From The Diaires -- Zapparulez' One Step Forward

There are two ways I can choose look at this victory.  The first is that we are BACK and a contender again and the other is that we played beyond our ability for this game.

What I saw last night was what I was expecting to see all year.  

1. Our offense clicked and scored in the red zone even with Travis Henry's second straight poor showing(his legal troubles must be affecting his concentration).  Cutler has shown that he doesn't necessarily need to be surrounded by stars, like Jake the Fake, in order to be successful.  

One last note with the offense is that on those big third down conversions I saw an aspect of Selvin Young that makes me even more excited by this mans future with the Broncos.  This guy is an elite pass blocker.  I saw him one time back up to block and no one came, which he recognized and bolted to the other side of the line where he met and blocked a blitzing linebacker.  Anyone who doesn't think Selvin Young is a football player and our biggest UFA pick up since Rod Smith is nuts.

Offensive Grade: B (running game sucked)

2. Our defense finally played a solid game.  I was only disappointed towards the end of the game when PITT finally put up some rushing numbers.  But I don't believe the Broncos gave up 100 yds rushing to them until the 4th quarter breakdowns.  Let's hope Bates works on getting the defense to play all the way down the stretch.  

Through other forums I was pretty much alone in my belief that Elvis was the real deal during last season, so I am glad to see that my beliefs are being vindicated week in and week out.  So keep that in mind when I rant on and on about Selvin Young. ;)  

Defensive Grade: A for effort, B for performance

3. I was actually most pleased with our ST performance.  I was outside during the opening kick off so I will pretend that that never happened.  I loved seeing Selvin Young returning kicks and I think he should get the nod over Glenn Martinez, but perhaps Shanny wants to protect this young back until he knows what is going to happen to Henry in the near future.

Overall ST: A+  Screw the kick out of bounds.

Ok, now that I got the positive spin out of the way.  Here is what concerns me.

First of all, is this the type of team we should expect from this point forward or are we just a one shot wonder?  It is my hope that we "found" ourselves finally and will now proceed to kick ass and take names.  

We obviously still need to concentrate on our run defense, 3rd down D, and goaline.  We were subpar in all three of those areas last night and that won't win us many games down the road.  We absolutely MUST figure out a way to close games on defense.  We got "lucky" again because we have a strong armed competitor at QB who saved our defense's ass last night...again.  Not since John Elway have I seen a Bronco QB able to put a team on his shoulders to victory.  

As for Cutler, the interceptions do not bother me that much.  Everyone forgets how many INTs Elway threw in his first couple of years.  The fact is this kid likes to compete and to win.  

My feeling long term is that we will continue to struggle to improve on Defense and the victories we do get will be close, heartstopping moments.  Yet, I also see a few more big losses in our future.  The Broncos D needs to prove to me that they are stable before I commit to saying we are going to be a force to be reckoned with.  

Side Note - I decided to stay with my Bronco pick even after hearing about Walker and Champ, only because I am superstitious about changing my picks after already making them(mainly because my winning PCT when I do that is like 1 out of every 10 works out in my favor lol).  However, Guru convinced me to change two of my picks in my Yahoo $ league.  So far HOU almost, but didn't work out...so I am hoping JAC wins tonight or I will be pretty bummed out.  If JAC wins I will at least tie(I am pretty sure the other two guys in front of me picked Indy) for first this week. ;)

Keep on posting, I love coming in here and reading the dairies to see what everyone thinks about our beloved Broncos.