Salty.

Yeah, I’m salty. I’ve literally never witnessed this level of long-term suckage from my Denver Broncos. That’s no small feat. I’ve been watching them religiously since the 80s.

Some may not like the high levels of negativity you are seeing from me this year, but you have to understand: this is not who the Denver Broncos are. Even in the complete craptastic season that was the last under the Josh McDaniels regime, we were a far better team than this. Our players played harder, our fans cheered for a glimmer of hope they had in Tim Tebow to give them something to be hopeful for.

Well, that is not the kind of cloth this team is cut from. From the top (John Elway) down (the players on the field), this team is a mess.

Denver Broncos, you have forgotten the face of your franchise.

Defense

There is no new story for the defense. They still play very good, but can only do so much when the other team gets to play in attack mode ALL GAME LONG.

Joe Woods isn’t anything close to Wade Phillips...Wade would have this defense winning some games. But we’re left with a young coordinator who doesn’t have the teeth for that kind of play that propelled this great franchise to their third Super Bowl victory.

Nevertheless, there are always guys we can talk about...takeaways both good and bad from each game. This is the kind of season that tests the mettle of a player, after all.

Front 7

Shelby Harris had a great interior pass rush that led him to an ankle grabbing sack. He’s been a hard worker for the team all year long and was an impressive find for the team. Later in the 1st quarter he single handedly blew up a run play in the backfield. Harris needs to stick around. He’s a good football player and has consistently shown good play this season.

Brandon Marshall had a magnificent whiff on a the TD run in the 3rd quarter. The line play could have been much better of course, but without Wolfe and Peko, you need your starting linebackers to step up and much like this whole season, Brandon Marshall decided a step towards mediocrity suits him much better. This is one guy I’m seeing who has consistently had a bad year. His play is nowhere near as good as it was last year and it looks to me to have as much to do with attitude as anything else. He doesn’t necessarily look slower or like he has less power.

It isn’t the fun part of the game to watch, but Adam Gotsis really has entrenched himself as a good defensive end in this scheme. He’s a very solid run blocker that can be in on early downs and rotate out for pass situations. The one thing he’ll need to really work on this offseason is his pass rush repertoire...as in he doesn’t really have one yet. He can bull rush, but that’s all I’ve seen. No decent swim move or big time gap breaking burst steps to use.

Secondary

Bradley Roby good man coverage early and often. He showed 3 times on targets perfect man coverage including a defended pass on 3rd and 8 to secure the stop. I’m not big fan of him as a premium corner, but his play was very good in this game the whole way through. Let’s keep in mind the competition though before we hear more talk about him replacing Talib or any of that nonsense.

Chris Harris, Jr. is still one of the best corners in the NFL. His focus on his interception was spectacular. NFL QBs shouldn’t be throwing his way with no Aqib Talib across the way and Denver utilizing safeties heavily in their sub packages.

Justin Simmons had a great pick 6 off of a deflection he created with superb man coverage on a slot receiver. He was moved around all game long both as a safety and as a nickel corner. He’s honestly reminding me of a safety version of CHJ with how versatile he is. He’s definitely a bright spot in the fog of the 2017 Broncos season and had another really great game against the Dolphins.

Offense

The offensive play calling certainly seems questionable if your intent is to win a football game. In the first drive the run was very effective, but for some reason after 4 straight runs we switched to pass, pass, pass which eventually turned into a deflected interception.

I guess I really can’t say much. When you have a coach that picks such a limited player to run an offense, what can you really expect? You’re trying to drive a Ferrari with a motor from a sub-compact John Deere.

Quarterbacks

I started off writing thinking I’d jokingly mix Kyle Orton’s name into our starting QB’s name, but then I really felt awful about treating Kyle Orton that way...he doesn’t deserve such a huge insult. Orton was able to progress through reads. He was also able to throw to a guy’s numbers and lead him to an easy catch often enough. I’d actually like Kyle Orton as a backup QB. It just isn’t fair to compare a guy like that to the joke of a player the Broncos keep trotting out to “play” quarterback for our Denver Broncos.

Trevor Siemian throws a nice deflected pick in our first drive. Not long after he tosses the easy pick six. Once the landslide starts, his game went completely off the cliff with him overthrowing guys constantly. We saw a whole lot of a guy who isn’t capable of NFL level quarterback play. He still stares down his receivers, fails to progress through reads, and is almost always frustratingly off on his throws at a micro level (easy throws are hard to catch because they end up on the outside of his receiver’s catch radius).

This quarterback’s play makes it so easy for a laughable defense to play a really strong game because they just have to watch his eyes and roll coverage that way. Corners on the routes he is reading can break on the ball so much easier than they could on an actual NFL quarterback.

Line

Garrett Bolles had another rough game from a discipline perspective. He’s got to get himself right about how to play the game without penalties. He’s got a lot of upside and I’m proud of the play he puts on the field for the most part, but the penalties are killer to a team who has a very janky offense. On the last interception he also let his guy jump free to deflect the pass. He’s got to learn how to recognize a guy about to leap and hit his chest to throw it off. If he cleans up some of that stuff (which is realistic for a rookie), he’s going to be a really good player though. He had a very strong game overall outside of a handful of plays.

Running Backs

C.J. Anderson started the game on a tear running for big chunks of yards play after play. Really of all the guys on the offense, he’s the one guy this game that was leaving it all out on the field. I appreciate the effort of the guy...I just wish the rest of the offense would play with half as much heart as he does. He made guys miss tackles, powered through people, and showed some Mile High spirit down in Miami.

Receivers

I’m not feeling like dogging on any of these guys really. Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas are both better than this game. The guys behind them in the depth chart aren’t, though. That being said, it is hard to judge any receiver when the guy throwing them the ball lacks talent in so many ways necessary for a NFL quarterback.

Special Teams

Isaiah McKenzie has no place on an NFL field. Why in the world he was brought back out in this game, I will never understand. At some point you have to accept the fact that a guy isn’t cut out for NFL football. Much like that joke of a player we had at QB today, McKenzie also fits that mold.

Final Thoughts

I can deal with losing. What I can’t deal with is intentional asshattery from the coaches and front office and that is what we are seeing today. There is no way in God’s green Earth that McKenzie or that joke of a QB should have seen the field on Sunday. They have shown in so many ways that the can’t hack it. That’s just the No Bull truth of the matter (note: McKenzie has a small glimmer of developing hope, but not the other guy).

The coaches and John Elway honestly are tanking the season at this point. There’s no longer a doubt in my mind. Elway at this point has said it OK to lose. If he hasn’t said that to the coaches, it has been hinted at. They want the higher draft pick and have the gall to stand up in front of a mic in the press conferences and “coach-speak” and “PR-speak” (also known as spouting utter bullshit...S/O to our boy Patrick Smyth) around the truth.

Vance Joseph should be ashamed of himself for the product he’s allowed this team to turn into. I don’t care how much “leadership” you have studied or actually shown in your past career. You are an absolute joke at this point and have lost all credibility with me as a fan and hopefully with all NFL players globally. You could have started the best QB on the team this week (Brock Osweiler by the way...he’s played the most consistent and looked more like a NFL QB than either of the other two guys). You could have told your ST that the idea of Captain Dropsie ever seeing the return field again this season needs to pound sand and die in a hole.

But nope, you decided to embrace losing. I honestly don’t care why. I just know that as a fan who’s cheered for this team for decades, it is atrocious. Get the hell off my team. Broncos Country doesn’t tolerate garbage like this and I’ll frigging lead the charge in coming after your job as long as you remain the head coach of OUR Denver Broncos.