The Press Room
November 10th, 2009 | by bpdouglass |There are times when I wish I could serve as a beat reporter. To be honest, there aren’t nearly as many wins that bring these emotions… but a loss like the game I just watched…
(I would insert video here but the league isn’t too eager to give folks like us that spot so soon after the game, and Deadspin hasn’t posted a mouse-vs.-frog reenactment.)
… I am left wanting to ask the following questions.
Hey Josh, what was the thought behind a gameplan that included no semblance of variety on offense?
The Broncos asked Kyle Orton to turn around and hand the ball to the running backs a grand total of 14 times in this game. Knowshon got five of those and turned in a stellar 0.6 yards-per carry average, totaling three yards.
Three.
Buckhalter earned three times as many carries as Knowshon had yards and averaged a woeful 2.7 for 24 rushing yards.
Here is the thing Josh… while the heads on TV are ranting and raving about Orton (I checked in to all of the local stations… the big head on channel 9 was especially ripe with fire and brimstone), I’m going to focus on you. That’s been our approach throughout, and in doing so I want to ask why you felt it was a good idea, based on all we have seen both in the recent and not-so-recent past, to put this game on the arm of Kyle Orton.
There isn’t an announcer covering this team that hasn’t mentioned the lack of attempt to make plays down the field. Jon Gruden wouldn’t shut the hell up about it. Ron Jaworski wasn’t as consistent with it as much as he was focused on Kyle’s lack of accuracy when he did go over 10 yards. Clearly you do not trust him to go deep, and for good reason.
These are known and accepted attributes Josh. You said it yourself… you watched each and every game this guy started for the Bears and you were convinced he could run your offense (your words, not ours). We noted those plans clearly included no hopes or aspirations of going down the field here at the Stable during the preseason. We questioned if this day would come and now that it is here, you seem reluctant to adjust.
You drafted the kid for a reason. You signed Bucky for a reason. You retained Peyton for a reason. Why not use them?
I would also ask this.
Hey Josh, where would you rate the morale of the defense right now?
Let’s be fair to them. In both losses, last week against Baltimore and tonight against Pittsburgh, the defense was abused but was entirely faithful to the cause. They held these games close, despite the unbelievable gifts your offense and special teams were giving, and the scoreboard wasn’t getting lit until they were worn and tired.
You can’t fill your defensive backfield with guys standing at 30-years of age and older and toss the time of possession battle in such horrific fashion.
Josh… can we agree that Mitch Berger sucks? It seems fair to say, at this juncture, he isn’t the answer and he may be making things worse. When Orton wasn’t throwing interceptions or getting hassled, Berger was giving them undue field position regardless. The defense spent more time in danger due to those circumstances than was necessary and yet victory was still well within reach coming out of the third quarter.
And they stayed out there because the offense had abandoned the run and turned the wheel over to the one guy proven to put it all in danger throughout his career.
These guys played their hearts out and they deserve better… at least the backfielders.
(Let’s be honest… tonight we got what we expected from the defensive line and they may even have outperformed the numbers. Yes, Rashard Mendenhall put up big yards but he was stifled for much of the first half. He got hot when the defense got tired and was deep in their own turnover-induced troubles… so his surge was just as easy to anticipate as the late connection between Roethlisberger and Ward.)
Last but not least, I’d ask this.
What do you say to Kyle in film review tomorrow?
It would be better to ask this off the record for my own personal enjoyment, ’cause I want to believe that Josh is the kind of guy that would be honest to a fault.
(I know… Josh doesn’t come from a background that suggests honesty was a valued quality, but I think he’s a regular guy when you get him away from the mic.)
The coach-speak answer will be reassuring to fans as well as to Kyle. He’d admit there would be mistakes discussed, that this discussion would obviously be long, and that they would work together to move the team forward and to learn from those mistakes.
That’s what Josh would say at the podium.
At the bar stool I think Josh would say this.
“I know Kyle can’t go deep. I’m fully aware of this, and it’s an accepted fault. But it’s going to be ok.
And the reason it will be ok? It will be ok because of your second question. We just faced to two of the best defenses in the league and suffered our blows, and our defense is so damn good we made it much more interesting than it maybe could have been.
This is not a surprise, and we won’t face another defense this good the rest of the way. The only team left on the plate with linebackers THIS good might be the New York football Giants, and if you don’t have those linebackers then you can’t be this painful to Kyle Orton or my gameplan… so recognize.”
So no… I don’t think it’s time to freak out. I don’t think it’s time for Chris Simms (I’d rather see Brandstater anyway). I don’t think it’s the end of the world. It’s loss #2 and there may be more, but this team is still way ahead of schedule and I still have faith in the man.
I just wish he would run the ball more.
