Horse Tracks 12/31/09 - McDaniels says Berger still the punter despite Colquitt's arrival; Royal, Larsen, Graham miss practice; Marshall injures leg

Let me be the first to wish you a Happy Bronco New Year.. = )

But I report, columnists comment. There is a difference in my world.

What? The word reporter could almost be banished from our dictionary going off of that. I don’t know of one “reporter” who doesn’t add their own comments to anything. Legwold = fail

Are you guys excited about the KC game?

I can’t get up for this one.

and I don’t know why I even bother reading his drivel. He never bothers to look beyond the surface of the problem. Then he writes the surface view as fact with a spin to support his biases.

Clayton assertion: “defenses have figured out … the Bronco offense”
Truth content: medium
Insight: NSS**
My take: The Bronco offense is indeed not surprising anyone. In the early part of the season when they were runnning on all cylinders, they were difficult to diagnose. In the latter part of the season the playbook seems to have again contracted, and the simpler offense is being eaten up by defenses.
**NSS is an abbreviation of a popular phrase invoking the name of Sherlock Holmes, which is commonly used to described statements of such blinding obviousness that merely calling it obvious is a massive understatement.

Clayton assertion: “the problem: Kyle Orton can’t successfully throw longer than 20 yards”
Truth content: low
Insight: Biased
My take: This is the most insidious line in the whole paragraph. This line butresses the whole “noodle-arm” theory and implies the problem is solely because of Orton without actually coming out and saying it. In fact, we have seen Orton go down field deep on several occassions. The fact he doesn’t go downfield more often is based upon play-calling, receivers getting open, and pass protection, all of which have been a problem this year.

Clayton assertion: “Defenses might concede passes to Marshall if they can contain his yards after the catch”
Truth content: high
Insight: NSS
My take: This is an inane null statement. Substitute any name in place of Marshall and the statement remains true. There isn’t a defense at any level of football that isn’t predicated on limiting the yards after the catch.

Clayton assertion: “coach Josh McDaniels has gotten everything possible out of that team”
Truth content: medium
Insight: low
My take: McD has done a good job, but I think he hasn’t acheived his full potential. He did not coach a perfect season, and there were a couple decisions that cost games (letting Chris Simms throw deep was one). At this point, the injuries and lack of depth have caught up with the team and they are indeed running at near full capability, but he still could have made some different decisions and won a couple more games.

Clayton assertion: “The defense tends to wear down in fourth quarters”
Truth content: low
Insight: low
My take: He throws this in at the end as a bare statement without any support. Personally I’ve not seen evidence of the defense wearing down in the fourth — the last two games have been decided in the fourth not because of the defense being tired but because of specific players not doing their jobs (Williams was hiddeously far out of position on McNabb’s 3 and 22 conversion) or the incompetence (perfidy) of the refs (the phantom penalties that gave Jamarcus the Hutt his win).

The bit that put me over the edge was his final statement about Eli Manning being an "elite’ QB. Despite the purely subjective nature of his assessment, he has the misplaced hubris to claim that anyone who doesn’t agree with his assessment “needs to be educated.” Now I don’t care what you think of Manning, the sheer egotistical gall of Clayton claiming that anyone who disagrees with his assessment is an uneducated git is prideful enough to warrant a lightning bolt from Zeus to wreck ruin on the man if only this were a Greek tragedy instead of a Victorian farce.

Marshall isn’t the only reason the Broncos didn’t make the playoffs for the past 4 years. Why do I read his drivel?