The old adage of the cart and the horse came about probably shortly after the chicken and the egg.  Nonetheless, it came about to show there is importance to the order of doing things.

In football terms, putting the cart before the horse is a bad idea, especially in Denver.  From the looks of things Head Coach Josh McDaniels has clearly put ego, power, authority, and himself before the team. 

It was a very deliberate and divisive effort that put the team second and the coach first.  Moreover, one of the fault-lines within the locker room all year long has been between McD’s New England rejects and coach Shanahan’s guys.  Much of this fell along the offensive side of the ball and special teams.  In the end, the coach lost his locker room to some degree and now it’s official.

Josh McDaniels’ team was exactly as good as his predecessor’s a year ago with two glaring exceptions.  Coach Shanahan never lost eight out of 10 games with the Broncos.  Coach Shanahan was also one of “the guys” when he started. He was not perceived as a hired hand.

Oh so how exactly did Josh McDaniels put the cart before the horse this season in Denver? 

 

Let Us Count The Ways…

Let’s start with the most obvious blunder of the Boy Wonder’s inglorious offseason that started with Jay Cutler being traded.  Say what you will, Jay and Denver were better together than they were apart this season.  Both the Bears and the Broncos missed the playoffs, Denver had the defense, but lacked the offense the entire season. 

The next major blunder came in subtle and snide ways in which Josh threw the previous regime under the bus with a number of his comments over the last year.

Obviously Josh forgot to back it up, count that as yet another major blunder.

Then, free agency and the draft came into play.  Free agency was good with Brian Dawkins coming over from Philadelphia to help shore up a weak secondary.  Then a slew of other veterans like Holliday, Goodman, Hill, and Reid followed.  It seemed the Broncos were pointed in the right direction. 

The Jay Cutler trade ruined all of that.  Sure, it was already mentioned, but certainly Brian Dawkins would rather be in Philly following this dismal season in Denver.  With the Broncos revamped defense, make no bones about it, with Jay Cutler the Broncos are a playoff team.

Josh McDaniels however chose to blow up the offense because the Broncos finished second in yards and sixteenth in points.  So the 2009 Broncos finished 15th in yards per game and 20th in points per game.  So, that’s better right?  Interestingly enough the Broncos scored one fewer point than Jay Cutler who had exactly one real weapon in Chicago.  So, what are Kyle Orton and Coach McDaniels excuses on this one?

To the defense’s credit given all the problems down the stretch they only fell from first to seventh defensively in yards and first to 12th in points allowed.  

Still how can you have a top defense like that and miss the playoffs with so much offensive talent in house?  It must be the scheme, or the coaching, or both.  If it’s the scheme, then why did the Patriots finish third in yards and sixth in points while running the same system? 

According to McDaniels his trade of Cutler and even his acceptance of Orton and Simms into his system also suggest that quarterback play doesn’t matter in this system.  At least that’s almost what he’d have you believe. 

So then, it can’t be the coaching because Josh is “The Hoodie Part Duh” right? 

Coach McDaniels is so much on top of the coaching that he released incumbent punter Brett Kern for an older veteran punter in Mitch Berger during the team’s bye week.  While it was speculated that Kern may have taken his job lightly, the selection of Berger was questionable as much as the timing of the move.  Kern ends this season with a 45 yard average, three yards better than Berger and ended with a net of 41.4 yard net a full 3.5 yards better than Berger.  So it looks like the authoritarian move during the bye week backfired.

Someone should call the National Guard or at least put Josh McDaniels on alert, the rest of Broncos Country got the memo, and he’s not a very good coach.

How about those draft selections?  Alphonso Smith was last seen lateraling a punt return to an innocent teammate who was just a bystander.  Keep in mind the Broncos could have picked Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga in that spot.  Then there is the lack-luster rookie season for Knowshon Moreno and Robert Ayers.  The list goes on and on, but let’s give the coach some credit.  After all he did go 6-0 for a very brief moment this season.

Then camp and the pre-season came along and the Broncos only won their last pre-season game under rookie Tom Brandstater who never took a snap the rest of the season.  The Broncos also lost their most important pre-season tilt with Jay Cutler and the Bears.

Brandon Marshall was eventually suspended only to help his team later on, make amends with Coach McDaniels, only be inactivated for the last game along with Tony Scheffler.

Then the regular season started.  Thanks to two missed interception opportunities in the last minute of play by Bengals defenders Brandon Stokley gave his teammates reason to believe.  They took the fire with them five more games.  During that time, the Broncos defense carried the team while the offense worked on finding an identity.  The offense never found that identity, one which was schemed by Josh McDaniels himself.

The Broncos don’t have their quarterback of the future and if it’s Tom Brandstater he never touched the field this season. 

Chris Simms wasn’t anywhere near ready to play for coach McD, whose fault is that?

The Broncos spotted the Colts and Eagles huge leads before getting back into those games prior to imploding again.

The defense eventually imploded after the stress and strain of the season at home against the Raiders and the Chiefs.

The one thing that got away from the Broncos down the stretch was what was supposed to be coach McDaniels most praiseworthy trait, that being game management.  Turnovers increased with the predictability of the offense and the defense gave up more points with no supporting cast.

Given the clear divisive nature of Josh’s tyranny over the Broncos it might be harder to find quality free agents and players willing to fit within this scheme.

Short yardage and red zone points never improved, one of Josh McDaniels supposed focus points in the off season.

 

What It All Means

So there you have it, a list of a least 20 reasons why Josh McDaniels failed to get the Broncos into the playoffs this season.  It could also be perceived as a solid 20 reasons to stop the bleeding, cut ties, cut losses, and find a more qualified coach now before four seasons of missing the playoffs turns into six, seven, or worse.

When a coach puts himself before the team, it’s hypocritical in nature and Josh has unfortunately had to learn the hard way with a challenging group of veterans.  Regardless, Josh McDaniels approach did not work, that is the bottom line.  It’s not the way this group of players wants to be treated on the whole and the net result is failure to perform which falls on Coach McDaniels.

Finally, in the history of the Denver Broncos you have to go back to the other striped sock era since they have lost eight out of 10 games in one season.  Ironically enough, three of their worst implosions happened in their first four seasons.  Perhaps fans will be finding those socks a littler cheaper on eBay now.  It might make sense for the Broncos to bring back their 1977 Orange Crush jerseys to get this team back on the right track next season.  Better yet, a retired Elway is still better than a good Orton any day of the season.

What putting the cart before the horse does is it leaves fans and analyst scratching their heads.  Putting the coaches’ authority before the concept of team is hypocritical and has caused a rift larger than the Grand Canyon.  In the end, Josh has proven to the fan base that it’s about him and not the Broncos.

Mr. Bowlen has stated that 8-8 isn’t going to get it.  This season if nothing else proved that this regime has put the cart before the horse, or the Broncos organization, and may never get the situation figured out. 

It’s time for a change at the top while there is still some talent to be had on this team, or is that putting the cart before the horse?

 

 

Contact Chaz at sportsmanagement@gmail.com

 

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