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Krieger: Coyer urges Broncos to 'correctify' tackling

Published August 15, 2006 at midnight

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Larry Coyer has this picture in his head of the Broncos defense as the Buccaneers of 2002 or the Ravens of 2000. In other words, the best NFL defenses in a generation.

They are also defenses that dragged slightly disabled offenses to Super Bowl victory, which is not quite the Broncos' blueprint.

But if the offense isn't comparable, neither is the defense, which is why Coyer was stomping around the practice field Monday morning, shouting at his charges to hit somebody.

Preseason games don't matter, but the first one is all the evidence he has. The Detroit Lions averaged 4.9 yards per carry.

"To me, the number one downside in that game was tackling," Coyer said. "Toughness, tackling. And it's not what we stand for. I don't care what the game situation is. We're going to tackle, we're going to be tough and we're going to play together. If we lose that, we don't have anything. So to me it's urgent. You've got to tackle.

"If you look at all the great teams that have been to Super Bowls with defenses, they don't miss tackles. Whether it be Tampa Bay, Baltimore or these great teams, you miss tackles, they kill you. And I think that's what we have to realize."

I wondered if these were just illustrations or if Coyer is consciously trying to emulate these teams.

"I don't know," he said. "Those are teams I have great respect for, though."

Does he think the Broncos defense is worthy of the comparison?

"I think we can be. We're not right now. We've got to tackle. When we go play like we're capable of playing, with the talent in this defense, we should crush people. Running game should not be a problem. It's tackling. We should be knocking them around. We gave up 4.9 per rush; 2.9, that's what we live by. So that's just not acceptable.

"Now we come out here to practice and we had an opportunity to go correctify. You know, practice tackling. That's what we were out there doing. Not to the ground, but fronting them up and locking them up. And we didn't do a consistent job of that. And that's a little disturbing."

It may not measure up to Don King's "trickeration," but I would like to compliment Coyer on "correctify," which not only corrects but also rectifies. If you find an error in this column, please send me a correctification.

Linguistic imagination aside, I was struggling to see the Broncos defense - which is fast and sometimes sensational in the back seven but has not shown anything special up front for a while - as comparable to the state of the art.

For instance, I mentioned that the Bucs had two NFL defensive players of the year - Warren Sapp (1999) and Derrick Brooks (2002). The Ravens had two of their own - Ray Lewis (2000, 2003) and Rod Woodson (1993).

These are dominant defensive players. The Broncos' lone NFL defensive player of the year was Randy Gradishar in 1978. (Memo to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: The Broncos' lone NFL defensive player of the year was Randy Gradishar in 1978.)

Coyer did not like this argument.

"Sure, Baltimore's got Ray Lewis," he said. "We've got Champ Bailey or Al (Wilson) or you can name guys that have that quote, name. What they have is they play together. Now, you may see Ray Lewis because the media lets you know about Ray Lewis."

Maybe I'm overestimating football fans, but I'm pretty sure most of them would notice Ray Lewis whether the media told them to or not.

"Tampa, Baltimore, Indianapolis, they play together," Coyer continued. "Do they have good players? Certainly. But they play together. They know their responsibility within the scheme. They're great team defenses is what they are, and that's what we've got to be, a great team defense."

Finally, we got around to the front four. I mentioned that Tampa had Sapp and Simeon Rice on their Super Bowl line. Do the Broncos have anybody like that?

"I'm not sure we have Simeon Rice or Warren Sapp, but name their other two guys," Coyer replied. "The accumulation of the four guys is what makes it go. Did Simeon Rice have exceptional rush ability that maybe nobody else in this league has? Yes. But what we have to do is an accumulation of the guys to match that situation. I don't think the names mean anything. I think it's the way the system helps the guys."

With a defensive line that hasn't produced a double-digit sacker since Reggie Hayward, perhaps Coyer has to make this argument. But star players do matter. Always have.

Missing injured starters Gerard Warren and Courtney Brown, the line did not produce a sack in the preseason opener, although a blitzing defensive back did. The Broncos' reliance on the blitz also produced Detroit's first touchdown.

On the bright side, the preseason doesn't matter. And Coyer knows his guys. But before they can justify his lofty comparisons, they have a lot to correctify.