What do you think? While I'd say that thus far they look much better than last year, I'm a little concerned with this side to side stuff, which Shanny is known for from his Denver days.
They seem to execute this pretty well, but I'm concerned that going up against NFC East teams, they're going to be overwhelmed when they have to man up and go smash mouth
This is something that I've been wondering about, too, given Shanahan's penchant for stocking his O-lines with starving orphans (I haven't posted much here, because the quality of the discussion on this board is so high that there's usually not much I could add, but this is a subject that's worth researching, so here we go).
Shanahan's record versus the famously smash-mouth NFC East is easy to find, so let's start there. Now, in looking at this, we should note that the Arizona Cardinals used to be a part of this division, but have been in the NFC West since 2002. Since they no longer enter into the picture (and since they've mostly existed for the purpose of padding other teams' winning percentages), we'll toss them out - a minor slight compared to all the others they've endured.
If we start examining Shanny's record beginning in '95, we see that in '95 he goes 1-2 against the NFC East. He doesn't play our division again until '98, when he goes 3-1, picking up momentum. In 2001, he goes 2-1, and in '05 he goes 3-1 again. So his record against the Beast of the East is a combined 9-5 - not bad at all.
Now, if we toss out his inaugural season, '95, to take sytem/player turnover into account, then his record becomes a very impressive 8-3. Either way, it's pretty clear that Shanny has some idea how to outscore the NFC East, when he's got the roster talent to do it (and arguably when he doesn't - see "Plummer, Jake" - but that's a thread unto itself).
This leads to the question, "But was it all smoke and mirrors?" Sure, he put up more points than he gave up, but against the more physical style of play that you see in the Neast, surely he must've got it done by throwing the ball on a few balmy September afternoons, right? Like Steve Spurrier's smarter brother? This'll never work on a December afternoon in the Meadowlands, right?
Maybe. Let's check out his rushing statistics, for and against, but especially for.
In '95, the Broncos did the following:
Rushed for 89 yards, giving up 162 against Dallas. Yikes.
Rushed for 158, giving up 129 against the Skins.
Rushed for 132, giving up 125 against the Eagles.
Totals: 379 vs. 416 - not great, but at least, you could say, competitive. That's 126/game for, 139/game against.
In '98 (to summarize):
Rushed for 795, giving up 516, in 4 games.
Average: a very impressive 199 for, versus 129 against. Makes you wonder what he could've done with a stouter defense - win a Super Bowl, maybe? Wait, never mind, he actually did it that year.
In '01:
Rushed for 350 in 3 games (117/game), gave up 195 (65/game) this defense had nothing to be ashamed of, but it's the differential that shows why the Broncos dominated our division.
In '05:
Rushed for 755 in 4 games (189/game), giving up 386 (97/game), pretty much bending us over an uncomfortable chair.
So it looks like Shanahan's traditional "underfed, sideways-playing, can't win a tug-of-war against the Ladies Auxilliary Bridge Club" O-lines might have what it takes to win in the toughest division in football, after all. If Shanny can faithfully duplicate what he had in Denver, we'll be watching January games with our hats on.
