The Broncos put on a clinic against a Dallas Cowboys team that most pundits and fans outside of Broncos Country expected to roll right on through Denver. Instead, Trevor Siemian threw four touchdowns, CJ Anderson put up 154 all-purpose yards, and the offense racked up 178 rushing yards on its way to leading the league in 3rd down conversion rate for the week. The defense held the league’s best rushing attack to a paltry 40 yards, increased Dak Prescott’s career interception total by 50%, and capped it all off with a historic pick-six. What’s not to love?
The Broncos just fired a shot across the bow of the rest of the league, and definitely got some peoples’ attention. As a result, a team that most power rankers originally pegged as average is now solidly in the top 10.
Mile High Report:
3. Denver Broncos (2-0)
The Denver Broncos launch themselves into the top three this week. I couldn’t quite put them above the Kansas City Chiefs just for the simple fact that it was incredibly impressive to go into Foxboro and put the whooping on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
SB Nation:
Hope Rankings, Week 3
2. Denver Broncos
Wait ... is Trevor Siemian actually good?
After two weeks he has a passer rating of 106.9 and he’s tied with Matthew Stafford for the league lead in touchdown passes. Surely, that’s going to slow down, right?
The Broncos are supposed to be the team with a dominant defense that carries a subpar offense. Who’s going to stop them if the offense can score five touchdowns like it did Sunday?
Answer: No one. The Broncos have a winning % of .862 since Week 1 of 2015 when they score 17 points or more. If they score 35, or even close to it, no team in the league can match them.
Bleacher Report:
6. Denver Broncos
Last Week's Ranking: 12
Because the game was so late on a Monday night in Week 1, a lot of people may not have seen how the Denver Broncos dominated the Chargers for most of it. A couple of late mistakes allowed the Chargers to draw closer on the scoreboard than they should have.
Well, everyone got to see how dominant the Broncos can be when they whipped the crap out of the Cowboys. We have never seen this Cowboys offensive line get punished like it did in both the run game and the passing game. Star running back Ezekiel Elliott had just eight yards on nine carries.
It's official for me: The Denver Broncos are again a Super Bowl contender. This defense is special, and the offense looks a lot better with Mike McCoy at coordinator. It stinks that rookie tackle Garett Bolles got hurt because that's a big blow, but the line and running back C.J. Anderson are playing better than they did last year.
Let's not forget the Broncos won a Super Bowl with Peyton Manning throwing nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions in the regular season. Denver can win it with Trevor Siemian playing as well as he is under center.
Thank you!! This is the type of recognition that the Broncos deserve after their play Sunday.
ESPN:
7. Denver Broncos
2017 record: 2-0
Week 2 ranking: No. 15
Everyone knew the defense would be good this season, but Trevor Siemian has thrown six touchdowns, and C.J. Anderson is second in the NFL in rushing. If the offense keeps producing, the Broncos will be right back in the mix atop the AFC standings.
Yeah, we’re shocked too. It’s awesome.
Yahoo Sports:
7. Denver Broncos (2-0, LW: 9)
You could make an argument that the best team so far this season is this one right here. Ignore the last part of the fourth quarter against the Chargers, because there were a couple fluky turnovers there. If you take out that Chargers surge at the end, the Broncos outscored the Chargers and Cowboys 66-24, and those are two tough opponents. Why does it look like the Broncos are so much better? Trevor Siemian will be the common answer. What has changed most is the run defense. Denver was 28th in run defense last season. On Sunday, they held rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott to 8 yards.
With glowing commentary like that, I’m surprised Yahoo doesn’t have the Broncos higher than 7th.
USA Today:
4. Denver Broncos (2-0) +5
Ex-NFL QB Steve Beuerlein says Trevor Siemian 'looked like a Super Bowl quarterback.' If Siemian keeps having four-TD days, Beuerlein may be right.
