No Way! :) Seriously, hadn’t the Bills just drafted Losman? Sometimes guys come along at just the wrong time. For all of Mike Shanahan’s failures in the draft from 2000-2005, he has gotten it right, for the most part, in 06, 07 and 08.

We aren’t feeling much better about ourselves right now. This season has been such an up and down, topsy-turvey journey I won’t believe we have won anything until we have.

One week we beat Atlanta in Atlanta, or New York in the Meadowlands, then we come back and lose to the Raiders by 21.

As for disgruntled, Broncos fans aren’t much happier. The Chiefs collapse, coupled by the pounding we took yesterday, and this game has an eery must-win feel to it….

The core of the problem is the front 7. We typically do do complex blitz packages. So 4 linemen rush and basically they are all mediocre with the exception of Dumerville. So no pass-rush or run stopping = swiss cheese defense. That is what it boils down to. You can pass on us cause you have all day. You can run on us cause the line isn’t good enough to stuff you consistently.

There has been a LOT of talk at MHR this year about our defense. Needless to say we are really looking forward to some defensive answers in the off-season. I think the big opinion is dominant DT and smart Safety would do us wonders.

That being said, the defense has been doing a very respectable job over the last 6 or so games. Yes there are clunkers in there against Oakland and Carolina, but if you watch the game, you would see the defense playing well overall. They look MUCH better now than they did the first 4 games of the season (where yes, we would NEED to score more than 30 to win)

In a word, yes…

It isn’t so much how many points than it is the type of possessions the Broncos offense is able to put together. If they are portecting the ball, controlling the clock, the scoring will come. And it has.

When the offense gets sloppy with the ball, starts turning the football over, that is when the trouble starts. Case in point. If the Broncos turn the ball over more than two times the Broncos lose. It is all about protecting the football…

that our safeties have been a problem all year. We started with veteran retreads in Marlon McCree (SD) and Marquand Manuel (too many teams to list), and when McCree hurt his ankle, we started tryouts for every safety and his mother. Two practice squad players and three street free agents later we finally found some playing time for Josh Barrett, our 7th rounder this year out of Arizona State.

He is definitely a specimen, possessing the physical traits you are looking for in a SS, and even Shanny admits that they should have tried him sooner, because we have looked vastly better since he has come in two weeks ago. But Manuel is still a weak spot,a nd the fact that we play our safety up in the box 90% of the time means that we are still asking for too much from our undermanned safety positions. Every week the stats for us in the run defense are the same: we hold teams to a 3 yard or less average EXCEPT for that one 56 yarder that went for a long score. Teams have been KILLING us with the big play, int he runa nd pass, and that has been the fault of the safeties. Good running teams like Carolina and Atlanta should be expected to get past the LBs from time to time, but that is why you have safeties, so that the big plays are limited. We haven’t been able to consistently do that.

it has to be something other than Marshawn Lynch – because that would be too easy. :)

Defensively: I’m not nervous about the Bills defense…when we have the ball it is always us that beats us. Jay has a habit of trying to force too many passes. If you watch our losses you will notice him doing that and costing us very pricey turnovers that kill our momentum.

Offensively: Marshawn Lynch. Our run defense is poor enough that if we miss assignments he will go all the way (see Carolina’s big run last week or pick any big runs from this season…it has happened often this year).

Oh, right, and you’re also going down, K. Down, down, down… red knight going down.

He is an absolute BEAST. The problem is that everyone knows it and double covers him. At the beginning of the season there were lots of man-to-man match ups for him and you can look at the stats to see what happened because of it.

If your defensive coach calls man coverage on him with no safety help, he will score you many many points…if not, you are out of luck for the most part until we get to the red-zone.

Marshall has been nursing a hip injury much of the 2nd half of he season. It was kept quiet for the most part(by Marshall) until a couple weeks ago. I think the Broncos young core(Cutler, Marshall, Royal, Scheffler) are still trying to figure out the best way to play off of each other. Cutler will usually start going to one of them and stay with the hot hand. You’ll know what kind of game Marshall is going to have after the first couple of minutes.

As to cracks in the organization, not really, but I think we are all still stunned at the call yesterday late in the 2nd quarter. 15 seconds or so to go, we’re at our twenty or so, and Shanahan calls for an end run by Selvin Young, who hasn’t played in many weeks. At best, what is that going to accomplish? Then Young fumbles, and the Panthers get a cheap FG to go up 20-10. Idiotic, IMO. Being down 17-10 at the half in Carolina wouldn’t have been so bad, but to go idiotic like that is a bit much.
Maybe not as catastrophic as Jauron’s late call for a pass when Lynch was playing lights out, but…
At any rate, Shanahan is not beyond being second guessed.

It is funny to bring up that point. At the beginning of the season you would have had lots of Bronco fans grumbling about Shanny needing to get his crap together and make things happen. We do have very high standards in Denver and expect a competitive team.

But I think most of us see now where Shanny is taking us and how he has built a core of offensive talent that is set for years to come. Now this offseason he will in all likelihood target the defense and shore us up on that end.

ZERO DISAPPOINTMENT, at least for me. The guys and gals that read MHR will tell you I have been saying 2008 is Year 3 of a 5 Year Rebuild that started when Shanahan drafted Jay Cutler in 2006. That process is continuing. The core of the team, on both sides of the ball, is young.

I pegged the Broncos as a 10-6 football team before the season. At the time I had no idea if it would be good enough to get into the playoffs. Now, 10-6 will win the West. Anyone who thinks winning a division, no matter how you get there, is a disappointment doesn’t know football.

Some would say we “should” win this game, but that means nothing to us this season. We have played horrible to really bad teams (Oakland, KC, Jacksonville) and have played lights-out against some of the best in the league (Jets, Atlanta, NO).

I don’t think any of us think it will be “easy”. I think we will win in a hard-fought football game though. :)

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Three Reasons —

1. Kansas City 33 — Denver 19
2. Jacksonville 24 — Denver 17
3. Oakland 31 — Denver 10

Two of those games were played in Denver. Nothing has been easy for Denver all year and Sunday shouldn’t be any different.

First, all San Diego had to do was win any of the remaining games after Week 2 — Miami, Buffalo New Orleans come to mind — but they couldn’t. Hochuli is old news, much like the Music City Miracle.

As for the running back situation, you’ll probably see a steady dose of P.J. Pope, Selvin Young and Tatum Bell…That is if any of those three could be considered a does of anything.

I prefer just a good, old-fashioned win, however the Broncos get it…