FINAL

There will be so many things said, so many things written and read over the next few days and weeks that there is no need to be first, or to pile on.  The Denver Broncos season, circa 2008, has come to an end, and while we are all disappointed, and it is ok to be pissed as well, there are alot of things we will take away from the 2008 season and move forward with.  We'll be getting to that in earnest as the days and weeks click by to free agency, then the draft.  For now, let's focus on tonight.

I'll start by sending a message of Congratulations to the San Diego Chargers and to DaBolts over at Bolts From The Blue.  I said three weeks ago that whom ever won the AFC West would be a deserving champion.  While we had hoped that would be the Broncos, in the end it just wasn't to be.  The Chargers maintain their stake to the division and are deserving.

Tonight's game was much like the entire season for the Broncos.  They started fast, seemed to be able to move the ball at will, missed some kicks, threw some interceptions, in each Red Zone, of course, and just didn't have enough when it mattered most to get over the hump.  Some of that is youth, some health.  The Chargers have more talent in their locker room, and the NFL is a talent-driven league.  The Broncos are on their way, and I think the Chargers have taken notice, but there is still work to be done and it will fall, we assume, to the Goodman's and Mike Shanahan to build a youthful defense with as much talent as the offense seemingly has.

One thing to be proud of was the resiliency the Broncos showed throughout the evening.  There were several times the Broncos could have packed it in but they didn't.  They played the entire 60 minutes with premium effort.  That was what The Quest was all about for me -- to see this team grow, mature, and give premium effort for 60 minutes.  The final results weren't always what we wanted, and there were times when the effort could have been questioned, but to me the Quest has been a success and tonight was a big reason why.

Talk about the game here, and try to remember the good we found but about the Broncos in 2008.  The Pro Bowl quarterback and wide receiver.  The rookie class they may be among the best ever in Denver history.  There are others and we'll have plenty of time to talk about it so for now I thank all of you and the Broncos themselves for the roller coaster ride that was 2008.   We know what we have to do, now let's go do it.

First, I agree with the sentiments expressed by Guru.  I am a Broncos fan through and through, and refuse to be a bandwagon fan that is "finished" when this team blows a game.  We improved over last year, have a strong, core group of youth, and remain on the precipice of the playoffs.  Reading many of the stories in the pre-season, most of us predicted a record close to 10-6 and a borderline shot at the playoffs.

And as Guru points out, the winner of this next game will clearly deserve the playoff spot, and the loser clearly won't.

Briefly (because dwelling on negatives get us nowhere), I'm going to lay out the problems I saw in play calling.

Both TedBartlett and I have written stories (here and here) that spelled out what we thought needed to be done to win the Bills game.  In the 1st quarter, Denver took our advice.  They ran the ball, and they ran it to the edges where they could take advantage of slower DEs and OLBs.  Pope and even Royal had incredible gains.  At the end of the first quarter, Denver had scored twice, and the Bills were in negative yardage in both running and passing.  Denver then abandoned the run for most of the rest of the game, allowing the Cover Two of the Bills to focus on the pass.  That's when things started going down the hill.

Next, Denver's aggressive play calling at the end of the half reminded me of the last time Denver made a foolish decision near the end of the half.  You'll recall Denver not running out the clock, and handing the ball to the other team in the very recent past.  This week, Denver expected their FG kicker to make a terribly long FG kick right at the end of the half.  Worse, Denver made this decision with a lead!  Denver gave up horrific field position, which should have almost promised the Bills a FG.  The Bills took advantage, and scored a TD.

Note how well the TEs played.  Again, several of the great members of the MHR Think Tank advocated using the TEs in the seams against a Cover Two that doesn't resemble a Tampa 2 very much.  Graham and Scheff had a field day.  Getting desperate towards the end of the game, Cutler gave up on dinking short passes to the seams (which picked up big yards) and relied on the WRs, who were the targets of the Cover Two.  I wasn't in touch with Styg during the game, but I felt as if we were telepathicaly on the same wavelength - "Here comes the interception".

One odd thing to consider: Considering how well we did in the first few drives, is it likely that Shanahan scripted the first several plays (which worked), while the pass happy plays afterward (which didn't work) were the product of our offensive coordinator?  No intrigue here, I think we know the answer.  Is anyone interested in starting a movement to get Shanahan to go back to playcalling?

My advice?  Get your frustrations out here.  Get them behind you.  The team needs us as they move ahead, and the SD game will be a beauty.  I feel neither team has a shot at a deep playoff run, so this game is our Super Bowl.  It will be in prime time, and against a team that seems to me to be fighting the Raiders for the new title of "worthy arch enemy".

I for one have no time for frustrations of my own.  I am grateful for this Christmas season, my family, my MHR family, and the Broncos (win or lose).  I will spend this week serving my community in law enforcement, serving my family, and serving each of you at MHR.  I plan to put the Bills game to rest, and to focus on what matters as a football fan...

Beating SD.  And doing it with overwhelming force.

