They’ve impressed me so much this year. The upside for this group gets me excited as we move forward as a team. I can’t express how happy I am to have Clady on our squad.

in my book. Anytime you lose at home you get a “F”.

Turnovers (that led to 10 points) and lack of defensive pressure will always get a failing score.

The O-line is a bright spot with Cutler not getting sacked, but in this league there is no moral victory.

It is going to be cold and the Broncos need to pound the rock. The O Line continues to perform… so go with what is becoming a strong foundation to build on and get it done.

This game was far from Denver’s greatest hour, but what I saw was two pretty evenly matched teams and one team got the Turnovers and some good penalty calls and won the game, switch the turnovers and Denver wins this game very easily. I don’t make excuses for the penalities, you still have to stop the team on defense, but I think we played well, just had too many mistakes.

Game plan to start the game was brilliant, why they went away from that I have no idea. Defensively I thought they played OK but obviously wore down late in the game, run defense looked average at best and pass defense again was lacking consistent pressure. Was happy to see some better blitzing, but still we didn’t diguise much of it and we had a hard time getting there a lot of times. I like an occassional corner blitz, but not coming from the sideline where it takes 3 to 4 seconds to get to the QB, they need to come off the slot side to be effective in a CB blitz.

In a game where the outcomes are that you win or lose there should be no grades. This was a pass/fail test. The Broncos failed. That’s it. No equivocation. They failed in not losing.

Sure Brandon Marshall looked good… Pittman did well… But where’d it get us?

J

There was some good things and bad in this game. Again the turnovers killed them and eventually cost them the game. I know what I am gonna say is an excuse but its reality. Losing Stokely and not having Royal hurt big time. IMO Jackson jumped to early on the overthrow. When I was playing football I was always told run thru your route. Jackson did get to hands on the ball. If he runs thru his route he scores 6. He did not need to jump. Jumping caused him to cut off his stride where if he doesnt it is a TD. So I can not and will not put that on JC. Nor will I on the pick. It was a good play to try and get Marshall deep, it turned out as a good punt. You nailed the Bly thing so I wont go into more. The biggest problem I see is the 3-4 big plays Denver will give up in a game. This HAS to stop. They are getting better. But to me home losses are unacceptable. But I expect this team to be 7-1 at home and no worse than 4-4 on the road.

based on ST and O Line play. I would grade Cutler lower than you. I do not blame the injuries. Jay was locking on to Marshall and not even considering another reciever. He must improve this and I am sure he will. I gotta admit though, Jezru makes a good point above. Excellent, excellent positional analysis Guru. This really allows us to look at the tem with reduced emotion. I very much appreciate your Making The Grade series. Thanks.

On the play, Marshall was on the sideline with three Jags in front of him. He was deep in Jags territory, and the Broncos were driving to take the lead. At that point, head out of bounds to avoid the wear and tear and see what you can do on 1st and 10.

I agree with you here. But I read in an interview that the Broncos coaches frown heavily on a player (and returners in particular) going out of bound unless there is a need to stop the clock. The Denver staff preaches the extra yard philosophy. I don’t like it or agree with it, and think that your thoughts on this are better than Denver’s. Brandon may have been doing what he was coached to do.

2nd point, the decision to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking the FG. Shanahan said afterwards that he would have done it again. I’m with you 100%. It was a foolish call. The FG ties the game, and I can’t think of a team down by three at the end of the first half that goes for it in that situation.

I’m always quick to support the coaches, but that move had me scratching my head.

Last Sunday I found myself continually yelling at my TV, “DAMN THAT 3 MAN RUSH!! IT’S NOT WORKING! GIVE IT UP! dAMN THAT 3 MAN RUSH!!! AARRGG!” I think I scared my children.

The 3 man rush just doesn’t work. On one play Garrard had a full 5-6 seconds. It was amazing that the coverage was so good that he ended up having to run out of bounds for like a 3 yard gain. 5-6 seconds is FOREVER in football.

Why does Denver insist on using the 3 man rush when it has never, not once this season, produced good results that I can think of. It’s insanity and I got so frustrated I had to turn the game off for awhile at one point.

The Broncos are clearly still a year or two away from being undeniable contenders, but despite the shortcomings I am convinced this is a better team than what we’ve seen the last three weeks.