Keeler: Pat Shurmur won’t change. It’s up to Von Miller, Justin Simmons and Broncos defense to rescue what’s left of 2021.

2 years ago 181

The different time we asked Broncos violative coordinator Pat Shurmur, successful airy of recent events, if he’d ever Googled himself. His effect was to whip retired a pencil.

“I don’t. I don’t, really. I’m not a precise social-media savvy guy,” Shurmur replied, pulling the prop from his pocket. “I conscionable don’t devour it. I don’t spot the constituent successful astir of it, rather frankly.

“I mean, I inactive usage a pencil. And I truly mean that.”

You don’t bring a pencil to a gunfight. Not with the ammo moving astir the remainder of the AFC West.

And with that, we invited backmost Derek Carr and the circus dressed up arsenic the Las Vegas Raiders backmost to municipality for Alumni Weekend. The Raiders are looking for a caput coach. The Broncos are looking for the Genius Bar. This should beryllium fun.

Shurmur is 56. At this point, the man’s much removable than fixable. No, if the Broncos (3-2), aft a two-game losing skid, privation to power the communicative — and the play — again, manager Vic Fangio and antiaircraft coordinator Ed Donatell are going to person to drawback the reins.

Lost successful the relentless rhythm of run-run-pass-punt-cringe is simply a defence with much unfastened wounds close present than the fake Halloween corpse that’s dangling from your neighbor’s beforehand door.

The Steelers averaged 55.3 rushing yards implicit their archetypal 4 games. They gashed the Broncos for 147 connected the crushed past Sunday.

Pittsburgh converted 7 retired of 12 third-down tries, and from an mean region of 6.8 yards per attempt. According to Denver Post charting, the fifth-most costly defence successful football missed 8 tackles, a play high, astatine Heinz Field.

Over the past 2 games, Donatell’s portion has fixed up a combined 50 points, has allowed 5 drives of 75 yards oregon much (after surrendering lone two, total, successful implicit its archetypal 3 games), and fixed up 12 “explosive” walk plays of astatine slightest 16 yards — including 50-yard and 59-yard strikes by an aging Ben Roethlisberger.

In the conflict of Fangio vs. inches, the inches are starring connected each judge’s scorecard. The blasted things won’t halt knocking Uncle Vic to the canvas.

“You conscionable person to combat done these times,” said Fangio, whose 3-0 September is starting to consciousness similar a very, precise agelong clip ago. “It gets pugnacious astatine times.

“Some uncertainty tin creep successful from each antithetic angles. But you person to combat done that, person a large week of mentation and spell retired and play your champion connected the pursuing week.”

By each accounts, the past week of prep has proven to beryllium much temperamental than great. Fangio confirmed that determination was a heated disagreement among antiaircraft players connected Wednesday, calling it “a small dust-up. A small frustration. Nothing major.”

Frustration implicit …

“Just guys doing their jobs the close way. That’s all.”

It takes a village, particularly without Josey Jewell astir to plug holes and with pass-rusher Bradley Chubb inactive connected the mend. It takes well-compensated vets, specified arsenic cornerback Kyle Fuller ($9.47 cardinal headdress hit), and antiaircraft linemen Shelby Harris ($4 million) and Dre’Mont Jones ($1.1 million), pulling their respective weights.

Fuller is playing similar commercialized bait. Based connected Post charting, Harris logged conscionable 1 sack, 1 unit and 1.5 knockdowns done 5 games. Jones has registered nary sacks and 2.5 knockdowns.

After collecting 5 takeaways against 3 teams that are a combined 2-13, the Broncos nabbed conscionable one, combined, implicit their past 2 defeats to Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

“You truly conscionable person to beryllium persistent successful your walk rush, and really, beryllium persistent successful the tally crippled arsenic well,” extracurricular linebacker Malik Reed said of the Raiders. “You person to get (Carr) to walk the shot due to the fact that if they’re moving the shot each day, they’re not going to walk it. That’s what our cardinal absorption is, to marque definite that we are coming aft the walk and the tally game.”

The Raiders were a funny messiness earlier Jon Gruden’s exit. Now they’re conscionable a mess, though a talented one, astatine that. Carr tin either jab you with darts to wideout Hunter Renfroe and choky extremity Darren Waller, a matchup occupation successful the Travis Kelce mold, oregon effort speedster Henry Ruggs III (20.5 yards per catch) implicit the top.

If the Broncos and Shurmur tin someway forge an aboriginal lead, the Raiders could fold similar a insubstantial airplane. Las Vegas’ interim coach, Rich Bisaccia, was successful complaint of peculiar teams until this past Tuesday. Offensive coordinator Greg Olson is calling plays for the archetypal clip since helium joined the unit successful 2018.

In different words, the shot gods conscionable handed Fangio and this defence different gift. If you can’t out-scheme a unit that’s spent the week shifting platform chairs connected a shot Titanic, who can you out-scheme?

No much excuses. No much caveats. It’s clip for the Broncos to enactment their respective pencils down. And fto the scoreboard bash the talking for them.

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