Bears vs. Broncos: 6 Keys to Shutting Down Denver's Offense

Tim Tebow and the Broncos beat a Cover 2 defense last weekend, so I would image that Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith is plenty worried this Sunday.

When I first predicted that the Bears might lose to the Denver Broncos—even with Jay Cutler at QB—the critics pounded me. But now the Bears find themselves as underdogs and in serious need of a victory in Denver.

Tebow has brought the option back to the NFL, and while he usually struggles for much of the day to move his team downfield, he keeps coming up big in crunch time, guiding the Broncos to second-half comeback wins against the Dolphins, Jets, Raiders, Chargers and Vikings since taking over as the starter two months ago.

Meanwhile, it is clear that to beat the Broncos, the Bears will need to stop Tim Tebow and the Denver running game.

The Broncos raised their record to 6-1 since Tebow took over for Kyle Orton as the starter. And while Tebow is not—and may never become, a prototypical pocket passer—his running ability and option to Willis McGahee is plenty tough to stop.

McGahee tore up the Vikings between the tackles for 111 yards on 20 attempts last week.

Tebow is completing just 48 percent of his passes. But he doesn't throw interceptions, and his defense has been very good.

Here's how the Bears will stop him.

Don't Jump Routes in Cover 2

You can’t jump routes as a deep half safety in Cover 2. That's something the Vikings did last week against the Broncos and it led to Tim Tebow's TD pass to Demaryius Thomas. 

If the Bears Chris Conte or Craig Steltz bites on the post route and drives to the middle of the field, the open side deep half is wide open.  

Let's say that Denver has a three wideout, one tight end and one running back formation on the field against the Bears base Nickel package (4 DL, 2 LB, 5 DBs), with the Broncos aligned in a spread look.

This will test Conte's discipline to stay square in his backpedal to play over the top of two vertical routes. A false step or a poor read will lead to points.

Conte should only break to the middle of the field if Tebow wants to throw the ball inside of the numbers.

The Vikings didn't do this and it killed them.

Julius Peppers and Isreal Idonije Need To Win Battles vs Broncos O-Line

Julius Peppers and Israel Idonije need to prevent Tebow from getting to the edge when he tries to scramble on Sunday. That job will be the most critical one if the Bears are to slow down the Broncos offense.

Peppers has the speed and quickness to turn Tebow and RB Willis McGahee inside. Denver's line—especially Ryan Clady—is very athletic, but could struggle against the power that Peppers can bring.  

Tebow has been sacked only five times in his last five games, but the Bears' defensive ends don't need to rack up sacks to be very effective Sunday. They may not get many opportunities to rush the passer, since the Broncos rely so much on their running game. But if Peppers and Idonije play with discipline, Tebow can be kept in check.

Both Bears defenders have the size and toughness to generate a push against the Broncos offensive linemen when the Broncos try to run the ball.

Need To Press Cover the Broncos Wideouts

The play that I dissected in the first slide—where the Vikings free safety jumped the route in Cover 2—would not have resulted in such a big play if the cornerback had re-routed the wideout.

The Bears can't allow the Broncos wideouts to get a free release. Charles Tillman and company need to press within the five-yard cushion.

If they roll up Tillman to the open side of the formation, the Broncos will create a two-on-one situation vs. the FS in the deep half. 

The Four Vertical route scheme is designed to attack the top of the defense, and is one of the basic Cover 2 beaters in the NFL.

A defense we see from Lovie Smith routinely in passing situations is to rush four, drop seven and force the QB to throw the ball underneath. However, if the corners don't hit the WRs, any breakdowns at the CB and SS position will open up the throwing lane for Tebow.

As a CB in the Cover 2 defense, you are taught to re-route No.1 (jam the WR) and force an inside release. This disrupts timing and more importantly, it forces the WR to release inside and allow the safety to stay on his landmark (top of the numbers).

Stop the Option

Running an offense similar to one in which he excelled at Florida, Tebow generally has three options after taking the snap: throw it downfield, pitch it to Willis McGahee or one of the other running backs or simply keep the ball himself and scamper downfield.

The Broncos have earned a lot of their yardage through simple misdirection as teams fail to get to grips with the option offense they’re running. It’s taken the burden off a line that was struggling to do anything early in the season. There is a lot of youth here. 

So the key may be to understand how to stop the option.

If Peppers can attack Tebow immediately, he can force a quick pitch. Another option is to crash him down on the dive back, while having Brian Urlacher loop over top and take the C-Gap.

Using zone blitzes can cause a lot of confusion as well. But I still believe the basic way of playing the option is to sit.

The 4-3 defense is the best way to stop the option.

The Will Backer can handle the QB, giving you an extra dive back player. You can use him anywhere else, too—take the Pitch Man, so the safety can act as a true safety valve, or have him get in on the dive action and help the Mike in B-Gap.

Stopping the pitch man in the option is the simplest part. In a Cover 2, the corner would handle the pitch. It's key for your defenders to go to the ball with reckless abandon, and that's exactly what Lovie Smith teaches.

Hit Him in the Mouth

All of this running will eventually take a toll on Tebow. Tebow was hit 17 times by the Raiders two weeks ago, including a helmet to the chin that split his lower lip.

Meanwhile, Tebow disputes this (via ESPN).

"Those plays weren't necessarily ones (where) you take big hits," Tebow said. "I think that's a little bit of a myth, too. You don't necessarily get hit as much on read plays as people would think. I'd say."

But if Tebow doesn't learn to slide, get down, get out of bounds and protect himself, he could be harming himself.

Force Tebow To Throw

Despite what I wrote in earlier slides about how the safeties and corners can be beaten, the best way to limit what Tebow does best is to cut off his running lanes.

Running a Cover Zero defense may be the best way to stop him. Running complicated coverages and blitz packages are just a lot of wasted effort with Tebow—he will just tuck it and run.

But the Cover Zero will force him to throw, and—if past history is right—we'll see plenty of incompletions and turnovers.

I think the best way to defend it is to play man coverage with no cushion, all bump and run. If you can force Tebow to throw downfield, he won’t consistently complete passes. Tebow likes to pump fake to get the defensive backs to bite on the play and land out of position.

But if the Bears run bump and run coverage, that corner isn’t reading Tebow and isn’t biting on the fake. It also gives the corner a chance to disrupt the timing of the play by getting a good initial punch on the receiver.