FINAL

Perhaps this is how it should be.  Perhaps the football gods are giving the Chargers the chance they claim they never received after the Hochuli play.  Perhaps the injuries, 12 players on I/R and several games missed by D.J. Williams, Champ Bailey and 6 different running backs is just too much for any team to bear.  Whatever it is, the Broncos will have to go to San Diego and play a 1-game playoff against the Chargers with everything on the line.

Today's game against Buffalo was a microcosm of the entire season.  A hot start followed by a so-so middle, then ending up with a furious charge that proved a bit too-little, too-late.  Big plays allowed by the defense, missed opportunities by the offense, shoddy play by the special teams.  A collective team effort.

For his part, Jay Cutler is still searching for a win in a big moment, with this game added to the annals of the San Francisco game in 2006.  It's hard without any semblance of a running game, which went away when the latest Broncos ball-carrier to get injured, P.J. Pope, left the game in the 1st quarter and never returned.

Much will be said about the defense and rightfully so, but lest we forget that this team is driven by the offense, by design.  Settling for field goals, making the score 13-0 instead of 21-0 allowed the Bills to continue doing what they do well, run the football.  They can run on anyone, and when they are allowed to keep running they'll kill ya. 

There will be a lot of negativity around Broncos Country this week, but not by me.  This team is who I'd thought they'd be.  It is the Chargers that have disappointed.  Should they win next week they will deserve the Division Title and the playoff spot that comes with it.  The Broncos, in turn, will have learned a valuable lesson, as well as found out alot about some of the young players in the locker room.   Should the Broncos get it done, they too will deserve the playoff spot and division, and all talk about blown calls will cease. 

Perhaps it is fitting, then, that it comes down to this.  The Broncos will have nothing to lose next week, for it will once again be the Chargers with all the pressure.  Denver will be in a familiar situation.  On the road, backs against the wall, a huge underdog.  Something tells me that had I asked you all before the season if you's sign on for the Broncos to travel to San Diego for a Week 17-Winner-Takes-All game you would have jumped at the chance. 

That's what we have.  Win or lose I am proud of this team and proud to be a Broncos fan.

***NO MHR RADIO POSTGAME TONIGHT***

FINAL

Talk about the game here.  If you dare.  Somehow, the complete collapse of the Chiefs today got me into a really sour mood before the Broncos/Panthers kicked off.  Perhaps some of that suckage rubbed off on the Orange and Blue.

Before today it was easy to say the Broncos had to be beaten by anyone but themselves.  Some of you could make the same argument today.  The Broncos went over the magical turnover plateau -- two -- which has signaled defeat all season.  The apparent game-plan -- throw the ball all over the field without so much as a bluff of a running game -- had alot to do with it as well.

All those things are true, but I credit the Carolina Panthers all the way.  They came out and played more physical football.  After the first quarter, the Broncos offense wasn't able to do a thing.  Well times blitz packages, coming from every direction, had a young offensive line struggling with the pickups.  The Panthers have elite defensive talent and today they played like it, I tip my cap to John Fox and company.

Whatever the hell Mike Shanahan was thinking at the end of the half, it wass dead wrong.  After the pass to Daniel Graham actually lost a yard the Broncos should have just let the clock run out, head to the locker room down 1 score and see what could be done to turn it around in the 2nd half. 

Instead, Shanny calls a timeout to call a running play deep in Broncos territory.  The result is a hand-off to Selvin Young, who has played very little in months, who fumbled the ball setting up a Panthers FG.  Now down double digits, the Broncos were in deep trouble.  In a lot of ways, the rest of the games a symantec.

The Broncos are still in EXCELLENT shape to win the division.  The Chargers head to Tampa while the Broncos come hom to play the Buffalo Bills.  It may take an extra week to clinch the division, but how sweet will it be to watch Charger's fans suffer for 7 more days before putting them out of their misery.

GO BRONCOS!

When you go through and look at defensive stats, there are all kinds of interesting things to look at that tell a defensive story.  However, trying to understand that defensive story can be like trying to read it in Mandarin Chinese.  Is a high number of passes defensed good or bad?  If it's high, does that mean that the defensive player is not very good and offenses are picking on that player?  If it's low does it mean that the defensive player is so bad that he can't defend any passes or does it mean that offenses just don't throw his way? 

What about QH (Quarterback Hits); does a high number of QH and a low number of sacks mean that the player does not get there quite fast enough and therefore a slow player?  Or is it more of, "well at least he did get there, albeit it wasn't fast enough..."?  Finally what about assisted tackles?  Are assists something you want to see a lot of, or not a lot of?  Or does it matter based on position; would you rather see your DL with assists and your LB's without assists or the other way around?

Find out after the bump...

Continue reading this post »

The final countdown to the end of the ProBowl voting is nearly over, and that means you only have 2 days left to make your vote count!  Dec 9th at Noon EST is the deadline, and time is flying.

