Colts 28 - Broncos 16 - Colts remain undefeated as Broncos miss opportunities

and Marshall is a hell of a player.

Great game

Except when Peyton Manning is on the field. The Peyton Manning Clause.

that Baby TO took over TO’s record? Tough loss, but with some positives to build from. All I want for Christmas is a short-yardage game. :)

one of the mics caught it and the network apologized for it being broadcast live.

but McD’s playcalling seemed stubborn and arrogant today. Don’t run time and time again when it just isn’t working. Point: Running up the middle on third/fourth and short is stupid. the gut wasn’t open all day, why would it change?

Hats off to the defense for holding tight, but I’ve said it before and it is true now—their giving up points in the first quarter/half is going to get them killed. It did today and although I’m satisfied with Nolan’s adjustments, I am in utter disgust that he allowed 21 points before he adjusted anything.

How many times does Denver need to get burned before you realize the adjustments need to come sooner?

Also, I’d really like to know why the hell McDaniels didn’t let Hillis into the game, especially in the areas where Hillis excels like short yardage and red zone runs.

works for the chargers.

Big Picture? I do not agree that if we look at the big picture, we are much better off.

The Big Picture includes things like Eddie Royal, Hillis and Clady.

I’m really starting to think Shanny and Cutler made Royal a good WR. He looks like crap this season – a fringe NFL player with lesser talent than a guy like Gaffney. A shocking regression to be certain.

Clady is not as great as I thought he was. He is a very good player, but not a dominant LT like I hoped he would become. And Hillis? Where did he go.. Same with Scheff. That is four really good prospects that have struggled under McDaniels – regressed is the accurate term.

The Broncos are better in 2009 than they were in 2008, but a lot of the improvement is due to the vets we signed and not internal improvement from our young players that we need to get better if we want to be good long term. Nolan > Slowik, but there are some alarming signs that 2010 might not bring better days.

Royal, Clady, Scheff and Hillis have really regressed under McDaniels and that is a big picture item worth noting.

we are not on the level of the Colts yet but we are a playoff team. Let’s just focus on beating our next three opponents and build what will be a successful dynasty. GO BRONCOS!!!

Like a great coach, alwayed focused on the big picture where others squint at the little things. Bravo Broncos!

in a year when the “experts” thought we’d be lucky to win three. This is a process, but be assured, we’re building the right way. In fact, at Church today before I got to watch part of the game, we learned about growing through adversity. That’s what the Broncos will do. We’ll be fine. It’s time to beat the Faiders next Sunday, same MHR thread, same Battime channel.

especially from the guys who usually forecast cloudy days and point to to Orton’s performance…I think he atleast played toe-to-toe wit Peyton;
Orton 29-41, 277 yards, 2TD’s, 1 INT
Manning 20-42, 220 yards, 4TD’S, 3INT
Granted, we had some bad 3&outs early, and lotsa trouble wit short yardage;
no Buckhalter, no Larsen
Of course, I wanna know why we don’t use Hillis in those short yardage situations…however, I don’t chalk this all up on McD and Moreno. Poor execution on all parts of the offense contributed;
4th and 1 with Moreno gettin hit behind the line by CB (Powers?); Gaffney completed missed assignment and let CB into backfield, not Moreno’s fault.
We knew Indy had a fast D, now we really know how fast they play, and where we gotta get to.
Our defense struggled early against Manning, but we all saw the 2nd half effort. 3 picks on Manning.
Yeah, Royal and Scheff were kinda invisible today, but somethin else happened in the passing game…Marshall set the record for most receptions…kinda hard for the other guys to get alotta looks when B-marsh is beastin, can’t jus jump to conclusion that they’ve regressed as players now. And Clady, come on…he was underrated last year, and now some over-compensate and overrate…he’s goin against two of the best ends in football right now (Freeney, Mathis)…
And wat’s wit all the “McD crap playcalling” defacto rants?
Sure, poor choices in numerous circumstances, however…why were we in the game in the fourth quarter? Inspite of numerous penalties, a missed FG and key injuries to our running game? That has to fall alil on playcalling too. Nolan and the D had a rough outing from the get-go, but they really stepped up and showed heart (Manning 4th qtr drive was tuff, but that’s why Peyton is Peyton).
We won many battles today but lost the war still.
I can handle this loss, it was hard fought till the end.

