Until we build the line needed to run this offense, I think our success is still going to be a mixed bag. We are 2-6 since Baltimore exposed that flaw.

If you want it bad enough, you TAKE IT.

And thanks. I agree whole-heartedly with your take on Knowshon. I haven’t seen your two cents on the Hillis situation, so would you mind giving your take? Any idea why he’s disappeared?

You have been invited to play in the post season.
All you need do is win the next two games. It sounds so simple to a die
hard fan like me. I am extremely proud of the team, even with the lose to
the hated raiders yesterday. ( Don’t worry about my television, it can be replaced )
Now its up to you as a team, I can only stand by and encourage you. I will not give
up on my team. So please, Pleeze, don’t give up on Yourselves.
Its their in front of you….Just Take It
One Game at a Time, One Play at a Time.
I Believe in YOU!!!
Broncos on Three…

it’s easy to blame the players and there’s plenty of that to go around – and you’re right, the list includes future HOF’s like Bailey and Dawkins as well as potential Pro-Bowlers like DJ and Doom. But then it gets down to lack of talent and how to scheme to help cover for that. I think Nolan did a great job earlier in the year with this as the defense was seemingly transformed using the likes of McBean, Haggan and Fields – guys nobody’s ever heard of. But lately, it’s been far more hit and miss – something went horribly wrong with the run defense yesterday. On offense, we all expected better execution as the season wore on, but we’re not really seeing it. I had a really bad feeling watching that offensive series just after the Bailey pick of the pop fly. Two attempts at rolling right and throwing back left including one to the left tackle. That had to be one of the ugliest sequences I’ve seen all year, ranking just behind the fake kick in D.C. – and that comes down to coaching. I’m not for running anybody out of town (except Peiffer), but the scheming and play-calling have to be better, especially in the face of the current starting line-up talent/experience level.
Go Broncs!

I spent the last 3 games of the 2008 season pointing fingers, complaining, and yes..doubting. Well as Mr. Bena put it…NOT THIS YEAR!

Cmon Broncos fans, snap out of it. I believe we will beat Philly. Hell, Denver owes Philadelphia a beat down after the injustice the CO Rockies had to go through with the ppd game due to cold conditions only to move it to an even colder night. Now it’s time to cost Philadelphia some home field advantage.

Earn it, own it. 10-6… We would have all taken it. Turns out 10-6 means we also earned it.

if they were a little more trustworthy. ; )

But you points are well taken. sigh

GO BRONCOS!

We could be like the Vikings. Brett Favre has created more drama at the worst possible time with his complaining to Chilly. We don’t hear that from Kyle Orton, do we?

You had a great tweet yesterday, something along the lines of, "the great thing about the NFL is that when one team executes and the other does not, the team that executes will win, regardless of talent level." That, along with you comments above, is/are dead on.

My favorite thing about McDanials coming into the season was his philosophy regarding what players he wanted on his team—smart, tough, well-conditioned athletes that play well under pressure. These are the type of men it takes to win games late in the year. I would argue that we have a lot more of these guys now than we had in 2008, largely due to McDanials. I believe in 2008, the team got beat by an even worse raider club 30-10 and were never really in the game in the fourth quarter. Yesterday was quite different.

My point is, that we have a coach with a overall philosophy that’s in tune with what it takes to win ball games He has implemented the plan to a large degree, but for all of the Kyle Orton’s, Brandon Mashall’s, Andre Davis’, Brian Dawkins’, Mario Haggen’s that we have on this club, there just isn’t enough of them. One of the main problems in my opinion is the number of Rookies in key positions we’re playing. I think you’re right about Knowshon’s difficulty to adjust, but I will also add that from the conditioning level, you have a guy that missed the first week of camp due to a holdout, then the last three weeks of camp with a sprained knee. This guy is banged up and wore out, which also leads to diminishing returns in his performance.

Ayres appears to have the physical attributes to completely dominate (I watched him throw that RT for OAK around like a rag doll about four times yesterday while holding the edge), but he seems lost at times too and fails to make some plays under pressure. All rookies will struggle with pressure situations—you have to be in pressure situations enough to know how to respond. This is why Tiger Woods dominates professional golf. He knows how his body and mind will react when it’s under pressure better than his opponents on the back nine at Augusta on Sunday because he’s been in those situations so many times before. It’s impossible for Rookies to know this, which is why playing meaningful games down the stretch is so important to young players.

