ENGLEWOOD Julian Edelman Jersey , Colo. (AP) — John Elway flew to Boston on Saturday to interview New England Patriots linebackers coach and defensive play caller Brian Flores about the Denver Broncos‘ head coaching vacancy.Flores, 37, also interviewed with the Browns, Packers and Dolphins about their openings.Flores, who played linebacker at Boston College, broke into the NFL in the Patriots’ scouting department in 2004 and moved onto Bill Belichick’s coaching staff in 2008.While there’s plenty of buzz about Flores, he brings caveats for Elway, who went with a novice head coach who had just a year’s coordinating experience when he hired Vance Joseph two years ago. Elway fired Joseph on Monday with an 11-21 mark, including 6-10 in 2018.And the previous time the Broncos hired a lieutenant from Belichick’s coaching three, it blew up in their faces. Josh McDaniels lasted less than two seasons and was fired in the wake of a videotape scandal and a 5-17 slide.A month later, Elway joined the front office and hired John Fox.Now, Elway’s looking for his fourth head coach in six seasons following his mutual split with Fox in 2015, Gary Kubiak’s stepping down for health reasons in 2017 and Joseph’s dismissal in 2019.Other candidates who have interviewed for the Broncos’ job this time around are Rams QBs coach Zac Taylor, ex-Colts head coach Chuck Pagano and Steelers O-line coach Mike Munchak.The Broncos plan to interview Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio on Monday in Chicago.The Broncos’ vacancy is one of eight head coach openings in the NFL but isn’t as glamorous as those in Green Bay Kevin Faulk Color Rush Jersey , Cleveland or New York (Jets), where those teams already have their franchise quarterback in place.The Broncos’ QB carousel since Peyton Manning’s retirement has included four starters — Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch and Case Keenum, who had a disappointing debut season in Denver after signing a two-year, $36 million deal last spring.Regardless of who Elway hires, star cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said he expects wholesale changes on the Broncos roster: “I see it as a big rebuild coming on. I see it as a tidal wave.”Harris said the Broncos can’t waste any more time running a flip-phone offense and old-school defense at a time when the league has adopted college concepts such as the read-pass option.“We’ve got to hurry up fast,” Harris said.That’s a sentiment Elway certainly agrees with, although he’s loath to use the term “rebuild.”Elway said he won’t lower his expectations with a first-year coach in 2019, insisting, “We’re not that far off.”Elway said he just needs to hire the right coach, give him the right staff and make the right draft picks and the Broncos can be back in the playoff mix this time next year.“That’s just the way I’m built,” Elway said. “At 58, the desire https://www.patriotsfanstore.com/Adrian-Clayborn-Jersey , the drive is there, it’s as great as it’s ever been. Like I said, the older I get, the more I dislike losing. I don’t know where that comes from. But it just adds more fuel to that fire. That’s why it’s a great challenge for me and the rest of our staff to get this thing straightened away.” While the New England Patriots were able to keep their week 15 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers close for four quarters, they ultimately did not make enough plays to come away victoriously. In the end, the visitors fell 17-10 and suffered its fifth defeat of the year. Let’s dig a little deeper into the game and analyze some advanced statistics from the game.Pass distributionNFL Next Gen StatsDespite having two players at his disposal that have made big plays in the past against the Pittsburgh-style defense in Josh Gordon and Rob Gronkowski, quarterback Tom Brady primarily targeted the underneath areas on Sunday. The plan mostly worked, though, as the 41-year old had plenty of success throwing the ball in this direction. The deep passing game, on the other hand, never fully materialized despite a 63-yard touchdown to Chris Hogan coming on the Patriots’ third offensive play of the day.The Steelers played a similar game: the deep passing rarely found success as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger went 1 for 6 on throws targeting areas more than 20 yards downfield. However, just like Brady and the Patriots, Pittsburgh found success in the underneath portions of the field as Roethlisberger completed 15 of 19 passes between the line of scrimmage and the 10 yards out.Offensive rush directionNFL Next Gen StatsThe Patriots attempted just 19 runs all day long, with Sony Michel receiving the bulk of the workload. The rookie Dont'a Hightower Color Rush Jersey , as usual, fared relatively