at your own risk. The defense has had all the talent it needs and now it finally has the scheme to match." />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhiteMile High Reporta Denver Broncos communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpFanpostsFanshotsSectionsBroncosOddsShopAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Broncos NewsBroncos 2019 Draft ClassBroncos PodcastsBroncos 2019 ScheduleKey Offseason DatesCommunity RulesFull ArchiveBroncos StoriesScheduleRosterStatsOdds Shop About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub ✕Filed under:Denver Broncos NewsTeams will have to fight for every inch against the Broncos defenseNew Dennis Smith Jersey ,79commentsLook past the 2019 Denver Broncos at your own risk. The defense has had all the talent it needs and now it finally has the scheme to match. Teams will have to fight for every inch against the Broncos defenseWhat better way to kick off the month of June than with a little optimism. The Denver Broncos finished their OTA program last week and will head into their mandatory minicamp this week. After that, we’ll have a long six weeks of nothing until they start training camp on July 17, 2019. OTA’s have been our first real look at the 2019 Broncos with their new head coach, their new quarterback, their new free agents and draft picks, all together for the first time. However, the voices that really matter right now are the ones we’ve all known and covered for the last half decade. Guys like Von Miller, Derek Wolfe, and Chris Harris Jr. All three made it clear that head coach Vic Fangio and his staff know how to get a defense ready to compete.The first day Harris returned to the team after a short contract dispute, he mentioned how Von Miller had already told him how he was going to enjoy the changes Fangio was making on defense. They were changes Harris had wanted all last season.“He was really explaining to me about the defensive scheme and everything that we’re doing,” Harris said of his conversations with Von. “How this is everything that I’ve been kind of crying about doing. I like it. I love it so far. I think it’s going to fit us well.”A day later, both inside linebacker Todd Davis and Wolfe added their praise to what Fangio is doing. Davis, especially, is relishing his role in the middle of this new scheme.“I like it a lot,” Davis said of Fangio’s defense. “I feel like it’s a great defense for linebackers. It allows them to roam a little bit, allows them to make every tackle on the field. I really get to play sideline to sideline, so I’m really excited about the defense. Not only that, I feel like the things we do on defense are going to be hard for the offense to try and figure out or really get a key on what we do. We change up a lot, so we have a lot to throw at people.”Meanwhile, Wolfe is feeling more nostalgia for this defense. He noted he was falling in love with this scheme saying it was the first time he’s felt that way since he was first introduced to Wade Phillips’ defense. It was his detailed comments on how the defense will enable him to create more plays for the defense’s playmakers.“It’s just, alignment-wise it’s like it’s like it’s old school defense where you line up and you beat the guy in front of you,” Wolfe said. “We’re going to be moving. You beat him, beat him, beat him, and then next thing you know we’re slanting somewhere and moving around and misdirecting.”Wolfe’s chemistry with Miller is one of the most underrated characteristics of this unit since the two began playing together in 2012. He dug into how that chemistry fits perfectly with the changes Fangio has brought with him this season.As far as the pass-rush game goes, we have some really fun pass-rush games that are just different,” Wolfe explained. “Things that aren’t just me setting things up for everybody else. It’s actually a little bit of the opposite. I can actually get to get back there and make some plays and vise versa. Taking guys like me and Von [Miller]—how many guys in the league have been working for eight years Terrell Davis Jersey , working right beside each other for eight years? The kind of chemistry that him and I have, they could just mix and match so many different things because a lot of the times we just use hand signals and just looks. He looks at me a certain way and I know he’s like, Hey, go. I’m like, Alright, I’m going to hit this B-gap. There’s no way for an offensive lineman to be preparing for that. Then when we have all this other extra stuff that we have its going to really switch things up.”That is something coaches can’t really coach into units. Chemistry is built more between the players than anything and the way Von and Wolfe work together is an incredible asset for the defensive line. Fangio’s biggest contribution so far could be how attentive he is to the details and how everyone - players and coaches - are being held to that standard.