Happy Football Monday, friends. Because I’m a swell guy, I decided to write a quick article about pass coverage relating to tonight’s game between the Broncos and the Falcons. As we saw last week, the Chiefs got lit up, and I’m going to talk about why that happened, and what the Broncos should (and certainly will) do better.
In Week 1, the Chiefs were without their best CB Brandon Flowers, and their best pass rusher Tamba Hali. That puts you at a disadvantage against a team with good passing weapons from the jump, especially a team like Atlanta, whose protection weakness at LT went unexploited. The Chiefs were also seemingly very worried about the Atlanta running game, and they played eight in the box quite a bit.
If you’re dropping the eighth man, you basically have two choices of coverage shells. If you want to play zone, you can use a three-deep shell, and if you want to play a lot of man-to-man, you can used a one-deep shell. The Chiefs chose the latter option a week ago, mostly using a very deep single-high safety, and man-to-man coverage.
via SportsGrid
Continue reading "Even Raiders fans don’t like Raiders fans"
Despite spending much of his NFL career as a backup, Tim Tebow seems to be forever talked about in the mainstream media, and blogs, and social media, and… well, you get the point: he's talked about. A lot. A documentary on Tebow has been released by Screen Media Films. The company's trailer & description below:
An in-depth look at what makes Tim Tebow the popular and polarizing figure today, Tim Tebow: On A Mission chronicles how his hard work and faith have guided him to collegiate success and NFL stardom. From being born on a mission through his astonishing playoff run and trade to New York, the film explores his life through insightful interviews and rare footage few have ever seen.
The Broncos are in Atlanta for their first road contest tonight and a meeting with the Falcons, a very good team whose drafting and team development approaches I've followed for years.
The modern version of their franchise was built first by Rich McKay, who’s still the president and CEO, and developed more recently by GM Thomas Dimitroff, who’s a top young executive. Between them, they’ve put together a team that has an excellent offense and a defense that’s good, but is also vulnerable.
Last week, Atlanta lost Brent Grimes, their top cornerback, for the season with a torn Achilles tendon. They’ve signed former Colts corner Terrence Johnson, but 2009 third-rounder Chris Owens, who's never lived up to the Falcons' expectations, is expected to be their nickel corner tonight.
Let's take a look at the rest of Atlanta's roster to see what the Broncos are up against:
Good Morning, Broncos fans! It was a Sunday of lopsided games for Denver's AFC West brethren.
Dante Rosario, who caught seven passes for zero touchdowns last year for Denver, caught three touchdown passes from Philip Rivers, as the Chargers punished Tennessee 38-10 despite the absence of Antonio Gates and Ryan Mathews. San Diego is now 2-0 and atop the AFC West, although they've gotten there by beating the lowly Raiders and Titans; they will host Atlanta next.
Oakland got the snot kicked out of them in Miami, as Reggie Bush piled on 197 yards from scrimmage and two scores to help Ryan Tannehill to his first NFL win, 35-13. The rookie QB ran for a TD and threw for another.
Kansas City got drubbed by the Bills 35-17, with the Chiefs scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns to primp up the pig. C.J. Spiller performed like Bush did, amassing 170 yards from scrimmage for two touchdowns, but on 18 touches to Reggie's 29.
Enjoy the games, everyone; go Bills, Dolphins, and Titans!
Here are the early inactives; the NFL has pulled a replacement official from today's Saints/Panthers game once they realized the guy is a Saints fan, while an official who worked last week's Seahawks/Cardinals game has worked for Seattle officiating practices.
TJ recently commented that the rest of the AFC West may have watched the Broncos play Pittsburgh and realized they were playing for second place. After watching the Chiefs host the Falcons and the Chargers visit the Raiders, I think he’s being too kind. Right now, the three of them seem to be playing just to figure out who remains in the cellar and who departs.
To say that the Chiefs were bad against the Falcons doesn’t fully do them justice. The second half found them inept, bumbling, undexterous, clumsy, and dreadful: all fitting tributes to the hospitality the Chiefs provided to the Falcons. They did everything but gift them the game ball. Their fans did, however, show a lack of class when they chose to boo their former star tight end Tony Gonzalez, when he scored on a touchdown catch. Class, nothing but class. All third, but lots...
I understand that Kansas City is struggling with injuries, but this went far beyond that. Matt Cassel let the Falcons have it with the old 1-2-3: 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions, and 3 sacks. The Chiefs had 69 plays for 393 yards. They converted 11 of 16 third downs, which sounds great, gained 4.6 yards per attempt in the rushing game for a total of 152 yards, and notched 22 first downs, but still managed to get beaten by a score of 40-24. It wasn’t even that close, by the end of the third quarter.
Good Morning, Broncos fans! Chris Harris and Philip Blake are listed as questionable for tomorrow night's game in Atlanta, while Demaryius Thomas and Manny Ramirez are listed as probable after practicing in full all week.
Atlanta also listed two players as questionable: T Tyson Clabo and LB Sean Witherspoon; WR Roddy White and LB Robert James are probable.
Andrew Mason expects the injury to Ty Warren will result in Sealver Siliga playing for as much as 10 or 20 snaps, and he thinks the absence of Falcons CB Brent Grimes will prompt Peyton Manning to target new Atlanta nickel corner Christopher Owens.
Kevin Vickerson will start in Warren's old spot after packing on 45 pounds during the offseason, with help from a personal chef.
With five minutes to go in the opening quarter of Denver's season-opening win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, Von Miller demonstrated that he's well on his way to reaching his goal of improving his run defense this season.
Miller increased the strength of his upper body this year, and it showed during the preseason. Against one of the better rushing teams in the AFC, it was made clear again.
Pittsburgh was in 12 personnel, with the two tight ends forming the closed side on the quarterback’s left: Heath Miller (83) is on the outside, a step back, and Leonard Pope (45) is inline, just inside of him. The Broncos have four down linemen, and Von Miller has moved to the closed side, across from his namesake Heath. Antonio Brown motions from the closed side to a stacked position behind Mike Wallace (17).
Continue reading "A Second Helping of Von Miller vs Pittsburgh"
Jay Cutler's attitude criticized by ex-Chicago Bear
www.nfl.com
Ogunleye said Cutler would get his “butt beat” if he wasn’t the star quarterback of the Bears.
“The problem with Jay is we’re not sure about his emotions,” Ogunleye said. “The only thing we see is when he is really angry. Even when he does a really good job he doesn’t show a sense of happiness.
“There is no good to Jay, there is no smiling. All we see is when he is pissed off, when he is angry and that reflects in the way people might view him in the locker room. But a guy like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, genuinely they are nice people and they overextend themselves. Tom Brady can be the biggest diva in the world—he has that right, he has won Super Bowls—but he is not that guy. I think that is why he is even more likeable.”
We don't mean to beat a dead cat, but he probably has another eight lives, anyway.