well and averaged 4.5 yards per carry with the most success coming behind the left side of the line. Rex Burkhead and James White, meanwhile, did gain positive yardage when given the opportunity. However, they combined to carry the football only six times all day long as New England was clearly trying to move the football via the pass — and the pass-run-ratio of 37:19 illustrates this.Receiver separationNFL Next Gen StatsChris Hogan’s average separation of 8.82 yards on his two catches obviously stands out: the Steelers were nowhere near him on one of his catches and allowed him to take it 63 yards to the end zone. Besides that one outlier, however, Pittsburgh’s secondary played tight generally tight coverage when giving up receptions as none of the Patriots’ top pass catchers was more than 2.6 yards open on average at the time of a catch.The Patriots defense also competed well when it comes to pass coverage. While they allowed the team’s top receiving duo Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster to combine for eight catches, 89 receiving yards and a touchdown, the receptions were generally into tight windows and on contested throws. In short: New England was mostly covering well against a talented group of pass catchers.Pass protectionPass protection statisticsPlayerSnapsSacksQB HitsHurriesPlayerSnapsSacksQB HitsHurriestwitter.com/jeffphoweThe Patriots’ offensive line had an inconsistent day — not just because four of its five members (all but center David Andrews) were penalized at least once. The unit also had some issues in pass protection, especially at the right tackle position: Marcus Cannon had a forgettable day and surrendered six total pressures against the Steelers. The rest of the unit was solid but not without blemish either, with the exception of right guard Shaq Mason who did however have a costly holding call late in the game.Pass rush/run defensePass rush/run defense statisticsPlayerSnapsSacksQB HitsHurriesRun stopsPlayerSnapsSacksQB HitsHurriesRun stopstwitter.com/jeffphoweDespite Pittsburgh respecting the impact Trey Flowers can have on a game, the Patriots’ best front-seven defender still registered a pair of quarterback hits. All in all, he produced one of the team’s better pass rushing performances on Sunday — being part of a unit that was inconsistent on the day: New England pressured Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on just 13 of his 36 drop-backs. While it is not necessarily a bad number, it also was enough to have a profound impact on the opponent’s offensive rhythm.Defensive rush directionNFL Next Gen StatsThe Steelers had tremendous success on the ground and the chart above reveals one reason for that: Pittsburgh generally did not want to challenge one of the NFL’s best run defenders Joe Thuney Jersey , Trey Flowers. Flowers started the game on the defensive right side but was moved over to the left once the Steelers found success there. However, when he switched sides, Pittsburgh exploited the opposite side again. Wherever Flowers was, the Steelers tried to run away from — and in turn attacked the defensive tackles and the non-Flowers defensive edge.Pass rush separationNFL Next Gen StatsAs noted above, the Patriots’ pass rushers were not necessarily bad when it came to pressuring Ben Roethlisberger but they also did not have too big of an impact on the Steelers’ overall offensive momentum. The average distance between the pass rushers and the quarterback illustrates this well: New England was oftentimes relatively far away from Roethlisberger. The Steelers’ pass rush, on the other hand, came closer to Tom Brady. And even though none of the numbers stands out, it was still enough to mess with the Patriots’ offensive rhythm at times.Pass coveragePass coverage statisticsPlayerSnapsTargetsCompletionsYardsTouchdownsInterceptionsRatingPass BreakupsPlayerSnapsTargetsCompletionsYardsTouchdownsInterceptionsRatingPass Breakupstwitter.com/jeffphoweThe Patriots’ coverage players had a solid overall game against the Steelers, especially when it comes to limiting the team’s dangerous receiving duo of Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster. The two players primarily responsible for guarding the two wideouts — Stephon Gilmore and rookie J.C. Jackson — fared well despite being regularly targeted. Both allowed a below-average completion rate against their difficult assignments.The rest of the Patriots’ secondary was a bit inconsistent, however. Jason McCourty surrendered a perfect 158.3 passer rating for the second week in a row (albeit in a limited sample size), while safety Patrick Chung also gave up a touchdown. Still, holding Pittsburgh’s offense to 218 net passing yards has to be considered a successful day for the entire defense.