Horse Tracks 11/2/09 - Ravens hand Broncos first loss of season in dominating fashion, 30-7
by Douglas A. Lee on Nov 2, 2009 5:54 AM MST
in Horse Tracks
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Yes, the score was much closer for most of the game - but in all honesty, that was a whooping. The Broncos' defense kept them just within reach, but couldn't come up with the big plays (no takeaways, plenty of missed tackles and sacks). Giving up a KR touchdown to open the second half was killer, as the offense's responding TD was the only good drive of the day (although penalty-aided). Joe Flacco was spectacular - elusive in the pocket, on target with his throws. Ryan Harris left the game with a pair of injured toes, heading home in a splint. With San Diego's victory over Oakland, the Broncos now have a 2-game lead in the AFC West. IMO, now's not time to wonder what's wrong with the Broncos; they simply got beaten on the road by an excellent team. Denver doesn't have the glaring problems facing teams like the Packers and Steelers (O-Line) or the Giants (secondary). This is still a 12- or 13-win team and if we see the Ravens again, it'll be in Denver...
NFL - Ravens 30, Broncos 7 - Video highlights with radio calls
DB - Ravens Postgame: Report - Broncos TV
NFL - Denver Broncos 7 at Baltimore Ravens 30 - Box Score
DB - Ravens Postgame: McDaniels - Broncos TV
DPP - Briefs: Tackle Harris out with foot injury; Polumbus fills in
"The Broncos' starting right tackle suffered a serious injury to the two smallest toes on his right foot early in the second quarter of Baltimore's 30-7 win Sunday...In addition to Harris' toe injury, the Broncos must evaluate safeties David Bruton and Darcel McBath today. Both had leg injuries...As a sign of good faith, the Broncos dropped the fines star receiver Brandon Marshall incurred during preseason, according to an NFL source."
DB - Ravens Postgame: Orton - Broncos TV
NFL GameDay - Broncos vs. Ravens highlights - Video
DB - Missed Opportunities - Zach Eisendrath
DB - Tackling Adversity - Gray Caldwell
DPP - Broncos suffer first loss of season - Mike Klis
DPP - Legwold: Ravens' Flacco impresses Broncos - Jeff Legwold
DPP - Long day for Broncos' Orton, offense - Lindsay Jones
DPP - Broncos' Berger has to kick off some rust - Mike Klis
DPP - Paige: Broncos can't mask bad effort
DPP - Kiszla: Broncos might have to change offensive blueprint
DPP - Armstrong: Broncos' offense still on vacation in loss
CBS - Ravens shine light on what could be undoing of Broncos - Pete Prisco
FH - Ravens Expose Broncos as Pretenders - Kevin Blackistone
AP - Broncos Stumble For The First Time, Fall To 6-1 - David Ginsburg
Ravens News
BS - Ravens 30, Broncos 7: Ravens play complete game, deal Broncos 1st loss - Jamison Hensley
BS - Special teams excel as Webb goes all the way - Ken Murray
BS - Ravens-Broncos: Mike Preston's report card - Mike Preston
BS - Ravens' short game has long-run benefits - Mike Preston
BS - Ravens Insider: 5 things we learned in Ravens' win over Broncos - Ron Fritz
BS - Ravens played like Ravens of old - Kevin Cowherd
BS - On-target field-goal tries kick up Hauschka's confidence a notch - Edward Lee
ESPN - Ravens' D playing 'angry' again - James Walker
NFL Results
NFL - Oakland Raiders 16 at San Diego Chargers 24
NFL - Houston Texans 31 at Buffalo Bills 10
NFL - Cleveland Browns 6 at Chicago Bears 30
NFL - Seattle Seahawks 17 at Dallas Cowboys 38
NFL - Miami Dolphins 30 at New York Jets 25
NFL - San Francisco 49ers 14 at Indianapolis Colts 18
NFL - New York Giants 17 at Philadelphia Eagles 40
NFL - St. Louis Rams 17 at Detroit Lions 10
NFL - Jacksonville Jaguars 13 at Tennessee Titans 30
NFL - Minnesota Vikings 38 at Green Bay Packers 26
NFL - Carolina Panthers 34 at Arizona Cardinals 21
AFC West News
ESPN - Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable abused them, women say
NYT - Raiders Coach Admits Hitting His Former Wife - Judy Battista
SFC - Bolts have Raiders blue - David White
SFC - Jackson has rare receiving day against Oakland - David White
OT - Poole: Time for Davis to assess value of Cable package
OT - D j vu, all over again for the Raiders - Steve Corkran