Projected pick by avg round taken next year in fantasy football? I’d say 2nd-3rd at latest. Damn what a week. Too bad the Colts are just too damn good. That run defense is excellent. Denver played really well, and if we keep playing like this, we will make the playoffs.

Brees, Marshall, Peterson. Bring it on fellas.

I’d like to think that the Broncos were trying to win without tipping their hand, so they called dive plays in the most obvious situations, hoping the O-line could control the line of scrimmage.

I’d like to think McDaniels is keeping Peyton Hillis as an ace in the hole for the playoffs.

But ultimately before the season started, my hope for the Broncos was that they would still be in games with 5 minutes left, and they didn’t disappoint me in that respect.

rton on INT: was 1-on-1 sitch with Marshall, said he will throw ball up there. Marshall tripped. But Orton said he’d try 100 of 100 times

Buckhalter said it was same injury he had earlier this year (which forced him to miss a game), but on other foot.

Buckhalter and R Hill were on crutches with ankle injuries. McBath had arm in sling

Reaction seemed to be mixed. McD said there are no moral victories. Marshall said despite the loss the Broncos can "hold our heads high."

   McD shot down a question about Hillis on short yardage. "We’re putting our best player out there," he said.

Moreno is not your best player in that situation….was not at the beginning of the season, 4 weeks a go, last week or today……McDaniels needs to get his head out of his arse and know that the more he works Moreno the more he limits his effectiveness. Hes not a every down back and was clearly over worked.
God hes an arrogant SOB sometimes….love him…..but this loss is on him!
Thanks for the info CBB!

at least for 2½ quarters at Indy, I predict a win against Philly.

The play calling is what it is, why not put the blame on EXECUTION. The plays were probably what Denver worked on all week and if the Broncos actually would have executed like they are suppose to they could have worked. So Denver lost a game to a 13-0 team, came back from 21-0. In years past the Colts would have dropped 40+ on them. This team didnt quit. WW was put on Clark maybe a poor decision but evidentaly Nolan has faith in him. So its so easy to attack the coaching when the blame needs to fall on the players. The coaching staff put Denver in a position to win. The Oline didnt play well on short yardage situations. Granted it is still a loss, but I feel better that I did during the 4 game losing streak. I still think Denver can run the table. I was hoping for an 8-8 record this year, they have been WAY better than anyone thought and they are getting better. Its so easy to rip the coaching based on perceived bad play calls, but I will put my faith into the coaches than upset fans after a diffult loss

You have a very very good team, this game came down almost exactly as i was replying on the threads here this week, REDZONE performance and our D playing the clutch i replyed to some threads that the most important thing your team needed to do was to score points, that formula of running the ball to win TP just isnt working anymore against this Colts , a shoot out is mandatory.

For what is worth i have some observations of your team, mainly one very important , your team needs to throw the ball deep more , those catches to BM were just playing into the Colts bend-but-dont-break defense game plan, did he average more than 10y a catch? 1 thing i admire from P Manning is that he gets picked 3 times(2 unlucky bounces 1 sick pick) He keeps on going, goodman played great he striped garcon of a few deep ones that were surely a TD or a very long gain, but goodman played great. But thats the thing 1 PM pass to Garcon or Clark = 5 passes to Marshall , your team needs to make the big plays.

Now you have the best passing defense in this league , take it for what is worth i really think it is the best, PM 4TDs were hard fought against a D that made him look like Grossman for about 30 minutes, im glad he is a robot and dosent get emotionally beat the 4th quarter TD drive just wasnt supposed to happen

 Marshall is too damn good to have him catching 5yards catches all day. Was the pass rush that effective to have Orton throwing 5 yarders?

