October 3, 2007 12:10 AM

Looking for the delivery of something special

Brad Jackson in Las Vegas leads it off with a double dip that spoke for a huge crowd who weighed in about special teams . . .

Q: Given the consistently poor performance of Denver’s kickoff coverage team every week, why don’t the Broncos sign a kicker who can kick the ball through the back of the end zone? Surely, there is an unemployed kicker somewhere who can do it?

A: Of all the things that happened in the loss to the Colts Sunday, Shanahan was most critical of the team's special teams. It takes quality field position throughout the day to beat the Colts and the Broncos did not get it.

The Colts' first two touchdown drives went less than 65 yards and the Broncos left Indianapolis last in the league in their own average drive start after kickoffs -- the 21.5 yard line.

That kind of exchange will consistently get a team beat. And it hurt the Broncos last season as well when they were last in the AFC in the same statistic. Tuesday they released Hixon, a fourth-round pick in 2006, and re-signed Brian Clark. Clark returned 22 kickoffs last season and is certainly one option for that job now as is backup running back Andre Hall.

Clark could also get some work in the punt return game as well as cornerback Jeff Shoate, who started fielding punts in training camp and has worked as Hixon's backup through the first month of the season.

As far as covering kicks, they haven't been much better. They were nervous enough about how they were doing to have put Champ Bailey out there, a rare thing to risk a player of Bailey's caliber in their defense on a high-impact special teams unit like kickoff coverage.

They have kept Bailey deep to keep him out of at least some of the traffic, but he is also the surest tackler on the team and has, by my count after looking at the video, saved at least three, and possibly, four plays that likely would have been touchdowns if he had not made the tackles.

What happens at times when a team struggles is guys start to reach to make something happen so they are more apt to leave, or at least drift, from their coverage lane because they are so intent on getting involved in the play to be the one who turns the tide.

An admirable trait, but it leaves cutback lanes. It's more important each guy plays his responsibility and not get too far away from their assignment. Todd Sauerbrun also has to consistently get more air under the ball and get it as deep as possible.

Also when they want him to pin the returner in the corner, he has to be able to get the kick outside the numbers without hitting it out of bounds. It all has to work together and it's not been that way consistently enough so far.

He has just three touchbacks on kickoffs in four games.

They could add some additional starters to the mix on the coverage unit if they continue to be frustrated, but that's always a risk, especially in the salary cap era when it isn't nearly as easy to replace players financially as well as depth-wise.

There are now 32 teams and there are not as many NFL-ready players on the street now as there were when there were 28 teams doing business in the early 90s.

It makes it difficult to adjust the lineups too much once the season gets going.

Also to carry three kickers -- Sauerbrun, who is also the team's punter, Elam and the added kicker who would just do kickoffs -- is not something they have done much in Shanahan's tenure. That is usually a roster sport they want for another position.

Jan Leffers in Tennessee is already looking down the road . . .

Q: Given that both the offensive and defensive personnel are new to their positions and need some time to adjust to a new system, would that mean that the Broncos probably will not win many games this year? And that those players that came to this organization, and signed a one-year deal because (the Broncos) are a “winning organization, that is committed to winning� so will the Broncos lose them during free agency?

A: Players like defensive tackle Sam Adams and defensive end Simeon Rice fit the profile of what you're asking about. The Broncos have usually, with Shanahan leading the football side of the organization, taken the same approach with those veteran free agents that sign late.

And that is initially sign them to a shorter deal, usually one year, and then if they play well and show a lot, negotiate some kind of extension, sometimes even before the season is out.

But if the players who signed the shorter deals don't show a lot, then the extension talks don't often come and they go on their way.

However, a lot of the Broncos other veterans that were either signed in free agency or obtained in a trade before the season, signed long-term deals like tight end Daniel Graham, cornerback Dre' Bly -- the Broncos traded for him and then signed him to a long-term deal -- and running back Travis Henry so they would be back unless the Broncos elected to cut them.

The Broncos are also known throughout the league as a franchise that often prefers veterans in free agency so veterans who are searching for new teams know Denver is certainly a possibility.

Also Shanahan has had just one losing season in his tenure. So those players also know they will likely be in the playoff mix if that form continues to hold true.

And because the Broncos have signed plenty of guys in free agency over the years for some big money, agents will often toss the Broncos out there as a possibility for their clinets, even when the team might not be really be interested in the player.

But when other teams see Denver might be interested, at least the agents hope, it could spur the bidding elsewhere.

Justin Christman in Rapid City, S.D., leads a double dip that spoke for many, many folks (roughly 50 or so) who dropped some questions about the offense into the Inbox . . .

Q: My question to you is if back in the day everyone copied the West Coast offense -- from Bill Walsh -- and it is now the primary offense today, how come no one is copying what the Indianapolis Colts are doing?

A: Many offensive coaches I have known through the years have lived by the adage I first heard from Ron Erhardt when he was the Giants' offensive coordinator under Bill Parcells and Steelers' offensive coordinator in the early 90s -- "throw to score, run to win.''

Basically meaning that teams that can consistently run the ball to keep drives going and wind the clock will win a lot of games, but that often throwing in the red zone is the way to go.

So, teams do often follow that premise. However, some like the '06 Chargers who handed LaDainian Tomlinson the ball enough down in close that he set a single-season scoring record, do prefer the run.

But when the field is shorter that pushes everybody -- cornerbacks and safeties especially -- closer to the line of scrimmage so it can be a little more crowded to make some running lanes, especially in the middle of the field. Good running teams can do it, but many times the matchups the coaches prefer, especially with the contact rules for defensive backs being so strict, are receivers on defensive backs as well as tight end on linebackers.

