The Hangover

Coming into monday night i thought we would whoop the raiders. Get 100+ yards on the ground, see this efficient Kyle Orton we all heard about in practice(Again), our fast aggressive defense and finally get to see this new and improved John Fox led team...

Well then came tuesday morning. The "Tebow, Tebow, Tebow" chants still echoing, painful memories of watching Orton have the football slip from his hands, when he had a wide open receiver. Watching Darren McFadden show us why he is one of the best running backs in the game when healthy. Then watching Champ, Doom, Lloyd, and Moreno all get dinged up. Man could it get any worse? Felt like a hangover

Hell, its been two nights since the opener, and it still hurts. What now? Yeah it's only one game, but there was alot of ugly in that game. Call it knee-jerk? I call it reality. Reality hurts ladies and gentlemen. 

Our first reality check

1. Kyle Orton will never be a winner in Denver.

- The fans hate him, the Front Office doesnt want him, or at least didnt. He's the lame QB on this team. His game monday night, to put it bluntly, was ugly. Call me a hater Orton apologist, Tebow Followers cheer for me, its the truth. Orton fooled our coaches, fans and John Elway himself this Training Camp. Like usual he was great in practice. Was alright in preseason when things didnt count. Come gameday, what did we see? Check downs galore, Staring down brandon lloyd through the first 3 quarters it seemed, A lack of third down conversions, a terrible red zone effort, and he wasnt very accurate. At the half i was hoping we'd see number 15 come out of the lockeroom and lead us to victory, sadly that didnt happen. Number 8 came out, and disappointed once again.

Call me a Knee-Jerker and not a real fan of the broncos, but i am right. Look this isn't anything new. Lets remember last year, specifically the 2nd half of the year. Kyle Orton was one of the worse starting QB's in the league. I don't care how many yards he put up. It's all about TD's and W's. Orton has brought us 5 since that lucky 6-0 start. It's time move on. We have seen the best of Kyle Orton, he isn't getting any better folks. Time to see if Brady or Tebow can do it. 

2. We will struggle running the ball once again.

- Again am i knee-jerking? I am not. Face it, Knowshon isn't a work horse back. He fit better in McDaniels offense. Fox wants to pound the ball 30+ times a game. Sorry Knowshon isnt that guy. He's great in the passing game and screens, get him in the open and he can make a few plays. He is not our work horse. A good 3rd down back though

Now onto McGahee. I loved the signing, its a step in the right direction. But he's old. Just a stop gap for this year. He will make short yardage and goal-line plays but thats about it. He's not great in the passing game, and isnt an effective 20 carry guy to rely on during the season. 

So who does that leave? Lance Ball? To his credit he scored our only offensive points so far this season, all be it a pass reception, not a running play.

We'll try to get by with this tandem this year, but i expect major changes here next year. 

One final point, teams will stack the box much like the raiders did last week, and make Orton have to beat them with his arm, i dont feel confident about our chances of winning many games with that strategy, especially looking at our rough schedule 

3. We lack an Identity.

- What kind of team are we? All the good teams in the NFL have an identity. Steelers, Ravens, Packers, Patriots, Jets, Falcons, Eagles ect. What is ours? We don't have an elite passing game, we lack a running game, our defense can get to the passer some but that can be prevented by the other team because of our youth and holes in other parts of the D.

So what kind of team are we? I think we'll be searching for that all season.

. . . . . 

Like i said, call me a knee-jerker i call it a realist. I hope to god i'm wrong. Looks like we might be in for a long 15 weeks ahead.