NFL.com:
6. 2-0 BRONCOS (+10)
If Trevor Siemian continues to play like this -- placing the football wherever he wants, finding the large windows in the opposing secondary -- forget it. The Broncos will go deep into the playoffs. Siemian won't always have the luxury of facing a secondary minus its top three corners, like the Cowboys on Sunday, but you can't take anything away from him. And the way Denver's secondary is gluing to receivers, the Broncos' pass rush has more than enough time to crash the pocket. That's why it was so ironic that Fox showed highlights of former Cowboy Ed "Too Tall" Jones crushing Denver QB Craig Morton in Super Bowl XII, because that is precisely what Broncos star Von Miller was doing to Dallas QB Dak Prescott -- when he wasn't jumping offsides, anyway. I was conservative about Team Elway last week. Not anymore. Funny how no one talks about Paxton Lynch these days.
Just look at those attitudes change.
Sports Illustrated/MMQB:
Denver Broncos (14th to 6th):
This defense had been susceptible to the run, which was always weird because Derek Wolfe is a beast, Von Miller can set the edge as well as anyone, and Domata Peko and Shaq Barrett are no slouches. Still, it hadn’t been working on Sundays. So the fact that Denver held the Cowboys to 40 rushing yards in Week 2 has led to exploding brains across the NFL. You can’t throw on them, and if you can’t run on them either then your only choice is running 50-plus fake punts over the course of a game (one after another, they won’t know what hit ‘em!). Of course, the bigger question mark in Denver has been quarterback, and Trevor Siemian has been up to the task through two games. He has some arm limitations, and the Broncos have issues up front (even more so with Garett Bolles out). But Mike McCoy has found the science so far, and to get to the playoffs with the way this defense looked on Sunday, the bar for the offense isn’t terribly high.
You’d think a 15 person panel would have at least one member smart enough to realize that 1) run defense was Denver’s 2016 problem and clearly isn’t one in 2017, and 2) Domata Peko wasn’t on the team when it was having run defense issues. I suppose you can’t expect much from a group led by Peter King. At least the rest of the read is fun.
Washington Post:
7. Denver Broncos (2-0) | Last Week’s Rank: 12
The defense was very effective Sunday and made Dallas’s offense look extremely bad. If it wasn’t quite the caliber of the Super Bowl-winning unit’s from a couple years ago, it was pretty close. Trevor Siemian signaled that he just might be able to give the Broncos the play they need at QB. Yet until he does it on a consistent basis, it’s best not to get too carried away.
I’m not sure what more WaPo wants from the D, because that looked like 2015 out there. Passing yards allowed, rushing yards allowed, interceptions, a pick six, turnovers on downs, pass rushing pressure... you name it, they delivered it. The 2015 Broncos D allowed 300+ total yards 11 times. The 2017 version has yet to allow even 270. You be the judge.
CBS Sports:
7 Broncos (Up 5)
If Trevor Siemian keeps it going, they will be a deep playoff team. But now they have to play their first road game at Buffalo.
FiveThirtyEight:
5th
Compared to last week, 538 believes the Broncos’ chances of making the playoffs have increased 12%. Meanwhile, their likelihood of winning the division went up 4%, of getting a 1st round bye went up 5%, and of winning Super Bowl LII went up 1%. Their prediction of the Broncos’ final W/L record also increased from 9-7 to 10-6.
NumberFire:
#2 Denver Broncos
I wish I’d started doing the screencaps of this site last week, because the Broncos made quite a jump up from 11th. I’ll begin tracking some of their stats now. What I can tell you is that NumberFire is noticeably more confident in the Broncos than FiveThirtyEight, forecasting a much greater chance of winning the AFCW... and the Super Bowl.
The Broncos earned themselves an average bump of 6.6 spots in the power rankings around the web this week, or you can round up to 7 if you’re picky. Across our dozen power rankings, they’re averaging 5th place.
Now the men from Mile High look forward to a trip to Buffalo for their first road test against a Bills team that sports a respectable defense. That should be a good challenge for Trevor Siemian and company, and if they can pass it the Broncos will keep rising.
As for the defensive side of that matchup... I hope you didn’t draft Tyrod Taylor in your fantasy football league this year. He’s already on thin ice in Buffalo, and I give the Broncos defense even odds of ending his career as the Bills’ starting quarterback.
Poll
Did the Broncos get enough recognition for their blowout victory over the Cowboys?
This poll is closed
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65%
Yeah, 5th is about right.
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25%
No, they deserve to be higher than that after this win.
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8%
No, they don’t belong that high (yet).