Fall from the clouds

I am no stat expert like The Dude and I haven't got a ton of football knowledge like HT, but it does seem clear to me that the Broncos have met or, in most cases, exceeded everybody's expectations this year.  Yet MHR is mired in negativity one day removed from a loss to a long time rival.  I think that this can best be explained by looking at how our expectations have evolved.

When we started the season, you were hard pressed to find a so called expert who would project more than 6 wins for the Broncos after an off season that I don't have to remind everybody about.  In fact you probably had a hard time finding a Bronco fan who had much hope for this season, and you most likely came accross a bunch of people like this:

via i2.cdn.turner.com

If this didn't cause you to burn all of your Bronco shwag and start watching baseball, then it may have galvanized you like it did me.  Dukes and Clayton made me seethe with anger, the way they dismissed my Broncos.  I certainly did not predict a playoff run (I hate to make predictions), but I refused to bury my team, and I refused to wish failure upon them in hopes of forcing a change.  My expectations were simple, I expected improvement, perhaps a building year for a new coach to get what he needs to make things run his way, and a sense of passion from the team.

What we got once the season began IMHO is a vastly improved Defense, a struggling Offense, and a new direction for the team.  The offense was uninspiring and seemed out of sync, but on the drives we succeeded with we were given a peek at what McD's offense could accomplish when the squad was on the same page.  The Defense had seemingly become otherworldly which opened the door for new expectations.  Now after watching everyone tell me that my team was destined to fail, and then watching the Broncos consistently prove them wrong, my head was in the clouds.  The season suddenly felt like much more than a building year, it felt like a potential deep playoff run, the sky was the limit.

But I was ignoring the negative, the Offense was not efficient enough for the team to keep up in high scoring games, and the Defense was not perfect.  I was focused on the record, no one could be beat us until they proved they could.  Unfortunately this bubble burst, as we all know.  Now we are all trying to figure out what to do with all of those expectations we had built during the early season.

So the sequence we have gone through as a fan base has gone like this as I see it:

Events / expectations

Pick up of young rookie head coach and the trade of Cutler / Very low expectations

Preseason struggles / Continued low expectations

Undefeated streak grew / Continually improving expectations into the realm of unrealistic expectations for a new system, new head coach, new QB, high roster turnover

Losses piled up / A perceived fall from expectations as it became clear that this was not a perfect team

Loss to the Raiders / Somewhat bleak expectations that are actually on par for the challenges the team faced

It is my opinion that many of us have let this sequence confuse our opinion of the team and its young coach.  There were only a handful of posters who saw this team doing better than 8-8 before the season, but during the undefeated streak many of us became believers and lost sight of our previous expectations.  We were on cloud nine headed for the playoffs.  The fall back to earth has left many feeling lost and betrayed, but this big picture of this season, its challenges, and its outcome is actually what we should be expecting.  We are not a basement team, and we are not a top tier team, we are IMHO a team with problems building a strong foundation with its eyes on the future.  More importantly we are a team currently in possession of the 5th AFC playoff seed.  That is something to be excited about, not something to dread.