FSH: ON THE COVER

October 7th, 2009 11:00pm PST

This Week on the Cover

The New Orange Crush!!

Denver has a New and Improved Defense….
When the big change was made in the offseason with the firing of former head coach Mike Shanahan, many folks in the Denver area knew what was ailing this Bronco team. For the last several seasons under the Shanahan reign, the Bronco’s defense had become worse than mediocre.

So when franchise owner Pat Bowlen pulled the trigger and took a shot on a young up and coming offensive coordinator to be the team’s new head coach, you can imagine what many of the Denver faithful thought. Pat, we need a defensive mind, not a younger version of the old regime.

What many may not have known or seen when Josh McDaniels arrived; he had a plan. The new head coach’s plan included cleaning house, bringing in a defensive minded guru, and establishing a new order. Though many of the local faithful still can’t understand or get past the whole Jay Cutler trade fiasco, one thing that McDaniels has proven thus far, his plan is working.

To his credit, bringing in Mike Nolan as his defensive coordinator has revamped a defense with plenty of new faces and a completely new identity. Nolan has introduced a new 3-4 scheme that seems to not only fit the new faces of Brian Dawkins, Renaldo Hill, and Andra Davis, but it has some familiar faces like D.J. Williams (31 tackles), Champ Bailey (4 passes defensed), and Elvis Dummerville (eight sacks) playing extremely well.

The signature of this franchise over the past decade has not been its’ defense, but with new-comers like Dawkins, Davis, and Hill, this could be changing soon. In the team’s first four games, they limited opponents to just 26 points (6.5 per game), sacked opposing quarterbacks 15 times, recorded 10 takeaways and rank second overall. These guys may not be the Orange Crush of old, but they certainly look familiar.

Check back everyday for more football!