I love football. I love playing it, and I love watching it. Except when the Broncos play. The Broncos offense walks an incredibly fine line with their cut blocking schemes. Cut blocking is risky when done legally, and downright dangerous when it’s used irresponsibly. The Broncos cross the line between risky and dangerous all too often.
I know football is a rough game. I’ve got a reconstructed knee to remind me if I ever forget it. But the Broncos offensive line is a danger to every opponent they face. I can’t remember the last time I watched a Broncos game without some opposing lineman being carted off the field, and tonight’s game was no exception. Bengals defensive tackle Tony Williams had his season cut short on a questionable cut block from George Foster.
I hate to see players get hurt. They’re playing a game that is filled with violence, and people get hurt all the time in the course of the game. That’s why this scheme is so bad - it takes an already risky situation and adds an unnecessary risk on top of that. It’s a bullshit, chickenshit way to play. So in the interest of reducing the risk of more injuries to every team in the league, I hope that Matt Lepsis, Ben Hamilton, Tom Nalen, Dan Neil, and George Foster all suffer career ending injuries. I don’t want to see them on the field writhing in pain - I don’t want to see them on the field at all. I want them out of the league.
It doesn’t stop with the players. Alex Gibb, the Broncos former O-line coach, has made a career of teaching this blocking scheme. He’s now coaching in Atlanta. It’s not as if he doesn’t know how dangerous the scheme is to opposing players - the Atlanta offensive line doesn’t practice against the defensive starters because of the additional risk of injury. Mike Shanahan has been a succesful head coach by running backs behind these dangerous blocks. Gibb and Shanahan owe their careers to years worth of torn ACLs and MCLs, broken ankles and legs, and ruptured achilles tendons. They’re each a disgrace to the hundreds of professional coaches in the league who don’t teach dangerous techniques. They’re the ones who made the five guys I named above into the players that they are. So they’ve gotta go too.
There’s something wrong when you’re willing to put your opponents in more physical danger than you’ll allow your own team to face. The fact that this blocking scheme is technically legal should shame the NFL. The NFL makes a big deal about protecting the safety of its players - the league fines players for helmet to helmet contact, for leading with the head on defensive players, and for other plays in which unnecessary roughness is shown. The players fined for these actions are almost invariably defensive players. Why isn’t the league protecting them?
The play of the Denver Broncos is a disgrace to the city of Denver, the franchise, and the league itself. And I loved seeing the Bengals run roughshod over them.
It’s too bad for the Broncos that they couldn’t figure out a way to cut down Justin Smith while he was sacking Plummer on back-to-back plays, more or less salting the game away right there!
For the sake of an extra yard last night, Denver ended Tony Williams’ season. And in a case where blocking the guy up high would have been just as effective.
He basically just dropped down on the guy’s leg.
And today, I can’t find a major news source, including the Cinci Enquirer that is raising a finger about.
If I was Williams being carted off the field, I’d have told Foster to get the hell away from me last night. Foster should be ashamed. The O-line should be ashamed. The O-line coach should be ashamed. The head coach should be ashamed. The organization should be ashamed.
My only hope is that because of how high profile this was, and how blatant it was, that maybe someone recommends a rule change.
I have to agree with you guys that the play stunk. I love my team, and I am proud of the O-line and how they have success with the run no matter who they put back there, but if that sucess comes from tactics like that, count me out.
I havent made complete judgement because I don’t know how often they use that kind of a block, but the play that caused the injury Monday was pretty bad. Worst part is, it was pointless. From what I saw, the guy was already past the defender.
I still think we have a classy organization, and I don’t think anybody went out to purposefully hurt someone else, but I agree that the rules should be changed, and even if they aren’t changed the Broncos should stop using that type of cut-block.
Very often. As Madden did a poor job of explaining last night, in football speak they “zone block” play side and cut block back side whenever they run a counter or other type of misdirection.
What that means in the real world is this:
On the snap, the whole line starts shifting to their left. The runner goes to his left and gets the ball, forcing the defense to all move along to their right.
