McDaniels on What Makes the Denver Broncos' Defense So Effective
The Denver Broncos' 3-6 record may not reflect a very good football team, but the club has found much success on the defensive side of the ball.
The Broncos lead the league in scoring defense and passing defense, allowing only 16.6 points per game and 174.4 passing yards per game.
This defense could present quite the challenge for the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 11's game.
"They don't give up a lot of easy plays," Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels said in his Friday press conference. "You don't put on the tape and say: ‘There's a great opportunity to crease them on this, that or the other.’ They've done a really good job of limiting those, so they force you to drive the ball. They're really good on third down and they create negative plays. So when they create a negative play, and on third-and-7 plus, I want to say that they're giving up 11 percent conversions on third-and-7 plus, which is a tiny number. So obviously, there's a tug of war there. We have to do a good job, or try to do a good job, of avoiding negative situations so we can stay in second-and-shorter or third-and-shorter and try to keep moving the ball down the field. And they do a tremendous job of not allowing that.
"And so there's just nothing easy. Their scheme has enough variety to it that they can get you with that. They change it up a little bit. He's done a really nice job as a coordinator. He's done a really nice job of changing it up from week to week a little bit, but also giving his guys an opportunity to really play fast and aggressive. And they've lost some guys up front who are good players. I give George [Paton] a lot of credit. They had some really good depth behind those players that they've accumulated over time and in the draft. Shelby [Harris] being out and [Randy] Gregory being out, and then the guys on the edge, [Baron] Browning and [Nik] Bonitto, I mean, those guys have still been able to make plays and be disruptive. I've got a lot of respect for what they've done in terms of building the roster defensively. They've got a lot of good players, and their depth has really stood out to me as you watch them throughout the course of the season because they've had to do without a number of guys."
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