This team has a way to go before it’s as dominate as the three elite teams in the NFL this year, but we’re not that far off and have taken a huge step forward this year even if our record doesn’t show it. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the vast majority of teams this year have real issues that keep them from dominance (just like the Broncos). Last year 11-5 missed the playoffs, this year 11-5 would win most of the divisions. The playing field has been leveled and while a lot of teams took big steps back this year, the Broncos held their ground amidst the largest shake-up in this— or many other organizations—in the last twenty years. Don’t for a second count this team out against Philly this week or for the playoffs, it can be done. Dawkins (and hopefully Buck) will have this team fired up on Sunday and it won’t shock me if we beat Philly soundly.

I was one of the ones who said that we don’t deserve to go to the playoffs – figuratively. I hate losing to the raiders at home.

I’m sad that I said and I apologize for it. I think most of what was driving me was embarrassment at losing to, what I see as, an inferior team. We’re supposed to be better than, and put away those teams. Having lost this game, though, I think we’re going to have to be a lot better to beat the chefs, and play like we did against Indy to beat Philly.

I also am afraid of losing the last three games of this season, dropping out of the playoff race and for the whole MSM circus that will start immediately after. I just don’t want to go through that again. “Denver is a bunch of choke artists” “Different year, same story” – that sort of stuff. I hope that this team can write a different ending. But that hope has taken a beating, and is on life support. Here’s to a miraculous recovery!

The first six games of the season were an amazing euphoria because you could see a coach willing his team to victory. We made adjustments at halftime, and got a glimpse of McDaniels’ evaluation prowess as a completely revamped defense started to flex its muscle. Then we went on this 2 and 6 stretch, and outside the game against New York, we haven’t seen the team play anything like the 6-0 team. We were obviously exposed along the interior of the line, but McDaniels has had absolutely no answer for any of the A gap blitzes. The consistent whipping in the passing game eventually crushed the confidence of the line, and that was coupled with a system that does not fit the personnel. These are the reasons many pundits thought the Broncos would fail so miserably at the start of the season— a run game gives a team consistency and allows a defense to rest. By installing a new blocking scheme that could not be run by its players, I totally understand why we were picked to go 3-13 or worse.

Here’s the thing though— we have seen this team overcome its physical inequities to play truly dominant football. I believe the article was written by Emmett that likened us to a war machine that relies on precision, a observation that is absolutely stunning as the season continues to play out. The number one thing I can think of that is plaguing this team is that they are not mentally conditioned to run McDaniels scheme for an entire season. We all thought they could only improve because the system was new, and it turns out that there is a law of diminishing returns with this system because it demands so much from the players. I imagine this is why the preseason was so grueling, so that the team could be exposed to the effects of physical injury on mental fortitude.

That’s why I’m conflicted— it makes sense that we couldn’t keep up the pace we were on. McDaniels was able to motivate his players using the pundits, the distractions, etc. to hone their mental focus and had them playing midseason football at the beginning of the season. I don’t know if you can regain that type of momentum, even if you’re playing for your playoff lives, because confidence is so fickle and we can’t work out the kinks for months at a time (a la training camp). So, I see the potential McD has for getting his team ready to play at a top level, but I don’t know if we have the right players, or how long it takes to condition players for his scheme. His stubbornness to force a system down the players throats seems inconsistent— he says he is always focused on winning, but that can’t be the best way to achieve those results. I have to imagine that McD wrote this year off, and never copped to that during any interview, and his expectations are being exceeded, and he is challenging his players with an extended try out. There’s only so much you can do during one season, but look for us to either a) sign a junk ton more free agents (I think we led the league this offseason or b) trade for more picks (I guess c) would be both of those).

What’s maddening to many of us is that our expectations weren’t properly set— because no coach can come out and say, “We’re punting this season, so we can see the true problem areas that we need to address.” McDaniels has proven that you can be quite competitive while rebuilding. So just look at this like a (groan…) 20 game pre-season.

We were quoting it in the open thread on Stampede Blue last night as well, but that was mainly because someone was “storming the castle.”