Now, what Denver does is have the runner cut back to his right. As a defensive line starts back to his left, BOOM! the tight end or right tackle will dive at the defensive player’s knees. This is legal as long as the defensive player is not being blocked up high by another player. But it’s cheap. D-line are not taught to think they’re getting blocked low and if a foot is planted, having a giant o-lineman drop down on the lower half of the leg can snap it.
If it’s nice and clean, then no problem. The defensive player just got taken out. But, there’s WAY too much chance of injury for my tastes, and a lot of other people’s tastes.
A more typical blocking scheme on this type of play is to have the left guard “pull”. That is, the entire O-line shifts left on the run, the back goes left, cuts back to the right, and the left guard comes all the way across the back of the O-line to his right to lead the guard around the corner (by taking out the defensive lineman who was “cut” in the first scenario).
They’re not exactly the same play, but there are many ways to play the run without chop blocking.
There are chop blocks that aren’t so cheap. If a defensive player is rushing the QB, a back will often dive at the knees if he’s outsized. The difference here is that he does it from straight on, with the player looking at him.
Every time Denver runs a run-play, watch the opposite side of the O-line from the direction the play is going. You’ll see it a lot.
I appreciate you saying that, LastCall, but I have to disagree that you’ve got a class organization. I think you’ve got an ethically bankrupt franchise that wants to win at any cost, and has no respect for its opponents or its sport.
The blocking scheme is one symptom. Sure, the guys aren’t out there intentionally hurting other players, but that’s an easily foreseeable consequence of that scheme. The scheme is successful (you think injuries to opponents might have something to do with the ability to turn any old retread back into a 1000 yard rusher?), but it’s applied recklessly and regularly causes their opponents injuries. It’s risky when it’s done legally, and I can’t remember the last time I saw a Broncos game where they kept the cutting and chopping legal.
But I think the franchise is rotten from the top on down. In September, the Broncos were fined $950,000 by the NFL for salary cap violations and fudged accounting from 1996 - 1998. In addition to the fine (the second in three years), the Broncos will forfeit their thrid round pick in next year’s draft. But so what? That fuzzy accounting helped them win two super bowls. You can’t find a team in the league that wouldn’t give up $950,000 and a third round pick for one Lombardi trophy, let alone two.
Not only did the team break the rules - they covered it up. The league had to go through a year and a half long investigation before all the facts were determined. That goes far beyond “technically legal, but not right.” That’s outright cheating.
The NFL went far too easy on the Broncos. For the team’s second salary cap violation and subsequent coverup, the paid the same penalty the Pittsburgh Steelers did when they uncovered a violation within their own system and reported it to the league themselves. Why was there such a lack of outrage about acts that upset the competitive balance of the sport? I think the NFL has been far too leniant in dealining with the Broncos, but that doesn’t absolve the franchise of any responsibility for their actions.
So from the team owner to the head coach to the former offensive line coach who brought that blocking scheme to the Broncos to the current o-line coach who continues to use it to the linemen themselves who consistently injure their opponents, the Denver Broncos are pretty much the antithesis of a “class franchise.”
Most of this is news to me but I’m all ears since some Bronco relatives frequently give my Cowboys shit and still proclaim Elway to be the one true god.
For my own future discussions with them, do you have some cites for the OL schemes and the cap and accounting infractions?
Man, when I saw the replay of the cut last night it made me sick to my stomach. Also, I don’t remember any announcers ever sharing that much concern over the style of play of a team before. Rick Dennison, you’ve caught our collective attention.
I’ll add a layer onto your explanation of the illegal chop block:
What really distinguishes the “RB chopping a jail-breaking defender” situation from the Foster-Williams chop block last night is that Williams had been held up by another Bronco lineman a moment before Foster rolled onto Williams’ leg.
See, as Trunk alluded to, it’s one thing to have a blocker and a defender going one on one in space, behind the trenches and in the offensive backfield (or wide of the trenches on a sweep play, say). Not only is the defender able to see the potential chop block from the RB, but the defender’s potential counters to a chop block are unhindered.
