Bernie Kosar, the inspirational Cleveland quarterback turned broadcaster, found the early Broncos preseason games confusing.

Why, he wondered before Saturday night's exhibition, would a team with two shut-down cornerbacks give so little help to its front seven both rushing the passer and playing the run?

This is the essential question assistant head coach Jim Bates' new defensive scheme has raised through a preseason in which it has looked demonstrably inferior to its predecessor. Although it was better against the run Saturday night, it was better against a Cleveland first-team offense that hadn't scored a preseason touchdown until its first drive in Denver.

And if you listen closely, some Broncos veterans are beginning to ask the same question.

Many of them seem to hope the answer is the one Kosar settled on - that the Broncos are simply being vanilla in the preseason and will break out more personnel-appropriate game plans once the games begin to count.

But Bates has also made clear that he believes a defense should be able to play its basic set most of the time, meaning seven, not eight, men in the box. It's hard to tell if the Broncos' difficulties to date are because of the scheme or the personnel, much of which has changed from last season.

Perhaps it's just a matter of time. That's the case Bates and coach Mike Shanahan make: A new system and new personnel need some time to take.

Nevertheless, I ran Kosar's question by safety John Lynch, who is the logical man to add to the box, having made a career of it.

"I think what I'd say to that is it's preseason," Lynch said. "We aren't showing our whole hand. (Saturday night) we showed a little more, but still, the package isn't in there.

"Jim's trying to pound the philosophy that you can win with just fundamentals in this scheme. It hasn't been that successful yet, but I think we saw some growth (Saturday) and we've got to build on it. We've got a lot of work to do in these next two weeks."

I mentioned that he had rotated up near the line of scrimmage late in the Cleveland signal count a couple of times Saturday.

"A little more," he said. "I hadn't at all in the first games. We'll see where that goes. I know (Bates) hasn't done that a whole lot where's he's been."

That's because Bates believes his defense can be effective out of its basic set.

"How long do you try to prove that, do you suppose?" I asked Lynch.

He laughed. "I don't know," he said. "I'm waiting."

Of course, whether the Broncos actually have two shut-down corners who can be left on islands while the safeties help elsewhere remains to be seen. The Browns threw at Champ Bailey on the first play of Saturday's game - an 11-yard completion to Joe Jurevicius - and went after Dré Bly pretty much exclusively after that, with considerable success.

"A big part of our defense is communication, and guys being on the same page, and I'm not going to say it's going to be difficult, but when you've got new guys coming into your system, and a (new) coordinator, it's going to take time," Bly said afterward.

"It's what preseason's all about, is trying to iron out all the wrinkles and try to get everything rolling so we won't have any mistakes for the season. That's what we're doing now. I think we improved compared to the first couple of weeks in trying to get off the field. That's the goal for us."

This is the party line. Don't jump to conclusions. Any time you put in a new defense, there's bound to be an adjustment period.

Any time you switch two linebackers from their traditional spots, there's bound to be an adjustment period. Any time you overhaul your defensive line, as the Broncos seem to every year, there's bound to be an adjustment period.

All true. And if the Broncos come out and lay the hammer to Buffalo in the opener 13 days from now, the preseason will be forgotten faster than the Charlie Frye era in Cleveland. But the adjustment period is rapidly coming to an end.

"We're still struggling," Lynch said. "We're still just dropping people in coverage. People are running free and stuff. We've talked about there's got to be an urgency to clean that up.

"Yeah, we're in a new system, but this is the system we're going with. It's got to come. We're essentially two weeks away from opening day and we've got to go. I still have high hopes. I still think we're going to be a very good defense. But we haven't shown it as of yet."

That's the Broncos' primary problem as they look ahead to the regular season. If they haven't solved it in two weeks, they may have to look at their new scheme and new personnel and figure out if they are a fit.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

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