Rico ready to pull an upset
Fear the Rico. There’s a reason the undefeated Broncos are ripe to get upset in Buffalo. It’s not because this is a trap game wedged between a big victory against Dallas and a showdown against the hated Raiders, a theory that’s amateur psychology nonsense. And the early kickoff shouldn’t be a negative factor for Denver, which has won 14 of the past 17 times it has played at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Unlike pouty Cowboys star Ezekiel Elliot, Bills running back LeSean McCoy won’t quit; but I’m afraid Denver has a bigger issue on its hands.
So what’s the problem? His name is Rick Dennison, who now works as an assistant coach in Buffalo.
Former Denver coach Gary Kubiak always called him Rico, and loved Dennison like a brother. But as thanks for winning a championship ring against Carolina with the Broncos, Dennison got dumped in January as the team’s offensive coordinator. He has studied all the strengths and weaknesses of quarterback Trevor Siemian, then took the inside information with him to Buffalo.
This bittersweet reunion on the field with Denver is the Super Bowl in 2017 for Dennison, unlikely to get a sniff of the playoffs with the Bills.
“They know what we do; we know what they do,” Broncos defensive coordinator Joe Woods said Thursday.
Well, this much we know is true about Dennison: He’s unafraid to win ugly. As fans in Broncos Country know all too well, Dennison will dial down the pace until an NFL game becomes little more than an excuse for a nap on the sofa. While new Denver offensive coordinator Mike McCoy is more apt to draw up a play in the dirt than to strictly fol-
low a script, Dennison is an engineer that prefers the sweat equity of a one-brick-at-time grind.
Yes, Dennison is in charge of the offensive game plan in Buffalo. But maybe where he can be of the greatest assistance to the Bills is to give them a peek inside the head of Siemian and how he likes to play football.
So here’s what I expect the Bills to do. They will commit more defenders to the box, because Denver has established its offensive identity as run-first, with C.J. Anderson and Jamaal Charles providing a one-two punch that has allowed the Broncos to lead the NFL with 159 yards rushing yards per game.
“Thank God our running game is playing really well,” said receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who recently had a chat with his father about Denver’s new offensive approach. Dad and son agreed: “If we’re able to keep running the football like that and be multidimensional, it’s going to be hard for teams to stop us. You can sit up there and play zone (in the secondary) all you want, but when C.J. is running for 150 yards — C.J. and Jamaal running for 150 yards — at some point you’ve got to load the box.”
Unlike the Cowboys, whose defensive backfield was wrecked by injury, Buffalo would be unwise to so easily concede short, pitch-and-catch routes to Demaryius Thomas on the sideline. After piling six sacks on Carolina quarterback Cam Newton in Week 2, expect Jerry Hughes and the Bills’ edge rushers to push Siemian up in the pocket and force him to work the middle of the field, where his eyes tend to get lost in traffic and his throws are more often rushed.
Dennison got bad-mouthed in Denver for being painfully conservative. But he also won a championship ring with a broken-down Peyton Manning and kept the Broncos in the playoff hunt with a battered Siemian until the final month of 2016.
The league now has tape on the Broncos, averaging an impressive 33 points through two games. Next, the NFL will go about the business of building a template to slow down Denver. How’s this for a plan? Make daylight for Anderson more scarce and force Siemian to throw more than 35 passes, rather than act as a complimentary piece to the team’s offensive playmakers.
We know how the mind of Rico works. He finds satisfaction in trying to muck up the game for three quarters and sneaking away with a 17-14 victory in the end.
Buffalo might be beautiful this time of year, but as Broncos coach Vance Joseph is fond of saying, it’s a hard league. And the road ain’t pretty.
“This is going to be a true test for our football team,” Joseph said.