah, you know, team.
I told him. I told Hi Russell the Broncos quarterback
last year, So yeah, there's a reminder. But yeah, week
I like to contribute. Did you use the Arthur Smith thing?
They probably wasn't really a chance to get it in there.
Uh No, I'm never going to next time they play
against Arthur Smith. All right, you're the best.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Rick.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
That's Rick Lewis joining us on the ka Common Spirit
Health hotline. We know one of two ways. Do you
want to go the way we were planning or do
you want to tell me why I think you can
save that that point about the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Let's we were playing.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, we're gonna get into why the Broncos can can
go in and steal a win if you will. In
Tampa coming up in a little bit. We're gonna go
to Tampa and talk to Bruce arians Son, Jake. But
right now, mel Kiper offered this on get Up and
you and I and anyone else that understands football had
some strong opinions, but here's mel Kuiper with get up
(28:43):
and Jason mccordy tweeted he should have gotten up and
left after mal Kuiper said this, But this was this morning.
Mel Kuiper offering how to make football quote unquote better.
I guess well pick it up from there.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Now that we've sort of set the table for exactly
what your problem is with it, how would you try
and solve it? Well, I grew up with the best
of the National Football ingue sixty seventies into the eighties.
You're talking about deep shots, right, the Gold Route, the
nine Route posts. You're going about Terry Bradshaw and the
Super Bowl hitting John Stalworth.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
You see Leroy Irvin.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Diving right just off his Fingertaire is the receiver. They
laid it out there right, hit the receiver in stride,
sixty five yard touchdown.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It's a beautiful thing to watch.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
That's where I want to see brought back to the
National Football League. Check Down kings, bubble screen sensations, boring football.
Uh uh, game manager, I get it, But I want
to see those deep shots.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
That's what the NFL was built on.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
I grew up with John the Night Is, fran Tarkington,
Ken Stabler, Darryl Lemonica. You know you're talking about quarterbacks,
Joe names. It would just right Brett Fard when he
was doing what he did, Burt Jones with the Baltimore Colts.
You think about those quarterbacks who would throw the ball
down the field. I said, what Bradshaw did was Stalworth
and Swan Roger Stallbach.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
That's what I want to see brought back.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
Say, well, you can't do that right, Well, you have
a five yard rule with the quarterbacks, right, the melt
blunt rule right now with the push thing with hurts.
You gotta be a yard back now, so they'll tell
me you can't have those safeties closer to the line
of scrimmage than they are.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
I was in games where I'm thinking, hey, too high.
They're out now in space too.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
I could even find us that they're playing with nine
guys right one of the other two on the other
two there's so dag gone form back and even they're
part of dan play. I'm telling you, we gotta change
this thing, and we got to have Hey, you can
warn them an a rail they come up. Hey, guys,
you got to get up a little bit right, you're
too far back. Warn no safeties, But you gotta figure
out competition. Gummitty, somebody, Dano, somebody's got to figure out
(30:32):
what that depth is. But it's too far and back
right now, the NFL is being a ruined bodies too
high safety.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
So mel Kiper wants the competition committee to get involved, then,
of course, courtesy ESPN, and get up this morning. Once
the competition gimmy to get involved in an outlaw to
safeties deep, then if I can make whatever rules they want.
But when I saw this, it reminded me of something
I hate about the baseball Pitchclock's been great. It really
(30:59):
has things up and it's been fine. It's made games
go faster, it's made them exciting. But when they eliminated
the shift, it pissed me off. And I remember talking
about Blackett training camp or a spring training about it,
and he agreed, don't tell me where to put my players.
If I want to put all other you know, all
ten guys to the other side of the center, as
long as I'm following the basic rules, that's fine. So
(31:21):
don't tell me where to put my safeties. If I
want to put up all eleven defenders on the line
of scrimmage, that's up to me. I just think mel
Kiper's off the mark here.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Well, that tells me a lot about what mal knows
about the game of football. Because of all the things
that you can eliminate for the game. Cover two is
in one of those things. And if you understood Cover
two really well, he would know that you still can
attack Cover two down the field vertically.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
And that's for verticals. I think everyone who's been watching
football long.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Enough actually knows that there's other ways that you can
manipulate Cover two, and that's running the ball. You force
the middle linebacker to step up and guess what, there's
a void between the hashes that you can throw eight
to ten yards down in the field. So I don't
know what the hell Mail is talking about, and I
don't know what he was sipping on before they even
had that segment, but whatever it is, they need to
hold the intervention because he doesn't know what the hell
(32:10):
he's talking about.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah, I could not agree. I cannot agree more. Mel
Kiper is way off there. Everybody that's played football, or
plays football or watches football with a you know, discerning
eye and understands about her coach the game thinks that
Mails one hundred percent just wrong here. And that's okay,
you're allowed to be wrong. But when you're that guy
who is considered an expert, I understand his expertise is
(32:34):
and is in a pre draft, and he brought up
a bunch of guys from the sixties and seventies, so
it kind of gives you an idea of of how
old he is.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
That's is fine, but this isn't Eric coriel Man.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah, no kidding, Darryl Lamonica is not walking through that door.
So uh but you know, I understand, I understand why
they put him on TV, and he's just wrong here
and everyone is. I think everyone has their different explanations.
Why as simple as running the ball when I talk
about changing strategy, don't tell me where to put my players.
(33:06):
As long as I'm meeting, I've got to have five
guys on the line of scrimmage. You know, I can
only have so many off the line script all that whatever.
I guess technically six online scrimmage. But anyway, that being said,
we will get into this a little bit more. There's
a couple other things we want to talk about, including
before we go to Buff's primetime, maybe some thoughts on
Shador Sanders and college players. We're gonna do all that,
but we're gonna talk to the son of Super Bowl
(33:28):
winning coach Bruce Arians, who took the Bucks to the
Super Bowl a couple of years ago and head out
to Tampa. Talk to Jake arians next. He's Nick Ferguson.
I'm Brandon christal in for Benjamin Albright. We are live
at Sam's Number three in Glendale and you're listening to
Broncos Country Night on KOA eight fifty ninety four one
FM
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
3. Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.