Denver Broncos undefeated season?

Just in reading some of the comments on the blog or hearing other folks even the staff talk about the prospects of a 16-0 Denver Broncos regular season, some of the sentiment or feelings about it are that a perfect regular season would bring about too much pressure on an already pressured team. We are the favorites and have been since the offseason. Expectations are Super Bowl or Bust. The other negative feeling I read quite a bit which is probably a more rational way to look at things, is that winning every game would make the Broncos more complacent and more susceptible to drinking their own kool-aid.

MHR's leader Kyle Montgomery had a valid point about last year. A quality loss (one where the team was in a dogfight until the end), might have made the Broncos focus a little bit more and then maybe the Baltimore loss doesn't happen. I've thought a lot about that but the game as it played out was just a perfect storm of circumstances that went against the Broncos. Bad officiating, flukish plays. Perhaps some folks in the Broncos secondary (Champ Bailey) were more complacent. Over and over in that broadcast the commentators talked about how confident Champ expressed he was in covering Torrey Smith. I'm sure the players did feel some level of invincibility. They were a young team who hadn't experienced much success.

I can't help but feel as if the fears Broncos Country might be having towards a potential regular season are due to recent memory of the 2007 Patriots. We all know the story. One of the greatest teams of all time made it to the super bowl undefeated only to have a tough Giants team battle them physically all game, snatching victory from defeat in the closing minutes.

No doubt Pats fans were trolled and are still trolled to this day. "18-1 "chokers" "didn't get it done" are labels that will always be attached to that team whether or not Pats fans agree or even like that.

But is this really what Broncos fans are afraid of? Are you so afraid of being mocked or trolled that you would rather see the Broncos not even have a shot at history?

Earlier this year, Jeff Saturday went on record to say his biggest regret was that the 2009 Colts didn't try for perfection:

"That's the only thing I wish we would have done differently," Saturday told The Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz on Wednesday. "I was in favor of it, but obviously, I got out-voted (by management). When we pulled everybody and just let it go by the wayside and ended up losing, that was a great opportunity we had...As a player, perfection is the highest goal you can reach. And we were so close."

In a close game with the Jets, Colts brass pulled the plug on Manning and company with a slim lead and the Jets prevailed to drop the Colts to 14-1 on the season. They made it to the super bowl only to come up short of a championship against the New Orleans Saints. In my opinion what Colts management did by throwing in the towel had a negative impact on the teams' ability to punch it out with a tougher opponent and I think it took some of that killer instinct away from Peyton and company.

I'm going to express my thoughts here, but I'm not trying to tell MHR how to think. I want an honest debate about this subject whether you agree with me or not.

It isn't often that you see a franchise field a team as potent as our Broncos. I've seen two Broncos teams capable of domination in my lifetime. What we have is something special. If we have a shot at it, I say we embrace that march toward history. Why simply be just another great team when you can be the greatest team of all time?

I hope Elway, Fox, and the team feel the same way. If you're worried about complacency, all you have to do is whisper the words "38-35". That should be enough to snap the team back to reality of "any given Sunday."

In the end, are the Broncos in the "Empire Building" business?