'98 Mind Boggling Parallels (Okay, not that many, but quite a few)

    I originally did a post on this topic after a television commentator mentioned during the broadcast of the New England-Denver game that the last time Denver started 5-0 was in 1998, which is also the last time the Broncos went to the Super Bowl.  One responder to the post objected to the comparison, suggesting that the 2009 Broncos are not comparable to the 1998 Broncos. 

    I wanted to revisit the subject because of the increasing number of parallels.  I also wanted to remind anyone who chooses to wade through this article, that I am not attempting to suggest that the '09 Broncos are better than, or even as good as, the '98 Broncos.  That would be like comparing apples and oranges. 

    What I am suggesting is that, so far in this season, there have been a number of intriguing parallels between what happened in 1998, and what is happening in 2009.

The parallels -- after the jump

1)We play 12 of the same teams that we played in '98.
Oakland, San Diego, and Kansas City are all played twice.
The NFC East -- Dallas, New York Giants, Philadelphia, and Washington
2 AFC teams -- Cincinnati and New England

2)We play 10 of those twelve games in the same location.
Oakland, Kansas City, and San Diego are all played at home and away.
We hosted New England and Dallas in both years
We played Cincinnati and Washington in their home stadiums.

3)Both years we had our bye week in Week 7.

4)Both years we entered the bye week with a 6-0 record.

5)Both years we beat New England, Dallas and Oakland prior to the bye week.

6)Our quarterbacks were sacked almost the same number of times in the first 6 games.
Elway 8, Orton 9

7)The Broncos sacked opposing quarterbacks almost the same number of times in the first 6 games.
'98 - 20 sacks
'09 - 21 sacks

8)In both years, the interceptions in the first 6 games were almost identical.
'98 - 7 interceptions
'09 - 6 interceptions

9)In both years, we beat the Bengals in Cincinnati (12-7 in 09, 33-26 in 98)

10)In both years, we beat Dallas in Denver (17-10 in 09, 42-23 in 98)

11)In both years, we beat the Raiders in Oakland (23-3 in 09, 34-17 in 98)

12)In both years, we beat the Chargers in San Diego (34-23 in 09, 31-16 in 98)

13)In both years, we won 3 games at home and 3 games away in our first 6 games

14)In both years, we beat 2 divisional opponents in the first 6 games.

15)Passer statistics are very similar for the first 6 games.
Elway 60.4% completion rate, 8.0 average/attempt, 101.5 passer rating, 8 sacks.
Orton 63.9% completion rate, 7.6 average/attempt, 100.1 passer rating, 9 sacks

16)Forced fumbles are similar: 98 -- 8 forced fumbles, 09 -- 10 forced fumbles

17)In 98, Elway averaged 6 different receivers per game during the first 6 games, in 09, Orton has average 7 different receivers per game.

    Just to warn you, if this pattern of similarities continues, you will see additional updates to this post.  :D

And I'm hoping the parallels continue all the way to game 19:
    '98 Denver beats Atlanta 34-19 in the Super Bowl
    '09 Denver ??????