Kyle Orton expected to take a lot of shots this Sunday at Fedex. Image via cdn.faniq.com

View full size photo »

The bucking Broncos are losers of their last two straight games, at home, and now have to fly cross-country on a short week to play the battered Redskins. Granted, the Mile High Club's losses were against two of the best teams in the league (BAL and PIT); however, former Broncos LB/D lineman Karl Mecklenberg details their major flaw:

During the bye, teams evaluate other teams to see what weaknesses can be exposed. Baltimore had the same bye week as Denver and used their time to notice Denver's defensive tendencies. They saw that the Broncos were rotating guys into their defensive scheme very quickly. That's why Joe Flacco ran the no huddle offense, even though it's uncharacteristic of the Ravens. The Steelers saw the Ravens were successful with this, so Ben Roethlisberger went to the no huddle as well. They also found some weaknesses in the Broncos offensive line. The season is so long that it's all about making adjustments as you go along. The teams that can do that successfully make it far into the playoffs.

After two weeks, it's obvious Josh McDaniels will be making adjustments to fix this hole. The funny thing is, he may not have to given the sorry state of the OLine, that will now see Chad Rinehart starting at RG over Will Montgomery. Zorn addressed his distaste for the sacks on the 3-foot drops. All that aside, the Redskins played a great second half against Atlanta. The oline created holes and Betts found them. Who's to say they can't accomplish this again?

To get back on track this week against the Redskins, Mecklenburg offers advice for the Broncos:

"They've got to protect Orton. He's gun shy. He got so beat up in Chicago that when he starts to feel some pressure, that throws his game out of whack." 

A second way to get back on track according to Mecklenburg is to "Run the ball more effectively. Peyton Hillis needs to get involved more and a shift in the blocking scheme could be effective, so we're not so one dimensional."

This is where Blache needs to bring the house almost every snap. We've see Orton in Chicago and now in Denver, he does not handle pressure well at all.

Some Josh McDaniels quotes from MHR...

On why the Broncos have had difficulty running the ball the past two weeks:

"We've played against two good defenses, and that's not an excuse that we are going to use. We have got to do better than what we have done, whether it be execution, whether it be mistakes (or) whether it be just somebody made a nice play on defense. We are playing against physical teams, and that's what we play against every week. We've got to do better at the point of attack. We've got to do better with the ball in our hands. We've got to do better in terms of scheming something if we can do that to help ourselves, but we haven't lost faith in our ability to run the football or play good offense here. We've just got to go back to work and do better."

Seems simple enough.  Take the run away, pressure Orton by all means, and play physical on both sides of the ball.