Broncos | M. Bell has good game; still gets yelled at Sat, 19 Aug 2006 21:27:52 -0700 The Associated Press reports Denver Broncos rookie RB Mike Bell ran 10 times for 73 yards and scored two short 1-yard touchdowns as the Broncos defeated the Tennessee Titans 35-10 Saturday evening, Aug. 19. Bell had some more explaining to do to Broncos' WR Rod Smith who chastised him for going out of bounds at the end of a 34-yard run instead of burying his helmet into Titans S Lamont Thompson. "We have a rule around here that nobody runs out of bounds except the quarterback," Smith said at halftime. "I told him, 'Don't ever let me see you run out of bounds on your own. You try to run somebody over and let them knock you out of bounds.' He didn't know, so we will let him slide one time." ---- You gotta love it when veteran players are the ones saying, "we have a rule around here..." the whole franchise "gets it." Definitely something for the Jets to aspire to.
Denver wins because of Mike Shanahan. In many ways to me Shanny is like Joe Torre--he makes some head scratching decisions, but at the end of the day his players rally around him and you know that Denver is going to be a factor in the race every year.
They've had one losing season since 1995, and that was right after Elway retired and Davis got hurt. Three losing seasons since 1984. That's incredible.
Consistency. How many teams have had the same offensive system in place for over 10 years? Most teams go through a number of head coaches and offensive coordinators in that time, that's certainly true for the Raiders and Jets. It's not easy for an entire team to learn a new system every couple of years. Conversely, it's a huge advantage when players can grow in a system over the years and bring the new guys up to speed. That's the way football used to be in the old days. I'd also mention patient ownership. For all of his success, Shanny has only won one playoff game since their last Super Bowl with Elway. A lot of owners would have fired him by now. Cowher is the most recent example of good things happening when an owner sticks it out and resists firing the coach...
