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Cutting down on turnovers helping Broncos in win column

By Lee Rasizer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 17, 2008 at 5:26 p.m.

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Jay Cutler, bottom, and Brandon Stokley try to recover a Cutler fumble as Jaguars linebacker Daryl Smith approaches the ball. The Broncos had three turnovers in the 24-17 loss.

Photo by Darin McGregor

Jay Cutler, bottom, and Brandon Stokley try to recover a Cutler fumble as Jaguars linebacker Daryl Smith approaches the ball. The Broncos had three turnovers in the 24-17 loss.

Running back Andre Hall is stripped of the ball by the Patriots' Lewis Sanders, one of five turnovers in a 41-7 loss. Denver has turned over the ball only once in the past two games, both wins.

Photo by Joe Mahoney / The Rocky

Running back Andre Hall is stripped of the ball by the Patriots' Lewis Sanders, one of five turnovers in a 41-7 loss. Denver has turned over the ball only once in the past two games, both wins.

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Ask Jay Cutler at virtually any juncture of the Broncos' five-week funk, beginning in late September, about the reasons behind Denver's struggles, and the quarterback barely would let the inquiry reach the question mark at sentence's end.

"Turnovers," he'd say bluntly.

But what about . . .

"Turnovers."

It was almost that clear-cut, too.

It still is.

Here are the Broncos' giveaways per week: 0, 1, 2, 4, 1, 3, 5, 3, 1, 0.

Match those figures to corresponding wins and losses, and they align how one might expect. The four highest totals of combined fumbles and interceptions all resulted in losses; the six fewest, all wins.

"We know the games we've lost we killed ourselves in those games," said tight end Daniel Graham, who has been on the receiving end of four touchdowns since Oct. 12. "If you win the turnover battle, you're likely to win those games. We've been harping on that all year."

In fact, the Broncos (6-4) are one of nine teams that are undefeated in games in which they are even or on the plus side in turnover margin. Denver is 5-0 in those contests, with the other win coming despite two giveaways (vs. one takeaway) against New Orleans in Week 3.

Maybe professional football isn't that complicated, after all, even with a plethora of rules with which to abide and huge binders of plays to recall.

"It applies at home. It applies on the road. It applies everywhere you go. It applies to every facet of football and any level of football," Cutler said after Sunday's road win at Atlanta in which Denver was turnover-free for the first time since the opener.

"If you don't turn the ball over offensively, the statistics prove eight or nine times out of 10 you're going to win the ballgame. This only adds to that point."

Of the 12 teams with a negative differential in takeaways/

giveaways this season, nine have losing records, including bottom- feeders such as Seattle (2-8), Cincinnati (1-8-1), St. Louis (2-8) and Detroit (0-10).

The Broncos, whose 20 giveaways are five short of San Francisco's league-high total, are one of the exceptions, along Dallas (6-4).

Kansas City's plus-nine turnover differential despite a 1-9 record is the biggest aberration leaguewide.

"We have a good offense and can really score if we don't stop ourselves," right tackle Ryan Harris said. "We've definitely put more of a focus on it the last few weeks in practice, even just talking about it more and seeing how good we can be if we play mistake- free. And we've been that way for the last couple games. That does nothing but bode well for the whole team."

The Broncos have done more than just talk the talk.

They've been testing their ability to hang on to the ball during three-days-a-week padded practices that began after the 41-7 debacle Oct. 20 at New England.

The main reason for the increased contact - Denver previously had hit only on Thursdays - was because of a decline in the rush defense. But there was an underlying purpose, too.

"One of the reasons I wanted to go to pads was so that we could practice getting hit - the wide receivers, running backs, stripping the ball, more contact - so they could learn to hang on to the football better," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said.

A Cutler interception against the Browns because of a route-running mistake is the Broncos' only giveaway in the past two weeks.

The defense still isn't getting takeaways in overwhelming numbers, only 10 all season. But the offense's penchant for giving it away in bunches has ceased, for now, which apparently is good enough based on road wins in consecutive weeks.

"We didn't have a turnover in this game, which was a big positive," Shanahan said. "Maybe it came by practice. Maybe we were a little bit lucky. But whatever it is, it's worked out."

There have been other underlying measures aimed at keeping miscues to a minimum. The players fine each other for miscues at practices. Statistics regarding the turnover battle have been bandied about at meetings. Position drills and team periods on offense stress attempts at stripping the ball and, conversely, hanging on to it.

The Broncos' stretch of eight fumbles in four games from Sept. 28 to Oct. 20 led to the unwelcome reappearance of a training device known as "The Blaster." The 10-foot-long device features metal rods on both sides that can shed skin off a player's arms with each run-through. Subsequently, if, say, one receiver fumbled in a game, all paid the price during the week.

"It's a good punishment because turnovers are a big part of the game," Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley said. "You lay the ball on the ground, you get punished for it."

Not that any reminders are necessary about the general damage created by giveaways.

The Broncos are averaging 31.3 points in the games in which they've turned over the ball fewer than three times. That's more than double their 15-point output in the four other games - all losses.

Comments

  • November 17, 2008

    5:53 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    timpatico writes:

    NO WAY! This guy's good, real good!

  • November 17, 2008

    9:15 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    watercooleroakland writes:

    It is an everyday occurrence for players to be dropped, traded, and resigned but when this happens again and again to the same person you have to ask yourself why? A certain Denver player who was just dropped again last week, probably blew one of the best deals of his life. How? He did not handle his home situation in a discreet manner. Apparently this player may be having communication and cultural differences with his wife. Unbeknownst to him an agent was in town to talk to him about a possible relo with a great contract and package. The scout, agent and management felt that the player had potential and the player has recently gotten married, had an infant son, and had some bad breaks. Front office thoughts were " We relocate him, give him a good package and stability and he will work hard for us”. The caveat here, “Never tell your family to help you plot to leave your wife”. Your family has conversation with other people, who now have conversations with other people and the wife finds out. The family talks about the plan, the player executes it, the wife winds up in jail for an argument, the player takes the baby, and presses charges and the agent and the scout are in town. When they find out about the plot, the feeling is " This guy's a little to radical for team building. Where is the stability what kind of guy would actually plot to do this to his wife? This player blew it and he doesn’t even know it... The front office feels that here is another player who doesn’t want to pay child support, so he sets up a situation, and received preferential treatment in court because of his NFL status. Our team can’t use him.

  • November 18, 2008

    9:07 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Rutabaga writes:

    What are you guys talking about? Is this some sort of secret agent code or something? But I agree, if he doesn't support his children we should run him out of town before sundown or else.

  • November 18, 2008

    10:39 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Dynamicdave writes:

    Rutabaga, I agree. What are the other two posters talking about? There was NOTHING in this article about one particular player with problems or being cut and brought back (like Mustard or Martinez)? You guys are commenting in the wrong blog. Just say no.

  • November 18, 2008

    12:02 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    golfercmo writes:

    what the heck are you talking about???? Guess you mean Martinez?

    and i've been saying all year we needed to have full pads, full contact practices!! (brought it up with Jeff Legwold in his chat one time and he dismissed it with 'players are too valuable') not if they FUMBLE left and right and can't TACKLE! our defense has been needing that badly for years!! injury prone players wouldn't make it through rougher practices, and hence you wouldn't be relying on them in the regular season, if you screened them out with good old school practices. the fumbling is also a direct result of 'flag football' practices! KEEP IT UP!!

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