Obviously we have a lot to improve on, but not as much as many had thought before the season. Our D played well, and to be where we are is great. McBath among so many others are showing us what our future will look like, and I like it. I do NOT blame Moreno for the bad average, I believe what happened was our interior line got dominated by a good defensive front. We can easily win out the rest of the season and then we’ll see what we look like in the post season. Also, the Chargers are winning games, but i can’t see them doing much damage in the playoffs (again).

that the broncos played very good today aside from the 4th and 1 i think marshall should have had a few more catches cause the runs were not workin but our d showed why they are good great pass coverage all in all i seen progress

okay, but realistically, we lost… and pretty bad, too. I get the positive stuff as well, but sorry, there is NO BIG PICTURE in the nfl. it’s “win this year” or become a lions fan. i don’t want to be a lions fan. let’s go with a loss is a loss and a win is a win. today we lost.

If that’s what you could call it today. We have some lovely parting gifts for you. Time to hit control alt delete on those two teams.

Good luck rest of the season.

Plenty of people have already dissected the nuts and bolts of this loss so there’s probably no benefit for me to get into it. I’ll just say that I am not as down on Hillis and Royal as some. It isn’t as though they just forgot how to play football. But if there’s an answer to it, most likely it is known only to the guys in the locker room. I’m not a coach, but that’s my opinion.

Speaking of coaches, remember that while McDaniels has been one for a long time, as a head coach he’s just as much a rookie as the players he drafted this year. He’ll learn from this, I’m sure.

On the bright side, it is nice to see that our offense can rack up the yards. Next up, points. I haven’t played football in a long time but as I recall, you’re supposed to leave them on the scoreboard, not on the field.

Despite the missed opportunities today I really think I do like the direction this team is heading as a whole. They weren’t able to sneak out of Indy with a win today, but they should have, and that’s encouraging to me. They could have folded after getting 21 points down and instead they battled back and almost pulled off an ugly comeback. If they’d stopped Indy on that last drive, managed to steal a touchdown and win the thing, Clady would still have had a poor game and McDaniels’ play calling on the whole would still have sucked.

They’d still have the same problems to fix. It’s the loss that bothers me more than the fact that a lot of guys – including McDaniels – had a lousy day, or others clearly have yet to get their sea legs in this new system.

If I’d come in here in July and said that in week 14 Denver would be 8-5 with three very winnable games left and a legitimate shot at a Wild Card spot – and the Steelers would be 6-7 and on life support, I’d have been crucified.

But if anything discussed in here could actually help the Broncos, I bet we all would have said “I’ll take it”.

Chin up, Nation. There are plenty of wrinkles still to iron out but there’s no reason to be outrageously negative about things. We’ve still got a lot to feel good about. At least, I do.

Colinsworth has said the expression “What the heck” about four times in the last minute of this broadcast. I have never heard this expression in that rapid of a succession, as I have just now.

Nicks is tearing it up right now. I think that Marshall will have a huge day. The Eagles secondary is having a really difficult time bringing him down. They have also had illegal contact penalties on back to back plays and lead me to believe that they will have no answer for a large, physical WR.

There has been over 700 yards of offense and there are still four minutes left in the third quarter. It’s like a backyard flag football game out there.

I would say that we should count them, bu I am way too tired to do that, at this point.

  Special teams return yardage ! It seems like when the broncos do well in this area we win ……What do you think ?

  I would .. He really is not being used much at all

I give the team a lot of props for responding after being down 21-0. The defense got the turnovers and too bad the offense couldn’t do anything with them other than a FG.

All that said, I am looking at this game and comparing it to how we usually do against INDY on the road. We have improved. Now let’s go beat the crap out of the Raiders.

out there yesterday. The D really adjusted well, but spotted them too much before it happened. That said, I don’t understand why we didn’t bracket Clark with two defenders in the red zone – it’s not that we couldn’t have expected Manning to go in that direction under those circumstances. The middle of our O-line got blown up repeatably yesterday and while I believe it’s a weakness, I think a lot of credit goes to Larry Coyer and the game plan he had in place. I really liked that guy when he was in Denver and he had our number yesterday. And finally, someone, somehow has to make a play on offense when the D gives you three turnovers on the road. Whether that’s play-calling, execution, whatever – got to have points there!
Go Broncs!