SDUT - Chargers win, but get a scare - Chris Jenkins
SDUT - Raiders just a bit testy after latest loss in the valley - Ed Zieralski
SDUT - Chargers stick it to Raiders for 13th straight time - Kevin Acee
SDUT - After 22 months, Merriman finally back in the sacking business - Kevin Acee
SDUT - Bolts need more than happy talk - Kevin Acee
KCS - Chiefs will keep an eye on LJ - Kent Babb
NYT - What Is Johnson’s Future in Kansas City? - Judy Battista
NFL News
FH - Owen Daniels Reportedly Out for Season With Right Knee Injury - Will Brinson
NFL - Panthers QB Delhomme suffers chest contusion vs. Cardinals
NFL - Browns RB Lewis announces his intent to retire after season
NFL - Cardinals WR Boldin re-injures ankle, exits game vs. Panthers
NFL - Fumbling Slaton sits while Moats gives Bills fits in Texans' victory
NFL Opinion
NFP - Sunday rewind: Week 8 - Matt Bowen
SI - Cowboys turning heads, Ravens 'D' stars and more - Don Banks
NFL - Behind effective Romo, Cowboys quietly emerging as title contender - Bucky Brooks
CBS - Week 8 Judgements: Vikings aren't afraid to take plunge - Clark Judge
Y! - Favre not alone in getting measure of redemption - Charles Robinson
NYT - What We Learned, Week 8: A Day for the Have-Nots - Judy Battista
ESPN - Last Call: Wrapping up Week 8 - John Clayton
SI - Brett Favre elated he came back and that Vikings are winning - Peter King
FH - Packers in Pain After Another Loss to Favre, Vikings - Thomas George
FH - Favre Quiets Haters, Gets Last Laugh - Jay Mariotti
FOX - Win at Lambeau extra sweet for Vikings' Favre - Alex Marvez
SN - Packers fans make statement; Favre has final say - Dennis Dillon
Y! - Vikings might be better than '96 Packers - Jason Cole
NFL - Favre deals Packers, their fans a painful dose of cruel reality - Steve Wyche
NFL - Win over reeling Giants puts Eagles in NFC East driver's seat - Vic Carucci
FOX - Now, that's more like Eagles we expected - Jimmy Johnson
SN - Suddenly, Giants have a gigantic mess to clean up - Clifton Brown
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"Serious injury?"
Jeebus! This is the kind of junk that always happens in losses like that. I’m trying to imagine what could be counted as a serious injury to small toes. Are we talking dislocation (is that even possible?)? Broken? Torn tendons (which would really be sucky)?
Snowed out
Say what you want, but I think the snow storm had a lot to do with the Broncos performance. While predicting the Broncos to be 6-0 or at least 5-1 at the bye, I was worried about the Ravens game and the Steelers game even without the snow, but the snow had to cause just enough disruption to put the Broncos off their game. But, frankly, its nice to get the undefeated monkey off their backs. Now its just football and the Broncos will be fine.
Thanks, Doug
Hey, is that Mark Kiszla, saying there are crazy fundamental problems after one loss? Who could have ever guessed that guy would overreact. That bozo is as mercurial as, er, mercury.
The Broncos have great Tackles, which is not the same thing as having a great offensive line. They have been vulnerable to aggressive interior rushes all year, and Baltimore exploited that very effectively. I know I belabor the point, but it needs belaboring: Ben Hamilton is the worst starter on the team. When teams target the pass rush against the interior/weakside OL, they succeed. I’m sure there are adjustment to be made. But I was disappointed in how long those adjustments took to show up. And the adjustment they made — get rid of the ball quickly — shortened the passing game when they were already playing from behind.
Since I’m on a roll and giving my two bits on everything…
You can’t lay it all on Orton, but he led his receivers into defenders multiple times. Marshall into Lewis. And Moreno — I definitely put the Moreno fumble on Orton. Ed Reed was coming at him like a missile. There’s nobody I know of who wouldn’t have coughed up that ball. I also thought Orton’s pocket awareness was a bit off, esp. on that opening-play blitz. He was also badly, badly fooled by the zone blitz where that white dude who brought the pass rush all day dropped into coverage.
