The Jags first opponent – Playing Offense against the Denver Broncos
By Terry OBrien
When Denver is playing their best defense, they are in your backfield a lot. They play a 3-4 defense and use the linebackers to disrupt the play before it starts. Denver had 21 sacks in the first 6 games of 2009 with 9 of those sacks in the second half when they were holding on to win. They also had a number of run plays stuffed for negative yards as well. All of the linebackers played very well. Denver is an aggressive, gambling, in your face, defense.
The secondary is comprised of
- LCB Champ Baily
- RCB Andre Goodman
- S Renaldo Hill
- S Brian Dawkins
How good are they? When you look at passes defended, Andre Goodman was 11th with 22 PD and 5 interceptions. Champ Baily was 22nd with 18 passes defended and 3 interceptions. The best Jaguar? Derek Cox at 35th with 15 passes defended. Brian Dawkins had 95 solo tackles and 13 passes defended.
They are a good strong group in the defensive secondary, but are all over 31 years old. They play smarter than they do fast these days, but they are a group you have to respect. When playing well they keep the play in front of them and minimize yards after catch. They are ball hawks and never let a receiver get too open.
When Denver is playing well, the pressure to throw is great and first downs through the air are hard to come by.
If Denver played this way all of the time, they would be Super Bowl champions. But the 3-4 defensive alignment breaks down badly for them sometimes. Let’s look at the losses.