Denver Broncos' Josh McDaniels a Mastermind? You May Be Surprised

The parallels that run between Josh McDaniels and Mike Shanahan are seemingly as numerous as the hash marks that run down the middle of INVESCO Field at Mile High Stadium.

Both McDaniels and Shanahan played quarterback in their youth, McDaniels for his father Thom in high school in Ohio and Shanahan at Eastern Illinois University.

Both Shanahan and McDaniels are offensive-minded and were offensive coordinators before being promoted to head coach of the Broncos.

McDaniels is the second-youngest coach in the NFL at 34, Shanahan was 43 when he was hired and was revered for his youth and exuberance in the mid-'90s.

Both coaches are short in stature and both have been accused of being overzealous, controlling, head men.

McDaniels, the second-year head coach of the Denver Broncos, is an intelligent young man; Shanahan was known as the "Mastermind" for his creative offense.

McDaniels was a math major in college and was the Patriots' coordinator when they scored the most points in NFL history in 2007.

Maybe he’ll eventually be called the "Mathtermind" or "Baby Einstein"?

But before anyone can give McDaniels a nifty nickname, he needs to use his math degree to crunch some quite concerning numbers.

The Broncos were a shocking 0-5 on touchdowns within the red zone Sunday versus the Colts, 2-5 overall with two field goals kicked in by Matt Prater.

Denver ran 20 plays within Indianapolis’ 20-yard line, gaining only 28 yards (1.4 per), and completed only 33 percent of passes (5-15) when they mattered the most.

Denver went for two fourth-and-goal plays and converted on neither of them. The first was a gamble to end a 79-yard drive, which took over six minutes off the clock, and netted the Broncos zero points.

Three rushes from the one-yard line, Denver couldn’t gain three feet. There was still 34 minutes left in the game, McDaniels’ Broncos were down 13-0 and should have taken the field goal.

The later fourth down attempt was a mirror opposite of the first, where Kyle Orton threw the ball three times, coming up incomplete on all three. The fourth down play seemed rushed, and Orton missed intended receiver Brandon Lloyd by five yards.

Instead of kicking a field goal, which would have put Denver down one (20-19, if Prater made both), the Broncos gambled and remained down seven points with less than nine minutes to play in the game.

The thing is, the gambles are easy to question now on Monday since they didn’t work, but McDaniels would be lauded if either one would have resulted in a touchdown.

In the heat of the moment, in the middle of a huge benchmark game against the defending AFC champions at home, show me a Broncomaniac that wasn’t yelling at McDaniels to go for it and I’ll show you a one-legged running back.

Great teams can move the ball three yards on their goal line, in their stadium nearly every time. Mediocre teams find ways not to convert, and ultimately find ways not to win.

Then again, great teams can also swallow their pride and take the easy points rather than risk coming up with a goose egg.

Despite being first in the NFL in red zone attempts per game, the Broncos rank 24th in the league for red zone scoring percentage (5-13, 38.46 percent), scoring only three touchdowns all year.

Denver is also No. 2 overall in yards per game (417), but they can’t collect the most precious yards to put up points.

It’s like mining in the Rocky Mountains for days, gaining lots of shiny ore, only to find out it is fool’s gold in the end.

Inability to put up points results in more losses than wins, and point differential is telling of just that.

Here’s a significant stat: Under Shanahan, when the point differential was 50 or less in favor of the Broncos, they finished out of the playoffs all seven times.

When Denver scored 50-100 points more than opponents in a season, they were postseason bound both times, and when the Broncos out scored opponents by 100+ they went to the playoffs all five times (AFC champs in three).

In McDaniels’ first two years, the Broncos are a +2 (missed playoffs) and are -4 this season.  

Plain and simply, Denver must score more points, which begins with better, gutsier play and a willingness to take points they are afforded in field goals when in the red zone.

Yes, the Broncos lost to a much better team, one of the elite franchises in the NFL for the last decade, but they could have won if they could have converted prized possessions into precious points.

Denver may not be at that elite level yet, but if they want to continue to improve as a team and possibly find their way to the postseason for the first time in half a decade, much depends on scoring—supposedly McDaniels’ strong suit.

McDaniels, the math man, must take a page out of the young Mastermind’s book and focus on outthinking his opponents, not overthinking a somewhat simple game.

Rich Kurtzman is a Colorado State University Alumnus and a freelance journalist. Along with being the Denver Broncos and Denver Nuggets Featured Columnist, Kurtzman is the CSU Rams and Fort Collins Beer Bars Examiner and the Colorado/Utah Regional Correspondent for stadiumjourney.com.

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