Watched the game again and it is worse the second time round.
All I wanted was for us to play a hard brand of football and keep games close. In the last 4 games we have been blown out and man handled, been out enthused, out coached and out muscled.
I was looking for bright spots…there is none ate the moment.
These guys are quitting on themselves and the coaches, and McD is grasping at straws.
I agree with BM and Vonnie……the lack of passion and accountability in the last 4 games is jaw dropping.
This is not a rant, this is what I see.
We are going to get blown out AGAIN against the Giants and could get swept by the Chiefs if this keeps going.
Pathetic is all I see, and I am hoping for a Thanksgiving miracle.
I dont want to hear about our record…its a mirage and this team is making last years look like a well oiled machine.
MAN I HOPE WE TYRN THIS AROUND!

As for our team, I don’t know, I wish they believed in themselves,
as much as we believed in them.
Go Broncos

If you are honest you can’t be surprised To be honest I have not really been so honest with myself as well. We took off to a 6-0 start after a off season where most fans thought we would be 0-6. Well once the great start came through we became demanding and expected this to continue. When you HONESTLY look back at that start we beat Cincy on a fluke play. We played Dallas with both of their running backs not 100%. We played New England when Tom Brady was not really the REAL Brady. He is now back to his true form.
We then beat the Browns and Raiders which is no big deal.
When we get to mid-season and teams are starting to play better we come up to the Ravens and Steelers who really show us where we are in regards to being a complete team.
We can look at stats that are tosses our way about why we won and now why we do not win but stats do not really show everything. If If we play Dallas who has both starting running back hurt and we stop the run then the stats only show what we did not the reasons we were able to do that. (Just an example) This team is far from ready to be considered playoff ready. I understand this team is in transition and we needed change. With that change comes peaks and valleys. Lets not read to much into either of these. The good and bad will wash each other out. Enjoy the fact we won more game than most of us thought. With that take any loss with a grain of salt. Do not try and look at stats and try to compare the first 6 games and the last 4. If you do think back to the teams we played and when we played them. Who really was not up to speed yet or who did we catch with early injuries. What happened when we played teams in med season form and were healthy? Lets hope the Bears give us a decent draft pick and lest hope upper management has a better draft in 2010. Maybe Shanahan will be working so Denver is not wasting 7 million a year on him when it could be spent on a free agent lineman of quality.
I am not worried so much about what happens this season per say. I am more worried about what we do to move forward and improve the team in the future. That will be the tell all. Can upper management draft? Can they judge quality free agents? Can they work the salary cap? If they can this season will be a learning experience and help them with their decisions that will be made in the off season. Lets just wait and see and hope they handle these areas better than Shanahan did.

until we win again, I shouldn’t post or comment anymore with the exception of this informative post. Hopefully, my absence of commentary makes this frustrating losing streak go away. Besides, you guys are probably better without it.

Renaldo Hill’s play yesterday. Say what you want, but after the McCree, Manuel disaster last year, I like the way he plays.

Orton. Not sure how bad his ancle is, but it was bad enough for him not to practice this week. He came out and played well despite it. Unfortuately Moreno’s fumble killed the drive, but the offense trusts Orton. I think back to what some of the Bear’s players said when he was traded for that guy with all the ‘picks;’ he’s a leader, respected in the locker room, tuff guy. I’ll take him.

Moreno, yes, the fumble was stupid (especially because it would have been 2nd and inches from goal), but I you can see him getting better each week. I guess we all expected him to be TD his rookie year. He’s not, but I think he is going to continue to get better.

BMarsh – maybe he not going to write a book on “How to” leadership anytime soon, but it IS nice to see that he cares. I also don’t think he would have gotten in Moreno’s face if he didn’t think KM was better than that fumble.

Burger wasn’t terrible either…that being said, we need Harris back ASAP!

Thanks, Doug. Great work as always!

10 games in is enough of a sample size to give Denver’s 2009 draft a 1st quarter exam. In this exam, the 2009 Denver draft scores a D+ or C-.

I hated the Alphonso Smith trade when it was made and I still don’t like it today. This guy is our 2010 1st round pick and he is not even playing. When he is on the field, he doesn’t look very good.

Ayers was inactive yesterday. I still have not heard why.

Moreno is a fumbler. Can that be fixed, yes it can. But today, he is a RB with a disturbing fumbling problem. He does show promise as a runner, which is also noteworthy.

