FanPost

Broncos vs. Rams: What Happened?

I did not finish watching this game.

After Manning's second pick, I got up, pulled a hoodie over my DT jersey, and walked out the door and into the empty streets of Lincoln, Nebraska. I needed to cleanse my mind of what I had just seen (and maybe score some Panda Express). "Surely," I thought, "I didn't just watch a powerful Broncos team lose to a bottom-feeder Rams group led by a backup quarterback who's been sidelined since Week 1."

But I did. I did, you did, the whole Broncos country did. We watched as an 7-2 AFC powerhouse was held in check by a team that is now 4-6, just bad enough for last place in the NFC West. We switched team apparel at halftime and guzzled can after can of Orange Crush in futile attempts to swing some luck our way. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Rams bullied their way to a 22-7 victory. Let's think about that for a second: 22-7. Our offense scored one touchdown. One. When was the last time we hung a lonely TD on the board? Probably sometime during the nightmare that was McDaniels era, which should tell you all you need to know about how bad today's game and score were. This was supposed to be a Denver win. Not an easy win, perhaps, but a comfortable win by a Super Bowl contender over a team that is in danger of playing itself out of the Top 10 in the 2015 NFL Draft.

So what the hell happened?

The reasons for this loss are twofold. One could have been avoided (long ago, at that), the other was beyond control of the Denver players or coaches, which brings me to my first (and biggest) grievance: the coaching staff. Fox played his conservative brand of Foxball and made questionable use of timeouts, as we've come to expect over the course of the season. A slough of failed 3rd and 4th down conversion attempts gave way to a time of possession statistic that was dominated by St. Louis. The most grievance play call of the day had to have been the failed 4th-and-1 attempt near the end of the 4th quarter, where Manning threw incomplete to Demariyus Thomas. One yard was needed. One. Yard. Why Fox chose to pass instead of handing off to Anderson or Thompson is beyond me. (Disclaimer: It could have been that Manning audible out of a run, but I have yet to go back and rewatch the game.) The other major issue with the offense was the offensive line. Clearly, the shuffled line performed so well in Oakland that the coaching staff decided to try it again against a team with a much, much better defensive front. Today, the O Line helped our running game to a woeful 2.8 yards per carry. On defense, Jack Del Rio simply failed to show any sort of ingenuity. There were few (if any) blitz packages, and our Top 5 rushing defense was gashed for 131 yards on 33 attempts. The defense allowed big plays all day, starting with a 63-yd. bomb to Kenny Britt, who was covered by Bradley Roby. Whether that play is to the credit of Shaun Hill or the fault of Roby, I still haven't decided. Rookie running back Tre Mason slipped through a sieve-like Broncos defense for 113 yards, once breaking off a long run of 27 yards. There were few bright spots on the defensive side of the ball. Brandon Marshall once again led the team in tackles, while Von Miller and Demarcus Ware both registered sacks. Malik Jackson showed some smart play near the end zone, batting down a pass from Shaun Hill that brought up 4th down and field goal. Individual praise doesn't win games, though, preparation does. Unfortunately, the coaching staff failed miserably when it came to preparation in practice, half-time adjustments, etc.

The second reason for today's loss was one that was beyond the control of either the players or the coaches. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the injury bug has struck again, and struck hard. We lost one of our most explosive playmakers, Emmanuel Sanders, in a scary collision that was perhaps the dirtiest play I've seen this season. Montee Ball and Julius Thomas also went out of the game early on, Julius with an ankle injury and Ball having re-aggravated his groin injury that had kept him sidelined since Week 5 vs. Arizona. Ryan Clady suffered a groin injury as well, though he managed to play through it. Losing Sanders was, in my opinion, the straw that broke the camel's back. Once he went out, we really had only two weapons of similar "game-changing" ability in Demariyus Thomas (who saw improved coverage as the most explosive target remaining) and C.J. Anderson. I'm hoping for swift recoveries to all who were injured today, as well as to Virgil Green and Paul Cornick, who were injured previously.

So, what the hell happened? The rash of injuries to our offense created an opportunity for the Rams' defense to key on the few playmakers we had remaining. Equally bad, if not worse, were the shortcomings of our coaching staff in term of preparation, play calling, and adjustments. There will be an angry tirade from Elway, if there hasn't been one already, and rightly so. As the members of MHR have so astutely pointed out for so long, conservative football doesn't work. Predictable play calling doesn't work. This coaching staff doesn't work, and at this point in the season, there's little reason to believe that it can. This is still the Denver Broncos. This is still a PFM-led team that has playmakers at nearly every position. This is still a team that can make a deep playoff run, but the successes of this team will not be to the credit of the coaching staff, but in spite of them.

Author's Note: This is my first FanPost. Criticism is welcome.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.