With the addition of Wes Welker and the emergence of third-year tight end Julius Thomas, Peyton Manning will have a potent group of receivers at his disposal this season. (Steve Nehf, The Denver Post)
I liked the idea of Peyton Manning operating a fast-break offense this season.
I liked the idea better before learning Von Miller would be suspended from the first six games.
Now I'm wondering if the Broncos shouldn't consider the four-corners offense.
Show me a great defense and I'll show you a bunch of defensive guys standing on the sideline watching the offense chew up the clock.
Miller has been the Broncos' most striking defensive player through his first two NFL seasons. Thirty sacks in 31 games. He will have zero sacks through six games this season.
If the Broncos' offense is in such a "Hurry! Hurry!" - as the networks often pick up Manning yelling before the snap - their defense will become a little too "Busy! Busy!" Right?
Not necessarily, said Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase. A new age-type coordinator, Gase didn't reach such a lofty coaching position at 34 years old without studying. He is convinced the Broncos not only can push the tempo and snap a higher number of plays this year, but maintain an advantage in time of possession.
"Our offseason research showed us that a lot of the teams that do play high tempo, it's a lot of plays within the drive because a lot of the (defensive backs) start falling off a little bit," Gase said. "They don't want to get beat deep, so you take a lot of things underneath."
When it comes to clocks, dunk and dink is to digital what 3 yards and a cloud of dust is to analog. Time moves just the same. In the Broncos' third preseason game, against the St. Louis Rams, Manning threw 34 passes (completing 25). In the first half. Over a full game, Manning was on pace for 50-of-68 passing. That projects over a full season to 800-of-1,088 passing. That would shatter the NFL season record by more than a third.
OK, I'll stop now. But along with all of those passes and 49 plays overall, the Broncos also held the ball 19 minutes, 38 seconds of the 30-minute half.
"We'd like to balance that out, but when they were kind of giving us all that short stuff it almost felt like we were running the ball," Gase said. "We were taking 5-, 7-yard completions, which you'll take as long as we're moving the chains and we're getting first downs."