I’m wondering why Stokes wasn’t involved in the game. The book on the Ravens is bad corners. The move to play 3-WR sets is intuitive. It makes sense. I don’t know what happened, but I would have thought that short routes, even slants, would be the way to go to combat the interior pass rush. Of course, the other problem is that interior pass rush = LBs in throwing lanes.
I’m not dispirited. If you assume the Broncos don’t beat another quality team, they’re 11-5. If they beat one, they’re 12-4. If they beat two — and that’s where my money is — they go 13-3. The Giants and Steelers at home look like good targets to me.
I don't think you blame orton on the moreno fumble.
You can’t blame moreno either. Reed was fifteen yards off the ball when orton threw it. There was no way he could have forseen moreno getting blasted. At the same time, you can’t blame knowshon, either. Reed simply destroyed him.
I’m not sure you can blame any of the broncos for that play. It was just a great play by a great safety.
If Taylor Swift were to try and tackle me, I'd let her.
Thanks for the TRACKS Doug
I was really upset with the way we played, coming off a bye! The Ravens were teing off on ore O, they knew we wouldnt throw the ball deep and that hurt us. We really need to start taking chances down feild to open up the short passing game. Baltimores pass rush mite of had a lot to do with it but we cant keep dinking and dunking. GO BRONCOS
live and die blue and orange
I hear you, Jerry. But they relied on the short passing game the first 6 games, too, and that worked out just fine. I don’t think the story is much more complicated than: They blitzed effectively, and our blitz pick-up was weak. Long-term, going that blitz-crazy is a problem, esp. if you’re bringing pressure from the secondary. If other teams take a page from the book, I fully believe they’ll adjust, and well.
My only issue is...
That was patently obvious by the first snap. Why not go to slants and draws in addition to the screens? Little worrisome there…
by legendarywalton on Nov 2, 2009 12:37 PM MST up reply actions
Good Morning Doug, Thank You for all you do on Horse Tracks...
Real Power, comes with the realization that One cannot change the Moment;
only ones perception of it: Atitude! JQM
Thanks Doug
your assessment as well as ChiBronx’ is pretty much how I saw it. Our team got beat by a team that was prepared and “Brung It.”
Character may be manifested in the great moments but it is made in the small ones -- Philip Brooks
We need to win the Pitt game. And I think we will play well in that one.
The most disappointing thing was how flat and unprepared we were coming out of a bye. A bye week should be advantageous, but we did not use our bye like a good team should.
Too many things went wrong yesterday to single out any one thing and I’m not overly worried about a worried about a 6-1 team coming off an away loss to a good club. A lot of guy had their 1st tough game of the season (Goodman, Buckhalter, Dawkins, Clady, ) It happens and you can’t win them all, BUT… Royal, Smith and Ben Hamilton have all been MIA for a while.
What is up with Royal. He does not look anything like the player he was last season or in preseason. Those were some subpar CBs he couldn’t beat yesterday. It is definitely time to wonder about what is going on with Eddie. He seems to miss Cutler far more than BM or Scheff.
I’m also starting to wonder about Alphonso Smith. Where is the guy that was so good vs Cincy? He hasn’t flashed at all the last few weeks and he keeps getting beat in nickel situations. He has also given up on a few plays. For a guy that looked so nasty at Wake Forest, I’m less than impressed with his play in the NFL.
Ben Hamilton’s play has fallen off a cliff. It may be time to sub in Olsen or Hochstein if this keeps up.
I’m done with the Mitch Berger experiment.
This is my favorite website.
Flat and Unprepared hits the nail on the head.
If they deserved to have 4 days off on the bye for performance, do they loose their days off this week? Really hard to find positives this week coming from anyone. Coming into the season I felt our special teams would be much better, couldn’t have been more wrong. We rarely make it past the 20 on kickoff returns. Praters kicks are slowly getting shorter and shorter, he used Shanahan as an excuse for last year, I’m ready to call a spade a spade on this one. Hard to have good punt coverage when more players have to stay back and prevent a block, good thing they only go 30-40 yds. Enough of that negativity.
Steelers are going to need some help on Monday, our defense is going bring the hammer on this one. Predicting a 27-10 game.
Denver rookie head coach Josh McDaniels doesn't have a grasp on how to build a team." - John Clayton, April 23rd, 2009
Special teams are my biggest concern for Denver. Even with two kick returns for TDs in one game, we still had to give one back to Sproles. Now we allow another return for a TD in the next game? Sheesh.
