Did the San Diego game demonstrate a change in Nolans MO?

[lex]

Anyone remember the responses to Cincy's go ahead drive where blitzing was concerned? A lot of people were lamenting being so conservative after the blitzes were so effective from the 2nd qtr up until Cincy's game winning drive.

Now fast forward 5 weeks and Denver goes up 11 points. As San Diego's gets past midfield, suddenly Denver unleashes a sequence of blitzes that totally overwhelmed San Diego's offense to effectively slam the door shut on San Diego's hopes of winning.

So, what changed? Was it being up 2 scores that made Nolan feel safer about blitzing? Was it mismatches scheming they devised against SD? Or was it a preoccupation with not being predictable (anticipating SD would be playing against our tendencies) that led to blitzing? Regardless it was very impressive. It also seemed to highlight the fact that our defense has and continues to improve.

[atomicbloke]

I noticed this too. There was no prevent defense on Sd's last drive. They were continuing to go after Rivers. I thin it demonstrates a certain confidence among the coaches.

[WolfpackGuy]

After San Diego notched a couple first downs on their last drive with the Broncos in a prevent look, Nolan brought the heat, and the Chuggers couldn't handle it.

It was funny to see Phyllis running for her life.

[Eldorado]

We were never in anything that resembled a prevent. It was the same until the TD, then the leash came off.

[Crushisback]

I think it was just more of an overall gameplan. SD runs so many routes that are double and triple moves. These are very hard to cover but take along time to complete. This is one reason you typically see so many big plays from SD's offense. I think he just prefered to get to the QB as oppposed to giving them the time to run these exotice routes.
They probably noticed this with the Pittsburg game. SD didn't do anything until they stopped blitzing Rivers. Hopefully we showed the league a good blueprint for beating the Chargers, esp. in the 4th quarter where they are typically so good.

[socnorb777]

It wasn't working in the first half, as they were Blitzing on weird downs like 3rd and 9, and getting burned by the obnoxious Rivers, but in the 4th quarter when the Chargers were forced into having to score twice with hardly any time left, it worked like a charm.

I think Mike Nolan is the best thing to happen to this defense in a decade.

[dbfan21]

Lex, I think you hit ona good point in your final comment. I believe our defense playing alongside each other, week after week, has made big improvements along the way.

More time together = better team defense. Just my .02

[cutthemdown]

Broncos been sending blitzers on 2nd down a lot. Sort of a stop the run, or just go on to QB if its a pass sort of thing.

It looks to me if the Broncos feel the RBS not blocking well they send people up the middle. If they feel Doom has mismatch they sort of overload the other side forcing the team to leave doom 1 on 1.

Seems like Fields, Peterson, Mcbean are not being asked to Rush passer. They are buying into there roles off setting the edge, and taking up blockers.

Just a well coached defense so far. I love how Broncos seem to be fluid and all know what they are going do. I don't see guys confused. IMO Nolan keeping it simple by telling a guy exactly what to do and not giving him 3-4 things to think about.

[Bronx33]

The delayed blitzes were sweet! the chuggers were helpless after nolan threw that at them.

[gyldenlove]

I think Nolan saw that the inside blitz was working well against Rivers and it is a lot easier to take one guy out than covering 4 or 5 players at the same time.

I am not sure why he went prevent against the Bengals, but that is the only time this season we have really seen him do that for an entire drive. He started the last San Diego drive with 3 prevent type zone plays and then let lose with some serious pressure.

My feeling is that he didn't trust our secondary as much against Cincy as he does now, that is why he is blitzing more aggressively because he knows we can shut down most things long enough for a massive blitz to get some pressure.

[PRBronco]

Originally Posted by Bronx33

The delayed blitzes were sweet! the chuggers were helpless after nolan threw that at them.

It's the perfect use for DJ! Finally we get to see them take advantage of his superior athleticism.

[Peoples Champ]

Originally Posted by atomicbloke

I noticed this too. There was no prevent defense on Sd's last drive. They were continuing to go after Rivers. I thin it demonstrates a certain confidence among the coaches.

Ya, maybe the coaches have more confidence in the DB's now then week 1.

[baja]

I think you are right with your first suggestion. It was being up by two scores with around 3 minutes to play and a trust that the O could move the chains enough to run out the clock if SD managed to score on that drive.

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by lex

Anyone remember the responses to Cincy's go ahead drive where blitzing was concerned? A lot of people were lamenting being so conservative after the blitzes were so effective from the 2nd qtr up until Cincy's game winning drive.

Now fast forward 5 weeks and Denver goes up 11 points. As San Diego's gets past midfield, suddenly Denver unleashes a sequence of blitzes that totally overwhelmed San Diego's offense to effectively slam the door shut on San Diego's hopes of winning.

