Art of creating turnovers: Steve Atwater, Randy Gradishar explain how Denver Broncos can generate more takeaways
JERILEE BENNETT
Randy Gradishar and Steve Atwater know a thing or two about creating turnovers.
The two former Bronco greats combined to create 70 turnovers in their Denver careers — 44 interceptions and 26 fumbles forced or recovered.
There’s an “art” to it, they say. Gradishar, a linebacker for Denver’s famous “Orange Crush” defense in the ’70s, believes it takes an immense amount of verbalization. And Atwater, who started at safety for the Broncos in the ’90s and helped Denver win both Super Bowl XXXII and XXXIII, believes it takes all 11 players on the field doing their job.
In essence, they say, the art of creating turnovers is a culmination of four key ingredients: belief, practice, flying to the ball and a little bit of luck.
“I do believe there’s an art to it,” Gradishar said. “It being art means you’re practicing it along with bringing it to the actual game situation when you’re playing. So if you’re not practicing it, you’re not talking about it and then it’s not really an art.”
Said Atwater, who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of this summer: “I think creating turnovers, for one, is being in the right place at the right time. Some guys have a knack for being around the ball. (Former Broncos safety) Tyrone Braxton was a guy like that on our team. He was always around the ball. The ball was on the ground, he got it. The ball was tipped in the air, he got it.”
The 2020 Broncos haven’t shown that knack or figured out the art yet, ranking 30th in the league in turnovers this season with only 11 created — eight interceptions and three fumbles. Safety Justin Simmons leads the team in individual takeaways with four interceptions.
“You’re right, it’s been a problem for us,” coach Vic Fangio said. “We haven’t gotten enough on defense.”
It’s not that the Broncos haven’t been close.
There’s been several instances that balls have been batted in the air and no one came down with it, or fumbles that have ended back in the hands of the offense, or balls that have rolled out of bounds after one guy couldn’t grab it. And it’s not as if Denver has a bad defense — it’s ranked as one of the best defenses in the league in terms of yards given up, red-zone stops and third-down percentage.
But turnovers have continued to be the missing piece.
“There’s been a lot of close ones,” linebacker Josey Jewell said. “I went back and watched and there were takeaways that could have been had there in multiple games early on. We love it when our d-line tips the ball, but there were a couple times especially as linebackers where we could have had a couple interceptions if they didn’t tip the ball and stuff like that.
“I think that’s just something, especially as linebackers, we need to work on more is to keep on punching that ball out and keep on working that ball because we need to be able to give our offense as good as field position as possible. Takeaways change the momentum of the game.”
Broncos defensive coordinator Ed Donatell was asked Thursday if there truly is an “art” for creating turnovers, to which Donatell answered by making sure one thing was clear about the word “turnover.”
“First of all, it’s a takeaway. A turnover somebody gives to you, that’s the way we phrase it,” Donatell said. “Luck couldn’t be further from the truth. They’re caused, and we’re not there yet. Check our history. We’ve gotten there every time, every group we’ve ever coached. We’re getting close to the top five, number one — just look at it. We’re not there yet.”
Whatever Donatell wants to call them — turnovers or takeaways — the Broncos aren’t producing them.
And while Gradishar and Atwater admit they don’t know the end-all, be-all solution to fix the Broncos turnover woes this season, they were able to recall their historic careers as to how they were able to be a part of some of the best defenses in NFL history.
The first step: belief.
Gradishar and Atwater both said what made their defenses effective at turning the ball over was a constant attitude and mentality that they were going to take it away on every play. They talked about it in practice, on the sidelines and in the huddle before the ball was snapped. They truly believed they could take the ball away on each and every play.
“We had guys in practice and particularly in the game talking about the turnover, saying ‘Hey guys, this is what we’re going to do,’” Gradishar said. “We had Billy Thompson talking about that. We had Lyle Alzado talking about that. Joe Rizzo and Bob Swenson. Myself. It was a mindset — we’re going to try and force the fumble, we’re going to try and get enough pressure on them in order for the quarterback to have to throw the ball in the wrong area.”
The second step: practicing.
The two remembered doing countless tipped ball drills, ripping at the ball during intrasquad scrimmages, diving on bouncing balls during individual periods and watching hours of film to key on their opponent’s tendencies.
“If you don’t practice it, I don’t really think it’s an art,” said Gradishar, who had 20 career interceptions and 13 fumble recoveries in his 10-year career. “That practice is usually when that takes place. And then in the game, you’re just reinforcing it as you’re talking because it’s not something new at that point.”
The third step: flying to the ball.
“How do you create turnovers? Everyone flying to the ball from the start of the play until the whistle,” said Atwater, who had 24 interceptions, eight fumble recoveries and five forced fumbles in his Bronco career. “It’s about flying to the ball. The more guys around the ball, the more chance you have of someone stripping that ball out. That’s one of the biggest things I look at when I turn on the film — you see 11 guys going to the ball until the whistle blows.”
And the fourth and final step: a little bit of luck.
“I think there’s quite a bit of luck there, but there’s a lot of good intention to create the fumble or create the pressure for the quarterback to throw the ball a little early to get an interception,” Gradishar said. “There is luck with that. But if you’re not talking about it, then that luck may not happen very often. We felt like we were in charge of making those turnovers, talking about those turnovers whether it’s a fumble or an interception — whatever it would have been. We were responsible for it because we were always talking about it.”
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Whether or not luck is needed seems to be a debated topic.
Donatell clearly doesn’t believe in luck, while Jewell does to a degree saying “There’s some luck in it sometimes. Whether it be maybe somebody tackles just the right way and gets their hands on the ball and they weren’t trying to, or maybe they didn’t see a person covered, but I think mostly with us it comes down to attacking the ball.” And Fangio, well, he seems to be indifferent.
“It’s all of the above,” Fangio said. “We’ve got to jar a ball out. We’ve got to pressure the quarterback into some bad throws. We’ve got to have tight coverage to where we get some batted balls like the last one we got against New Orleans when they broke up a pass and Essang (Bassey) got the ball to tip.”
But they all made a similar point: luck isn’t needed if the first three steps are completed. And it all begins with belief.
And if that belief isn’t there from the start, then the art becomes difficult to create.
“We need more of that,” Fangio said. “We’ve got to go get them.”