Greg Cosell’s Look Ahead: The Denver Broncos’ dominant defense

It’s tough to figure out how to beat the Denver Broncos defense.

Start with the fact that they have three excellent corners who can all play man-to-man coverage. When you begin with that, it gives you so many options as a defensive coordinator. Then add in the fact that Denver has two high-level pass rushers on each side, Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware.

Once you think about that foundation, you can easily understand how difficult it is to play against them.

In Week 1 against the Baltimore Ravens we saw how devastating the combination of coverage and pressure can be. The Broncos ran a combination stunt/blitz at Joe Flacco. Aqib Talib is maybe the best cornerback in the league at playing to pressure and reading and anticipating the quarterback. He ran this route for Steve Smith.

So what do you do to slow down Denver’s pass rush? You keep extra guys in to block. That affects everything else you’re trying to do though, and for the Detroit Lions last week it caused one of their biggest mistakes of the game – although you’d need to pay close attention to see how the Broncos’ defense was able to make the play.

In the fourth quarter the Broncos were in dime defense playing “Cover 3” zone with safety David Bruton essentially playing middle linebacker. The key to the entire play was that the Lions needed running back Ameer Abdullah to chip block Ware. Abdullah couldn’t release immediately, which would have controlled Bruton. Bruton dropped and read Stafford, who thought he could beat him with a skinny post to Calvin Johnson.

Instead of Bruton being occupied by Abdullah, the Lions had Abdullah chip block because of the fear of Denver’s pass rush, and that freed up Bruton to make a huge interception.

Also, this is the difference between dime and nickel defense. A linebacker doesn’t make the play that Bruton, a safety, did. Although the Broncos were in zone on this play, they play a lot of man coverage because of their personnel. Bruton has become one of the best dime linebacker/safeties in the NFL. Chris Harris is tremendous and can play the slot in nickel or dime. Safety T.J. Ward plays very well in the box so he can support against the run. Bradley Roby is a really good outside cornerback.

Against the Lions, the Broncos mostly matched up the bigger Talib on Calvin Johnson, the quick Harris on Golden Tate and had Roby on Lance Moore. The Lions couldn’t exploit any of those one-on-one matchups. The Lions had just 290 yards of offense. This week, the Minnesota Vikings are going to have to find a matchup in the passing game they can win, and it won’t be easy to do.

Moving Watt

We’ve talked about how great Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt is as an all-around player, and one facet of that is his alignment versatility. In the second quarter last week, there was a stretch of five plays in which Watt lined up at five different spots.

The Texans are moving around Watt and last year’s first pick Jadeveon Clowney. Clowney will sometimes line up as a defensive tackle next to Watt in nickel packages. They’ll also show some 4-3 looks with Watt at defensive tackle next to Vince Wilfork and Clowney at defensive end. There were significant snaps in which Watt and Clowney were aligned to the same side. The Texans won’t be predictable, and that’s due in part to Watt’s ability to line up anywhere.

Bradford issues

Going into a game against the Washington Redskins on Sunday, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford is still struggling with some things. Even though Philadelphia won last week, Bradford still isn’t seeing things clearly. That was evident on the second play of last week’s game when he threw right into the teeth of man free lurk coverage (the interception was dropped and there was a penalty on the play, but you can see that there’s no way Bradford should have thrown this).

Bradford is aiming the ball, he’s not throwing it comfortably. The Eagles have no intermediate to vertical passing game, which is a function of many factors throughout their offense. And Bradford missed far too many throws last week with very poor ball placement. He’s throwing it as badly as I’ve seen him throw it in the NFL.

Panthers’ creativity

I liked this play from the Carolina Panthers, their first play against the New Orleans Saints last week. It looked like a staple zone-read option, but they added a wrinkle: Corey Brown got the ball on a reverse.

Because Brown had a minus split close to the formation, it was much more quick-hitting than a normal reverse. Also, tight end Greg Olsen had an arc release to lead Brown as a blocker. Brown gained 12 yards. This was a great play to start the game, with its misdirection and deception elements.

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NFL analyst and NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell watches as much NFL game film as anyone. Throughout the season, Cosell will join Shutdown Corner to share his observations on the teams, schemes and personnel from around the league.