You can find Quinn in street clothes or sitting on the bench each week, usually next to Alphonso Smith.

McBath has been decent in a backup role. I like him.

We had FIVE picks in the 1st two rounds and none have been great. Three of those picks have been okay and two (Quinn and Smith) have done nothing.

It’s too early to write them off as busts, but consider the flip side of the coin. Did the likes of Patrick Willis, Ryan Clady, DeMarco Ryans or Adrian Peterson struggle in their 1st year. No. They hit the ground running and making positive impact plays from day one. So did we draft any future stars in 2009. I see very little evidence to suggest we did and we needed more than complimentary players with FIVE high draft picks.

Alphonso Smith and Ayers (two of our three 1st round picks) are bench warmers or inactive. That is not a good sign guys. Not on a team that is struggling. I’ll fully agree with anyone that says McDaniels will need a few years to get his kind of players into the program. But the draft (especially the high picks) IS how you get YOUR kind of players into the system.

I’m not feeling good about our 2009 draft right now and those draft picks are a big part of the future of this team.

I HATE THE SAN DIEGO CHARGERS… ?!??!?!?!?!?!?

Mondays are the worst these days… =/

In other news, they saved Hitler’s brain, my dog died, my car broke down, my girlfriend left me and my mother called to tell me I was adopted and my real father is OJ Simpson.

It’s been a great weekend. LOL

It’s never been more exhausting to be a Broncos fan. Last year’s team was just as thrilling and debasing as a slot machine — you never know what you’re going to get when you pull the lever. You knew there would be highs. And you knew the ride would only end when you lost everything.

Let’s not even talk about the offseason.

I went into this season expecting 7-9. And I was happy with that. We were building something long-term. The talent base had become so pathetic that there were no short-term fixes. Keeping long-term cap room was the name of the game, even if it meant going to battle with a pedestrian defensive line. Drafting a lot of kids and bringing them along slowly — to keep their expectations and frustrations aligned with their learning curve — was the smart thing to do.

The 6-0 start convinced me to climb back on the roller coaster of high expectations. And now here we are: It’s Thanksgiving week, and my wife is asking me yet again why I set myself up for this every year. I can’t even read news stories about the Broncos anymore, and I’m honestly wondering if health plans for the MSM cover lithium. Those guys are about as stoic and patient as Kent Brockman welcoming his new ant overlords. At least they make me feel a bit saner.

So we’re back to square one. You can’t patch a wasted talent base in one offseason, or even two. We generally agree that McDaniels has hired good position coaches. Both he and Nolan scheme extremely well — there’s no other way a team with this low level of talent beats real contenders. The question now is: Are the rookies failing to contribute because they lack talent, or because they are being brought along slowly, as a matter of strategy? Let’s all of us admit that we don’t know. But that should be the focal point going forward.

Alphonso Smith looked great the first few games. Has he regressed, or has the ankle limited him? Did the coaches go into the season planning for Quinn to watch and learn? How is Chris Baker coming along in his daily meetings with Wayne Nunnelly?

There is no substitute for talent. That’s why Shanny was shown the door.

And now I just want the roller coaster ride to end. I’m freaking exhausted.

I’m not just saying that because he was in my fantasy lineup. ;)

I’d really like to know who decided that “goal line camera angles” aren’t important. These deep zoom pictures from a deep end zone camera are crap for determining if someone broke the plane.

Seems like some games have goal line cameras and some don’t. I think it should be all or none.

I won’t dog Moreno for that, even if he’s dogging himself.

But why did McD have Orton in on the last meaningful series?? I thought that was really really risky by our HC to have Orton in there when the game was out of hand and potentially risk injuring him further…

There’s a Charger fan here at work. And there’s nothing I can say. It isn’t like it was a competitive game. It was a complete embarrassment in every way. I have no comeback.

Nothing. I have to just hang my head and take it.

Damn you, cruel fate. LOL

So…… it apears the fan base has started to implode, our team represents nothing of it’s former self, and the Raiders and Chiefs won. I’ll leave it at that.

Anyone else hate the onside kick as much as I did? We were taking over the game, had complete momentum, and then we give it right back to them. Bad decision IMO

What did you guys think about McDaniel’s comment to the Charger players talking smack? I mean saying “we own you” isn’t really what I want our coach to do, especially since we don’t own them