“He knows everybody’s job no matter what the play is and what the route is or a route concept,” Davis said. “He knows what you’re supposed to be doing. The thing I love about him is in meetings he’s not afraid to call anybody out no matter who you are—Pro Bowl or not, All-Pro, it doesn’t matter. If you’re not doing something or not doing your job, he’ll call you out in front of everybody, and I love it. I think everybody is held to a higher accountability level and keeps us all where we need to be.”The accountability part goes beyond just the practice field. Nose tackle Shelby Harris noted on Friday that one of the biggest changes in defensive meetings is that the whole unit meets first and goes over every detail. There is no finger pointing or confusion. The entire unit sees the big picture before breaking out into individual position group meetings.“This year we’re doing things a little differently,” Shelby Harris said. “We’re meeting as a defense at first and then going over the plays. It kind of keeps everyone on the same page because, Alright, I thought someone else was supposed to have this hole. Then Vic can be like, no, this is actually your hole. You’re supposed to be here, you’re supposed to be here. It works out because then there is no finger pointing. ‘This is your fault.’ ‘This is your fault.’ No, everyone is on the same page and everyone is working to the same common goal. It really just helps us stay accountable to each other the way this is all going on. Last year, I felt like accountability was a word that was thrown out a lot and a lot of people felt like a lot of people weren’t being held accountable. This year, there is none of that. I feel like this is going to be really good for our defense to be in those meetings, meet together and work together.”The way Harris explained it summed everything up nicely. It’s about accountability, but also responsibility. Players are not being blamed, they are expected to go back out there and improve. It took Fangio four years to build the Chicago Bears defense into a contender, but he started with one of the worst defenses in the NFL. In Denver, he is starting with a defense that has been coached into poor positions. The talent is still largely there and the difference between a middling rank and a top five rank could just be how well the unit is coached in 2019.So far, it is looking like they’ll be coached well and teams expecting to come in a roll the Broncos defense like its 2018 are going to find themselves having to fight for every inch of ground instead.What’s not to like about that?Broncos Have One Chance Against The Chiefs: Unleash the Offense Allow me to get one thing out of the way right now: I love the Denver Broncos. I wish upon wish and hope upon hope that they beat the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football. But here’s the thing, I also live in the real world and tend to analyze things and go with what my brain tells me instead of what my heart tells me*. It’s with this trait of mine that I just have to get something off my chest that I’m continuously hearing about this game Steve Atwater Jersey , and that’s the notion that the Broncos have to limit how many drives the Chiefs have on Monday by grinding out the game and winning the time of possession.Sounds simple enough, and I’m sure to the layman or former player in the 90’s who struggles to keep up with the ways of the NFL these days, it is a recipe for success. After all, if you hypothetically have the Broncos keeping the ball for 45 minutes and the Chiefs keeping the ball for only 15 minutes, surely the Broncos will win, right? Wrong! Time of possession in this game will mean absolutely nothing! In order to beat the Chiefs, you have to beat them at their own game, and that game is called “Scoring lots of points!” I had already given my two cents about the “keys to the game” in which I semi-seriously and semi-jokingly said that we need to activate every LB and DL/DE we have cause we need to hit Mahomes on literally every play, and because QBs aren’t allowed to be hit, we’ll probably get a lot of ejections. I was serious about the hit him and bring the funk. I was semi-joking about the ejections, even though I’m sure it’ll happen.But what’s the REAL keys to this game? Its beating the Chiefs at their own game. Period!The Broncos are going to need to win a shootout. Nobody has been able to slow the Chiefs down on offense, and they routinely score so quickly and efficiently that the opposing team is forced to scrap any notion of a “normal” gameplan and just try to keep up. Well, when you are forced to scrap your gameplan, bad things usually happen. So instead of a “traditional/normal” gameplan, how about we gameplan to be