As the Broncos’ losing streak continues — five games and counting; the last two in blowout variety — former Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick joined Nate Lundy and T.J. Carpenter of Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 to discuss how the team might pull out of their tailspin.
Billick, when considering statements from the Broncos’ coaching staff that suggest that the team needs to ‘simplify’ what they’re doing, hinted at the possibility that the coaches and front office might unintentionally be helping their opponents as a result.
“You’ll hear a lot of things from coaches; ‘we need to simplify’, or ‘we need to get back to basics’. That basically says, ‘we’re making too many mental errors’, and that can be true,” Billick explained. “I’ve been there myself… thinking, ‘OK, we can’t do X, Y and Z, so we’re just going to do this.’ Well, you do that, and all of a sudden, you’ve given the advantage to your opponents — because they can see that, as well.”
“You’ve got to be careful when you go down that road. [When you] simplify, you’re going to become more basic, and then you don’t play well.”
Billick suggested that something else might affecting the Broncos’ situation; something that can’t be fixed by a clever coaching scheme. “It’s not a game of ‘X’s and O’s’; it’s a game of ‘Jimmys and Joes’ — and sometimes, your ‘Jimmys and Joes’ just aren’t up to the task.” As the Broncos continue to grasp at proverbial straws to help with their quarterback issues for the second straight season, Broncos fans have been starting to come around to a similar conclusion: this roster simply isn’t talented enough to contend.
Drawing from his experience, Billick laid forth the challenges that Vance Joseph and the rest of his staff have ahead of them. “As a coach, you can never say, ‘well, we’re just not good enough’ — because, now, you’ve left the players with no hope. So even though that [a lack of talent] may be the case… you’re going to give the players something that [convinces them] that ‘we have an answer for it.”
“But at the end of day,” Billick concluded, “the more you have to do that for a player who can’t measure up… the tougher you’re making it for your team.”
For more from Billick — including how calls for changing coaches might actually mask a team’s real problems — Sorry – this audio content is no longer available., or in the player below.
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