via a323.yahoofs.com

Is there something that McDaniels isn't telling us? What's the secret sauce behind the recovery from the 4-game losing streak?

They did beat a contender in the NY Giants...I will give them credit on that although the G-Men were in a little rut and still not playing their best ball.

They just routed the Kansas City Chiefs yesterday 44-13. I'm always a little uneasy when they play at Arrowhead, but they put the beating on them and showed they are capable of putting big numbers on the board.

So what's consistent with McDaniels' winning ways?

Here's the last two games:

Versus Giants: 138 to 57 total rushing yards in favor of Denver...held G-Men under 300 total yards for offense.
Versus Chiefs: 245 to 94 total rushing yards in favor of Denver...held Chiefs to 222 total yards of offense.

So the Colts are a totally different animal than the Broncos are used to. The offense as we all know revolves around Peyton Manning. The Colts don't need to be effective at running the ball to win. Hell, they're only averaging about 87yds/game which is good for last in the league. How are they 12-0? They're defense isn't overwhelming their opponents...at least they're not stopping anyone from putting up big yards. The key thing is they are stopping their opponents on the scoreboard. They're only giving up 16.8pts/game, but so are the Broncos.

The Broncos are going into this week with the 3rd ranked defense against the 4th ranked offense. What is the key to stopping Peyton Manning? Simple...keep them from converting on 3rd downs. The Colts are #1 in the league at 3rd down conversions at 51%. This will be the difference maker and momentum stopper for critical Colts' drives.