In the trenches, though, a defensive lineman will normally be engaged with an offensive lineman right at the snap. When the offensive lineman purposefully disengages, the defender needs a moment to process this disengagement, and to assess the situation around him. And this is where the NFL rules fail the players – the NFL rules prevent one O-lineman from engaging a defender while another O-lineman dives into the defender’s knees (“dive at knees” = “chop block”). But if the initial engagement is separated in time from the chop block – even if the separation is for a millisecond – then the chop block is legal according to the rules.
The NFL has a Competition Committee made up of several current coaches, team executives, and owners. The Competition Committee meets no less than annually, and most years at least twice. It is time for them, at their next meeting, to consider abolition of any blocking below the waist on the edge of the trenches (aka the “tackle box” that comes into play during intentional grounding calls). Such chop blocks should result in an ejection of the offending player, a subsequent 4-game suspension of that player, and a steep fine against the franchise.
That part is true enough. You will note that since Elway retired, Coach Mastermind is 49-38, with two playoff appearances, losing the first game each time. (With Elway, 47-17, two SB wins.) It’s not like whatever the offensive line is doing is paying off.
Another clear cut way to put this is thus: Very few people ever intend to commit vehicular homicide, but if you sit in a bar and down a half bottle of whisky before driving home…
Denver has been using this scheme for so long, I’m skeptical if the NFLCC will ever do anything about it. Every year when the next season’s schedule is listed, the first thing I check for is if Green Bay plays Denver. When I don’t see them I know the D-line has a better than average chance of avoiding multiple injuries.
Not only did I enjoy the Bungles winning last night, I was the only one in the money pool to pick Cinci and it won the week for me.
Lieu, an overview can be found in Len Pasquarelli’s annual “Give Jeff George a chance” column from September (first item under “Around the League”). Pasquarelli’s no more an impartial journalist than I am, but his information’s has always proven reliable. Details about the fine and draft choice forfeiture (but not the 20 month investigation) can also be found in various news reports like this one.
The NFL’s competition committee includes Atlanta Falcons GM Rich McKay, who recently hired Alex Gibb to teach the Falcons offensive line to do this shit. I don’t imagine this issue is going to get much attention unless it’s pushed hard by some of the other members of the committee.
Of course, the really funny part is that this is at Kenny’s funeral.
Seriously, though, I missed the block first time around. Looking at replay, I agree that while it may have been legal, it was definitely not needed or good sportsmanship. It’s true that things happen in football. People have had careers ended, not just seasons, with bad hits or freak accidents. I could get behind a ban on blocking below the waist in the trenches.
Another way to look at that record is to say that Shanahan is 47-17 with an unfair advantage gained by cheating on the salary cap and 49-38 playing (almost) fair.
And the offensive line’s scheme does pay off. 49-38 isn’t half bad for an NFL team in the era of parity. Only nine teams have won more regular season games than the Broncos over the last five years. And no other team can take any old tailback (or fullback in Droughns case) and turn him into a 1000 yard rusher.
As I said before, though, if the league decides to ban those blocks, I’ve got no problem with it. They’ll just have to find a different way to legally run the same system while blocking above the waist.
Here in Cincinnati we were just eternally grateful that the Bengals didn’t humiliate us in prime time last night. We were this close to pulling out the paper bags.
I don’t think we can single out one specific NFL team that has never tried to cash in on an unfair advantage. Chop blocking is illegal, yet it still happens around the league. Cut blocking, as long as not from behind, is legal, though a cheap, dirty trick. Watch any given Sunday. Denver may be famous for it. But I’ve seen it from EVERY team in the NFL.
The real problem that I see is the lack of consistancy in enforcing rules for the linemen, O or D, around the league.
Take holding as an example. How many times do we see blatent holding that isn’t called? But, if it’s a big enough play, the least possible definition of holding may be called. Sure, sometimes the hold is just enough to provide the break for the big play, but often it isn’t. Sometimes it’s on the other side of the field. The rules are too vague and the refs sometimes seem to call it just for the effect of canceling out a big play, when they’ve let it slide on the 27 previous plays. Ugh.
Same rant on the defensive side for illegal use of the hands. Vague rule, inconsistantly enforced.*
I’m not defending Denver’s O line or the coaching. Cut blocking of any kind should be as illegal as chop blocking. Just looking at the bigger picture.