Again with so many people crowded near the line of scrimmage when an offense gets inside the 10, crossing routes and slants can be a little more difficult to run of the receiver can't consistently get free from bump coverage.

So that is why the fade has become the favorite of offenses around the league. Tough throw for the quarterback, especially to push the ball to the receiver's outside shoulder but not so far as to cause him to drift out of bounds.

As far as copying the Colts' offense -- with the quarterback working from the no-huddle most of the time and calling most of the plays at the line of scrimmage -- most teams don’t have a quarterback like Peyton Manning.

The Patriots have run plenty of no huddle with Tom Brady behind center, but that is a three-time Super Bowl winner. It's difficult for a quarterback to play that way, especially now in the age of so much defensive substitutions.

The Colts do limit some of that by moving so quickly, but defenses simply play more things now. The quarterbacks, decades ago, basically looked at 4-3 defenses that didn't vary nearly as much in coverages as teams do now.

To make it work a quarterback has to study and retain. He can't just memorize, he has to be able to adapt what he knows to a fast-moving game with defenses constantly shifting things around. The Broncos played a defensive front -- three defensive ends playing down in three-point stances to go with a fourth defensive end standing in one of the gaps -- in Indianapolis they had not shown all year.

Manning had some trouble with it initially, but adjusted and moved the offense toward more of a rushing attack. Not every quarterback can adapt on the fly like that. Many can play what they have studied all week, but don't do nearly as well with parts of the playbook they didn't work on through the week.

Manning remembers all of the playbook and can move to those things, even if they weren't among all of the things the Colts had worked on in the days leading up to the game. Teams don't work on the whole playbook in the week before the game, they work on the parts they believe will give them the best matchups.

Manning has also had the same offensive coordinator for his entire career -- Tom Moore -- and he may be the only elite quarterback in the league who can say that as well. There is always turnover in the coaching ranks, but Moore has never really pursued head coaching jobs so he has remained in Indy.

Mark Miller in Mount Kisco, N.Y., wonders . . .

Q: It seems to me that Shanahan’s teams do not respond well with a good Plan B when it becomes apparent that an opposing coaching staff has a superior gameplan. Let an opponent come at them with a twist, a surprise that wasn’t anticipated in all his planning, and his coaching staff does not seem to know how to respond. Perhaps they just don’t recognize the situation early enough. Don’t they have some tried and true (options) to go to when an approach is not working? Are there alternate courses the team might take in his gameplans?

A: In the NFL life the bottom line is always if you win what you did was great, if you lose what you did was not great. Too simplistic perhaps, but that's how those with perspective handle being in the business of pro football.

I will say most people in the league consider Shanahan one of the best at making gameplans that vary week to week to the opponents the Broncos face. People in the league believe he adjusts well to, especially on offense where the Broncos routinely are one of the league leaders in scoring in the first and third quarters.

The notion of halftime adjustments can be a bit overblown and usually is in every sideline interview ever done. It's not like they're down in the locker room for an hour. There just isn't much time to get everybody off the field, get them into the locker room -- some stadiums it’s a long walk -- and use the restroom, have those change jerseys who need to, get medical attention if they need it, get something re-taped if they need to and get hydrated yet still have enough to time to sit everybody down and make a major overhaul to the gameplan.

They can adjust specific things and the Broncos, on offense, will make a script of plays they will open their first possession of the second half with, but as far as a major reconstruction and going to things they may not have practiced all that much, that usually doesn't happen to often unless a team is feeling a bit of desperation.

The defense will cover some specific items do deal with whatever has worked well for the other offense in the first half.

The Broncos do have core things they go to when they feel like they need to settle things down, like every other team. The problems the Broncos are having at the moment are execution issues.

They aren't tackling well, they aren't finishing drives on offense and they are giving away too much field position in the kicking game. Tackling certainly is not reliant on gameplanning to be done well and the other two have gone awry, in this case, because too many players are trying to do too much instead of what they are supposed to be doing.

They drift out of their gap on defense, leave their lane on special teams of don't make the play when they do have the chance. Part of coaching is certainly fixing that, but not many people in the league that I have talked to have questioned the Broncos schemes, they have questioned some of the personnel they have fit in some of those schemes, but not the gameplans themselves.

And finally Greg Travis asks . . .

Q: Do you think that if the Broncos are still in the running to win the division late in the season, and the defense is still struggling, that Mike Shanahan might force a change in the defensive scheme? Like last season when the Ravens fired Jim Fassel when the play calling was a problem for them?

A: Shanahan, who spends much of game-planning time with the offense, would get far more involved with the defense if it continued to struggle. He would go to more of the defensive meetings and take a bigger role in what's called in the games.

He's done that in the past when he hasn't like the way things have gone in a season. But for the most part he hires a defensive coordinator with the intention of letting that coach run the defense.

A head coach simply does not have time to sit in all the meetings and do all of the other things that are required from a head coach. So often they will sit in on the side of the ball they came up in as an assistant and leave the other side of the ball to that part of the staff.

He also tends not to fire coaches mid-season. My recollection is that former secondary coach David Gibbs was the only assistant in his tenure that he has fired during a season.

He may quietly reduce an assistant coach's role during a season if he isn't really happy, but that's rare and he usually saves the moves on his staff for the offseason.

Most head coaches, when they do make a drastic move like, will again make that move on the side of the ball they spend the most time with. The Ravens replaced Fassel and head coach Brian Billick, a former offensive coordinator, took a bigger role calling plays during games.

That's it and thanks

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