Our return game has pretty much sucked all season except for San Diego and now our coverage unit looks terrible as well. With guys like Larsen, Woodyard, Burton, Royal and McBath you wonder how we can be so poor in special teams as the talent doesn’t seem to be the issue. I will never miss Scott O’Brien, but the new speical teams coach is not much of an upgrade.
Will the Broncos ever be decent in speical teams?
This is my favorite website.
+1
Take away those two returns for TDs that Royal have and this team looks plain sucky in the return game. I hear all the talking heads saying “Royal is a supreme talent in the return game”, but I don’t see it…if he is so good then our field position should be much better. That doesn’t all get blamed on him (he needs people to block for him), but so far he’s had a lucky game. Royal != Hester
"Precipitation, which side are you on?
Are you on the rise? Are you falling down?
Let me know, Come on let's go, yeah
Got some if you need it!" -EV
Denver : Special Teams Chicago : Quarterbacks
The field position problems have been unreal. Just like during the latter Shanahan years, I don’t bat an eyelash at the Broncos starting drives on their own 15, 20, 25. It just seems like the way football eternally works. They hire new coaches, they draft players specifically because of their special teams ability…. it just doesn’t matter.
When Dierdorf called Royal one of the most dangerous return men in the NFL, I spit out my coffee. 80% of his returns go for 4 or 5 yards, it seems. He had two clear lanes last game, thanks to breakdowns by San Diego. But his ability to create yardage on his own is virtually nil. He looked terrible yesterday, sidestepping, trying to change direction, and getting leveled a few yards from where he received the ball.
To me, this underscores how dependent the Broncos are on turnovers — that’s the only way they get a short field to work with.
Missing Hixon, that's for sure
It may be time to activate McKinley.
Smith has been MIA
Because he’s a corner who had a high ankle sprain.
Not sure he does
…but I’m also not sure he’s 100%, either. Jack Williams has been playing a lot.
Bottom line, he’s a rookie who took a step backward after his injury.
I'm not sure we were unprepared,
but BAL was certainly more prepared. Case in point, the biggest problem today, in my opinion, was pass protection. There were a ton of missed assignments and matchup issues up front all day. Baltimore did an excellent job mixing up blitzes and attacking the soft center of our line— hats off to the BAL coaches. On top of the coaching, they are extremely physical and tough up front and had something to prove. Furthermore, pass protection is more difficult on the road with crowd noise affecting the way a QB makes his adjustments.
The good news is, the Broncos have the best pass-protecting LT in football and the best blocking TE in football. Graham will be able help out on the right side if Harris misses significant game, freeing up the backs to protect up the middle. We actually did a decent job of this at times in the second half, but it was too little too late, as their D was fired-up and had us one-dimensional. The bottom line is, due to the OL strengths, the coaches should be able scheme up protection to protect Hamilton, and we have five home games remaining where it will be easier to setup and adjust protections.
As for Royal, I don’t know how you can say he wasn’t beating the CBs. It’s so hard to tell watching games on TV that unless you have coaches tape somehow, I don’t really see how you can back that statement up. I suppose you can extrapolate and say if he were getting open, he would have had more catches. Extrapolations are shaky though, because there are so many factors involved— where is he in the progression (tough to see on TV), what type of coverages is he seeing (tough to see on TV), how much time does the QB have (today, not much)?
Obviously, Royal isn’t having the year he had last year, but there are some other, more likely explanations than “he misses Jay Cutler” as to why he’s not doing as well in 2009. If he misses anyone, it’s Mike Shannahan and Tatum Bell. It’s much easier for a receiver to put up numbers when the offense throws the ball 50-60 times each game. This offense is much more balanced— through 7 games in 09, the breakdown is 231 passes (53%), 204 rushes (47%), in 2008 our offense threw 62% and ran 38%. Moreover, Jabar Gaffney is a very good football player and is a more viable option than anyone not named Brandon or Eddie on last year’s squad. Is it any wonder Eddie’s numbers have dropped off in an offense with fewer balls and more options?
I didn’t see Phonz give up yesterday, can you let me know what play(s) that was(were) on? Corners are going to get beat. He’s a rookie and I don’t really know how healthy he is. It’s really only the third or fourth game he’s seen significant action in. I’m not worried about him at all. Give him some playing time and let him grow. To me, he’s shown enough already for me to be very hopeful about his Bronco career.