To help rally the votes I will be using this series of posts to give you reasons every day to get out and throw some votes up for one of the most impressive rookie campaigns we have had the pleasure of seeing.  I know a lot of you have been trying to vote everyday, and to you I can only say Awesome! and Keep it up!  I have been voting 10 times per day for a little while now, but I recently timed how long it took to vote twenty times on a DSL connection.  It only took me five minutes, so I have decided to up the ante a bit.  If you are up to the challenge, try the following:  set a timer for ten minutes and vote as many times as you can in that ten minute time span.  Try it again tomorrow, to see if you can beat your previous best, and know that it is all for a great cause!

On the Sixth day of Clady... 

Ryan Clady #78

Not just good enough for 2008

Clady and Denver's offensive line are walking the line of all time greatness:

These are the all time greats.  The '70, '75 and '66 teams above accomplished their numbers in only 14 games, so bear that in mind.  The Broncos line is in heck of good company.  The 'Fins numbers above appear nearly untouchable, but some solace can be had by remembering the fumble/sack/thingy from our SD game earlier this year.  Factor that in, as a rules based anomaly (no team in the above list had anything similar), and our sack per attempts jumps to 1/70!

Right now, the Broncos are on pace for a 606 attempt season, and if we can keep up our current pace of only allowing 2 sacks per quarter of the season, that would put them in the neighborhood of 1/61 sack per attempts, 2nd all time!

And I wouldn't be surprised one bit, if we do even better than that.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR RYAN CLADY -- PRO BOWL

FINAL

It wasn't easy.  Nothing this season has been for the Denver Broncos.  Much maligned for playing down to their competition this year, the Broncos started the day knowing all they had to do was keep winning and the AFC West, in addition to a #3 seed in the AFC.  All that was in their way from continuing that Quest were the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that had only 2 victories on the season.  One of those wins came against the Broncos, of course, and nothing is ever simple in the AFC West.

We all saw the way the game started.  Shoddy special teams, a FG allowed, then the big Pick-6.  Down 10 the Broncos had a choice -- fall prey to what has ailed them all season or make a stand on home turf and defend the their homefield, their division, their playoff lives.  Luckily for all of us, they chose the latter.

Overcoming the turnover, some questionable officiating, more injuries to the running backs and a Kansas City Chiefs team that should make their fans proud with their effort, the Broncos found a way to get it done.

Hats off to Jay Cutler for having the mental toughness to shake off the slow start, take what the Chiefs were giving and lead the Broncos, HIS Broncos to victory.

A tip of the cap to Brandon Marshall, who admitted this week that he was hampered by a hip injury and wanted to re-assert himself as a great receiver.  He did just that, with 11 catches for 91 tough yards and 2 TDs. 

Of course, the defense, patched together, still missing their two best players, played their best overall game of the season.  They held the Chiefs to 260 total yards of offense, only 83 on the ground, and forced to Chiefs to earn the 10 points they scored against them.  Perhaps this group can find  way to become just good enough heading into the playoffs.

We'll talk about all of this on MHR Radio Post Game at 8PM est.  Until then, talk about a huge Broncos win here.  Oh yea, and about that #3 seed.  Thanks, San Francisco!

FINAL

The Denver Broncos looked the part of a team that was lost.  Beaten and battered both physically and mentally after getting crushed by the Oakland Raiders last week.  Sometimes the best thing for a team that has the world against them is a trip on the road against a team that no one believes they can beat.  That's exactly what the Broncos had facing them this week and they did what any mentally tough team would do.  They played their asses off, took advantage of opportunities and overcame adversity to win a hard fought football game.

The last part might be the most important.  The Jets were able to score on two long running plays.  The Jets turned the Broncos over in the Red Zone.  Hell, the Jets had Brett Favre.  None of it mattered to the Broncos who got up early and never looked back.

There were plenty of heros today, but we'll start with Jay Cutler(27/43 - 357 yards, 2TD, 1INT), who came back from an awful performance last week to play extremely well in a very tough environment.  The Meadowlands is a tough place to play on a calm day let alone when the weather is bad.  Cutler looked good, threw the ball well, and with the exception of one play, made good decisions with the football.  The Broncos win when Cutler plays well and both happened today.

Peyton Hillis(22 car. - 129 yards, 1TD) was a stud all day and the Broncos committed to the run more today than in any game in recent memory.  Cutler is still the motor that drives the car, but sometimes he needs a good tow every now and then and Hillis made that happen.

The Broncos defense, save a couple of mental lapses, played strong and forced the Jets to go the long way to score.  The defense got the Broncos on the board early as well, and any time you can get 7 points from the defense good things are bound to happen.

The Broncos now sit at 7-5, 3 full games up on the Chargers with 4 games to go.  The team will likely be much healthier next week with Champ Bailey and Nate Webster likely to return.  We could see D.J. Williams as well.  Any one that Broncos get back will be a huge plus, but it shouldn't be overlooked how well these guys played and just how valuable the experience will be moving forward.  Great Job Men!

As for next week, and those that follow, we'll take them one game at a time.  No one really knows what to expect from the the Orange and Blue, and in a season of so many ups and downs, I hope you like roller coasters because this ride is far from over!