So, what changed? Was it being up 2 scores that made Nolan feel safer about blitzing? Was it mismatches scheming they devised against SD? Or was it a preoccupation with not being predictable (anticipating SD would be playing against our tendencies) that led to blitzing? Regardless it was very impressive. It also seemed to highlight the fact that our defense has and continues to improve.

It was a calculated gamble on Nolan to go blitz happy on SD. SD had been killing the Broncos with their screens but the Broncos seemed to adjust to this by the 4th quarter. Still SD could have gouged the Broncos defense in the 4th if they would have stuck with the screens. However, Norv kinda got away from the screens...

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by Bronx33

The delayed blitzes were sweet! the chuggers were helpless after nolan threw that at them.

This was huge. Perhaps Nolan went to a delayed blitz because the screens were working so well in the first half.

Once the LBer knows it's not some kind of funky screen, he unloads or Rivers.

[cmhargrove]

Originally Posted by lex

Anyone remember the responses to Cincy's go ahead drive where blitzing was concerned? A lot of people were lamenting being so conservative after the blitzes were so effective from the 2nd qtr up until Cincy's game winning drive.

Now fast forward 5 weeks and Denver goes up 11 points. As San Diego's gets past midfield, suddenly Denver unleashes a sequence of blitzes that totally overwhelmed San Diego's offense to effectively slam the door shut on San Diego's hopes of winning.

So, what changed? Was it being up 2 scores that made Nolan feel safer about blitzing? Was it mismatches scheming they devised against SD? Or was it a preoccupation with not being predictable (anticipating SD would be playing against our tendencies) that led to blitzing? Regardless it was very impressive. It also seemed to highlight the fact that our defense has and continues to improve.

Maybe Nolan just thinks Rivers is a douchebag and wanted to tool him?

[NYBronco]

Originally Posted by WolfpackGuy

After San Diego notched a couple first downs on their last drive with the Broncos in a prevent look, Nolan brought the heat, and the Chuggers couldn't handle it.

It was funny to see Phyllis running for her life.

[NYBronco]

Originally Posted by Peoples Champ

Ya, maybe the coaches have more confidence in the DB's now then week 1.

And confidence in the Offense to answer a SD score.

[oldustyballs]

Originally Posted by cmhargrove

maybe nolan just thinks rivers is a douchebag and wanted to tool him?

+1

[boltaneer]

Until the o-line can show that they can stop the pressure up the middle and until Norv decides to stop calling those 7-step-drop, slow developing plays, all teams should be blitzing the hell out of the Chargers.

[jhns]

Originally Posted by boltaneer

Until the o-line can show that they can stop the pressure up the middle and until Norv decides to stop calling those 7-step-drop, slow developing plays, all teams should be blitzing the hell out of the Chargers.

Norv is the best thing to ever happen to the chargers. He took any chance at a SB they had and is now closing the window.

It did look like we blitzed more than normal. I love the game plans. Nolan has to be the best ever at making in-game adjustments also. That alone makes us a serious threat in the playoffs. I really hope we don't lose him in the next few years.

[Ambiguous]

Originally Posted by cmhargrove

Maybe Nolan just thinks Rivers is a douchebag and wanted to tool him?

I can't speak for Nolan, but I buy in to this line of thinking.

[lex]

Originally Posted by boltaneer

Until the o-line can show that they can stop the pressure up the middle and until Norv decides to stop calling those 7-step-drop, slow developing plays, all teams should be blitzing the hell out of the Chargers.

I could be wrong on this but I think it has more to do with stopping stuff up the middle. I think there was maybe a little more to it than that. I think that Dumervil getting to Rivers earlier, perhaps led Nolan to anticipate sending help at Doom. If SD sends help toward Doom, where does that leave an opportunity to put pressure? Up the middle.

[UberBroncoMan]

Originally Posted by atomicbloke

I noticed this too. There was no prevent defense on Sd's last drive. They were continuing to go after Rivers. I thin it demonstrates a certain confidence among the coaches.

Actually we did have a preventish defense on the Chargers final drive until Rivers drove it past our 50 after hitting a few easy passes in an extremely comfortable pocket.

Once he did that we started blitzing every down and boom, won the game.

[baja]

Originally Posted by UberBroncoMan

Actually we did have a preventish defense on the Chargers final drive until Rivers drove it past our 50 after hitting a few easy passes in an extremely comfortable pocket.

Once he did that we started blitzing every down and boom, won the game.

I think the beginning of the all out blitzes were initiated by the amount of time left. When it was determined there was likely not enough time left for SD to make 2 scores (behind by 11) than we brought the house willing to risk giving up the one score trusting our O to run out the clock. Good plan.