explosive? Why is an explosive gameplan reserved for KC and Los Angeles Rams? The Broncos aren’t exactly void of talent on the offensive side of the ball.We have Emmanuel Sanders, Phillip Lindsay, Royce Freeman, Case Keenum, Demaryius Thomas, Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick, Jeff Heuerman, and Matt LaCosse. Hell, we even have Chad Kelly if Keenum finds himself limping around and unable to get any velocity behind his throws.My point is that our cupboard isn’t exactly bare, so why would we hold them back? If you have no faith in Keenum, then why start him? If you have no faith in DT, then why play him? If you think our offense needs to play within itself and be safe and vanilla simply to prevent turnovers Brian Dawkins Jersey , then do you have any faith in our defense to even the score? I harken back to a game just 9 years ago. Remember it? The Miami Dolphins vs Indianapolis Colts? What was the Dolphins gameplan that day? Oh, that’s right, it was the same gameplan that EVERYBODY is saying the Broncos should have against the Chiefs: Grind out the clock and limit possessions.Flashback to 2009 and you’ll see that the Dolphins stuck to their gameplan, and boy oh boy I’ve never seen a gameplan executed as beautifully as the Dolphins did that night. They straight DOMINATED the time of possession as they held the ball for 3鈦? of the game. By the time the clock struck zero, The Dolphins kept the ball for 45:07 and the Colts for 14:53.Not only that, but the Dolphins dominated in first downs 27 to 14. They also had more yards, 403 to 356.Holy cow, what a victory the Dolphins surely came away with, right? WRONG! The Colts actually won! The Dolphins did EVERYTHING the “talking heads” today are saying the Broncos should do. They dominated the time of possession, they dominated running the ball. They dominated getting first downs to extend drives. Hell, they more than DOUBLED the amount of plays they ran. The Dolphins ran 84 plays to the 35 of Indianapolis. They dominated in every phase of the game minus one: Points. They simply couldn’t put up enough points.That day the Dolphins had 239 rushing yards to just 61 by the Colts.But Peyton Manning threw for 303 yards with an average per attempt of 13.2 yards. Chad Pennington threw for 183 yards with an average per attempt of 5.5 yards.What does that tell you? It tells me that the Colts made the very best of their limited possessions. They scored with chunk plays. They scored with explosive plays. It didn’t matter that they only had 35 snaps the entire game, they scored almost 1 point per snap. That’s efficiency, and that’s what the Chiefs will do to the Broncos if they try this nonsensical gameplan.The Chiefs thrive on big plays. They make 40 yard touchdowns look routine. They make shredding cornerbacks and linebackers look ho-hum. Look, love him or hate him (if you hate him, its because you’re jealous we don’t have him), but Patrick Mahomes is legit. At least for now, with only playing 4 career games, he’s legit. Will he ever crash down to earth? I really don’t know. Did Aaron Rodgers ever crash back down? I’m not here to anoint Mahomes a Hall of Famer, but I am here to give credit where it’s due, and he deserves a lot of it. So the real key to this game isn’t limiting time of possession. That won’t work as we’ve seen our offense struggle to put up points with traditional gameplans. What we need to do is take the handcuffs off of Keenum and let him air it out. If he throws for 4-5 touchdowns and has 2 interceptions, who cares? That’s better than throwing for 0-1 touchdown and 1 interception. The thing is that if we’re gonna go down, lets go down swinging! Lets not play passive and scared. Lets not stand back and try to see how many punches we can absorb before their arms get tired of hitting us. How about we go out there and try to throttle them? Lets try to take advantage of their piss poor defense by lighting it up? Lets have them play from behind for a damn change! Lets see if their phenom QB can play from behind when the pressure is the highest! But this passive nonsense about playing scared and limiting possessions? Yeah, that’s not my style and that’s not Emmanuel Sanders’ style. That’s not Von Miller’s style. That’s not Chris Harris Jr’s style. Lets punch them in the mouth instead. Our offense has the potential to be a high powered unit. Lets use this week as the testing ground to see exactly how high and how fast we can go! What better opponent to try it out on than the team with a bad defense and record setting offense? The time is now! So go out there and do it! As my girl Adrian said to Rocky from the hospital bed... “Win.... WIN!!!”Well what are we waiting for?!?!*indicates for most things. Sometimes my heart just leads the way blindly and I end up waiting forever if needed to make my heart happy.