1/ We are greatly lacking and being let down HUGELY by our co-ordianators on both sides of the ball. Slowik is not a DC and should never have been one. On the offensive sign, he needs to blow up the structure and start again fro the sake of the team and young coaches like Jeremy Bates.
2/ Jay Cutler needs A LOT of work. I am NOT a fan of Phillip Rivers, I despise him, but he played like a Pro Bowl QB putting up great numbers and making clutch plays. Jay tried, but made bad decisions and missed open guys 3 times for TD’s. I am not sure if Jay hates losing enough, and I am wondering whether his days of being in a losing culture at Vandy are spilling over to here.

Shanahan needs to do a couple of things. For next season, him and Pat Bowlen need to hire top flight DC and OC, and Shanny needs not t feel threatened by it. The talent that this team has needs to be nurtured by the best, not hung out to dry by journeymen coaches and young coaches that need time and a system to develop in.

Yes, we have personnel problems, we have injuries, but we have thrown away 4 games, and in my heart of hearts, the majority of the blame needs to be given squarely to the coaching staff.

I wil be a Broncos fan thru and thru, but I dont feel confident about SD. I am worried that not making the playoffs will set this team back psychologically 2 years, and start a choking culture.

Anyway, Happy Holidays to all, and GO BRONCOS!

The Broncos racked up 538 yards of total offense to Buffalo’s 275 yards. That is an enormous disparity. Also, Brett Kern never punted once yesterday, which is very rare. This is a game that the Broncos should have won, but the underlying stats still give me hope for next week, considering how well the Broncos moved the ball against the Chargers in week 2. Go Broncos!

This leads to my point (and my blog on adjustments). We lost this game due to bad coaching. We had enough yards to win 2 games yesyerday, yet never punched it in.
We NEVER have a game when all 3 phases of our play bring it.
Scott O Brien is a COMPLETE idiot. He has done nothing to improve ST at all. Buffalo only needed 275 yards to get it done because of the field position we gace them.
Did you hear Prater’s comments after the game. He said they were worried McKelvin would take it to the house EVERY time. What a ludicrous mind set to take into a gae of this magnitude.
AAAHHHHHH….just gets me riled up for our coaching staff tto blow another game.
Heres an analogy: This team is like a formula 1 race car yet we are asking a little old granny to drive it, and taking it into Micks Oil Lube to fix it, when we need a qulaified driver and pit crew to keep it humming. When in the hell is Shanny going to wake up to the fact that the staff he has assembled is piss poor at best. I would keep Bates and Turner and jettison everyone else.
These stats dont make me happy, they make me angrier in the fact the team could not get it done.

You’re right HT, a lot of us were thinking 9-7, 10-6 before the season, and we have Guru’s famous statement that we are in year three of a,,, you know the rest. I was firmly in that camp. The primary consideration that put me there was youth, especially on offense, and we all know this team is built around its offense. I thought if our young offense was inconsistent throughout the year, our team would follow suit. Since I expected it, I have been forgiving during the year with Jay’s turnovers, BMarsh’s drops, Eddie’s punt returns of late, etc. All these guys have shown signs of brilliance and I believe they will dominate over the next few years.

Which brings me to Bates and the playcalling. I cut him the same slack that I cut for Jay, BMarsh, Eddie, Barrett, JBell, etc. He is young, and this is his first time in this role. Furthermore, he must be doing something right as we have a statistically great offense, and the QB he’s coaching just set an all time passing record for our franchise. I agree with you that some of the situational playcalling has been terrible (watch the redzone playcalls on the two devastating FG drives in the first half yesterday). However, that is exactly what will improve with experience.

So, let’s be patient with Bates like some of us have been patient with the rest of our utes. The payoff for having a young, elite offensive mind grouped with young, elite personnel is too great.

Bates has talent, and he needs to be mentored corrctly by having a “proper” OC. The structure is a little conviluted with Dennison OC but looking after the line (which he has been great at obviously).
We need Dennison to O Line Coach, Turner RB Coach, Bates QB Coach and bring in a great planner at OC.
Obviously, we need an AWESOME DC as well and keep Slowik working with the DB’s.
We are only lacking essential game planning which is letting the team down…badly.
This off season will be really interesting as we have a very taleneted team and just need som eparts fixed on the coaching and defensive sides!

So I’m right on target. Can I call myself an expert when they lose next week? Maybe ESPN will hire me :D Of course, I thought the Jets would be 6-10 at best, so maybe not.

Sorry for being so down on the team, I just don’t see any leadership out there. I have no faith that they can win this next game. And it’s probably too far passed Christmas to hope for a miracle? I hope they can win, but I’m not letting them get too high.

They played bad to begin the year and are finally starting to play a little better at the end of the year. This is San Diego’s last shot at play-off hopes for a few years, considering the age of their players and how they played this year.

A 9-7 win Bronco team or an 8-8 chargers team making the playoffs. My guess is that MSN would gloss over the chargers record since they are one of MSNs “precious” – Gollum.

Our defence was run over, and I wonder if a big part of it is, that our players just haven’t “jelled” because of all the injuries?

Also, the coaches should just script the whole damn game. Our scripted driwes usually works pretty well.

fubar. I will say, win or lose this weekend; 2008 was an overall success. I am not one of those guys that can remain objective after a loss. Especially after this last loss…give me a few days.

Frustration is setting in. At least they had a chance to tie at the end? Someone help me out here. I am choking as a fan.

Our inability to “punch it in” to finish off drives dates back to our loss of Hillis. Maybe next year we need to have Hillis and Torain and Pittman to make sure we have someone to grind out those tough yards.

Consider a different approach to strength and conditioning?

Aren’t you a defense guy?

Seems like you totally let the defense off the hook in your write up.

The defensive playcalling was horrible and this needs to be Slowik’s last game as a Broncos coach.

Thanks for the perspectives.

… I’m going to try to get the taste of this game out of my mouth with as much eggnog as possilble! ; )

from someone who could see the game on TV….

The positive stance was good too. Too many fans are “playing not to lose” instead of playing to win. We all just need to enjoy being in first place and look forward to watching our team step up this Sunday. At least we are never bored by our Broncos.