Good luck against Philly this coming week. You can do it!

Nice to have you guys sticking around and sorry to have let your division in to the castle, so to speak LOL.

I just don’t see it, he does not have the break away speed, he doesn’t have the power, and he has some definate ball security issues, and he still struggles with blitz pickup and knowing his assignment. Maybe he will overcome these things, but usally RB is the one position whether or not you know if you have something special after one year.

I think he may be a good complimentary back, but I don’t see him ever being a feature back or a guy who will win a game for you. Mark Schlreath said Moreno looks a lot like Matt Forte, a guy who will run hard and is versitile but not a game changer, he will get you 4 yards if the play is blocked for 4 yards, but he won’t get you anything else. He is never going to be that guy that can take over a game, and he obviously has a hard time getting the tough yard.

I would love to see Hillis get an chance, but I don’t see that happening for whatever reason (fair or not fair), I think that we will need another back next year.

Well, almost the same.OLine. Over 343yds rushing and 179 receiving yds in 4 1/2 games and we probably would have made the playoffs if he didn’t get injured.

Game ball
Rookie Peyton Hillis was almost an afterthought coming in behind his celebrated Arkansas teammates Darren McFadden and Felix Jones this season. Hillis got the start on Sunday and scored two touchdowns. He also rushed 10 times for 44 yards and caught three passes for 26 yards

Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Almost an afterthought! Shanahan was in a pinch and looking around he looks at Peyton and with a sigh says get in there kid and give it a try. Now for whatever reason McD has for not playing Hillis is on him, he is the ultimate decision maker, and rightly so. I have my suspicions as to why he won’t use Hillis, but, it still makes no difference what any of us think, McD is going to do what he wants and thinks is best for the team regardless of what we think. I am just as bull headed as McD is and will always stand by my principals no matter what, I just won’t let my EGO get in the way of common sense. I just hate the “WHAT IF’S” in life when you have a chance to prove it wrong or right.

I am wondering why there hasn’t been more buzz around the league about the laser light in the stand. Clearly McDaniels should have made an issue out of this at this press conference, but instead he took the high road and blamed execution and playcalling.

But seriously, I know that this was a problem like 10 years ago when laser lighters were cool, but this is a big deal. First off to the person with the laser light, you have no class and don’t deserve to ever go to another football game again. Second, if this had happened to Bert Favre, Peyton Manning, or Thomas Brady this would be huge news.

Patience. I really need to take a long term view of Denver and its not easy for me. McFGs is a rookie coach… He is a rookie. Just tell myself that again and again – like the failed short yardage running plays he keeps calling again and again. His play calling has been down right terrible the past few weeks and he was our biggest liability vs both the Colts and Raiders. McFGs continues to put our worst players in the position to do what they do well – FAIL. Our players are failing to execute a broken game plan.

Our biggest overall problem is interior O-line because Hamilton is awful and Hoch is just about as bad. Weigmann is also a weakness as is Polumbus. Everyone at MHR knows this, McFGs knows this, our opponents know this. McFGs, please stop running the ball in short yardage. Please try winning and losing with our best players (Our QB and WRs/TEs) instead of our worst players (Hoch, Wiegmann and Polumbus). I know it sucks we can’t run in short yardage situations, but such is life.

But I do think we are a little better than we were in 2008. Defensively, we are much much better and offensively, we’re are just a little worse than the 2008 team. The lack of improvement during the season is disconcerting, but we still have two games left so who knows. Maybe a Xmas miracle and we win in Philly. But we are 2-6 over the last eight games while Philly is winning. We should be a large underdog.

I wish I felt better about 2010, but our rookies and the struggles of our 2nd year players are obvious. So the long term view is what I will try my best to see. I don’t think we are close to being a contending team, but if McFGs can improve (and he should), we’ll have a better than average coach. Right now, he is an average NFL coach (for a rookie HC, that is promising). Unlike most other HCs that have been doing this for a long time and maxed out as far as potential, McFGs stands to gain a lot of ground vs his peers. I think he’ll get there in Denver. I look forward to those days, but I don’t think they are just around the corner.

I think that the two main focal points in the upcoming draft will be the interior line, and the defensive line.