Nice perspective
And catch of some knee-jerk panic explanations.
As on the other thread (potent quotables) , now we just get to see how the smartest coach on the smartest team in all of gosh-darn football respond to the second possibility on any given Sunday.
"Aggression, discipline, accountability, effort" Brian Dawkins 9/29/2009
"Life is a daring adventure or nothing." Helen Keller
"He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little" Horace
by PositivIntegral on Nov 2, 2009 10:54 AM MST up reply actions
The Phonz was loafing on the kick return yesterday and I’ve noticed more than one time where he tried to arm tackle a guy instead of throwing his body into the tackle. There was a run in the Pats game that sent me through the roof because of his lazy effort. He’s had some good moments as well, but I’m not seeing nearly as much in him as I had hoped.
On a positive note, Ayers keeps showing improvement. I’m not seeing any improvement from the Phonz.
I probably am extrapolating on Royal a bit. With alarming frequency this season, I’ve noticed a CB or safety right next to him on passes in his direction. He was targeted 8 times yesterday and only caught two passes. No catches vs San Diego. So I may be extrapolating, but he is not playing nearly as well as he is capable. He was FIRE in the preseason and now he is ice cold as a WR. We are seven games into the season and he looks like the text book case of sophomore slump. DeSean Jackson is killing it in Philly and I was hoping Royal would be making the same kind of impact for Denver since Eddie was the better WR in 2008.
This is my favorite website.
Ayers looked great yesterday.
He’s quietly doing his thing… I wonder if he’ll ever be a truly explosive player, but he hasn’t missed many assignments in the last 3 games.
by legendarywalton on Nov 2, 2009 12:41 PM MST up reply actions
I’ve been kind of hard on Ayers, but I’m starting to see what Ted and the others like in him.
Our D had a ton of TFL yesterday (tackle for loss). I think 10 or so. Our O and esp our special teams really duffed yesterdays game.
Smith needs to show me a lot more in the coming weeks. I hope he is a much better player than he has shown in the last few weeks.
This is my favorite website.
Hopefully he will get over that high ankle sprain and give us glimpses of what he showed us in the first few weeks.
If Taylor Swift were to try and tackle me, I'd let her.
I don't see how we were prepared.
I would put being ready to play a game in the prepared category, and we were definitely not ready for this game. Recievers were not getting seperation, Orton had about 2.5 seconds to throw the ball. Unlike the 6 games prior to this one, we didn’t make any noticable half time adjustments. Got the feeling we took a 2 week bye week :(
Denver rookie head coach Josh McDaniels doesn't have a grasp on how to build a team." - John Clayton, April 23rd, 2009
Simple Math
Take a very good team that must win a game and play at home
vs.
Another very good team that would like to win a game on the road..
The home team wins 80% of the time and that’s what happened.
Let’s not over react
by hallandnash on Nov 2, 2009 7:38 AM MST reply actions 2 recs
Poll would benefit from
the addition of three words:
“…the better team” OF THE DAY
We’ve beaten teams that have beaten them, and now they’ve beaten a team that has beaten those teams. Any major conclusions to draw, vis-a-vis standings and potential to go all the way? Nah… some things to learn, but the Panic button is still up on a shelf in a closet, with dust on it.
This game had more to say about the Ravens (legit) than the Broncos (also legit, had a lousy day).
"Aggression, discipline, accountability, effort" Brian Dawkins 9/29/2009
"Life is a daring adventure or nothing." Helen Keller
"He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little" Horace
Who is Kevin Blackstone
and why should I not want to punch him after reading that?
Oh, right, it’s a Fanhouse piece. Never mind. Might as well read a high school paper.
The commenter formerly known as "Dashiell".
Btw re the poll above
I don’t really like any of the choices as posed. I don’t think the Ravens are the better team in general, but if you mean yesterday specifically, then I guess so… Don’t like the other two choices either. So I abstain. ;-)
The commenter formerly known as "Dashiell".
I hope Brandon Marshall takes a look at how Percy Harvin catches the ball when CB's are all over him.
Harvin caught a pass in between 3 defenders that was a little like the pass thrown to Marshall. Hmm, take a look BMarsh and catch the ball. A play like that could change the whole outlook of the game, remember Dallas?
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