What the Broncos needed was some perspective

The sky is falling, the sky is falling... No everyone, it really isn’t.

You will hear it all, and likely have already: Trevor Siemian sucks, the defense is lost, this was a trap game.

Stop, just stop! I’m here to offer you up a well seasoned plate of perspective!

Trevor Siemian

Highlights and Lowlights all around for this kid. And I want to emphasis that operative word here: kid. Trevor Siemian has started 16 whole games before Sunday morning in Buffalo. Sixteen! Not sixteen years, sixteen games! This kid is still learning the craft. He isn’t a polished veteran yet.

Will he get there? I sure hope so! But he simply isn’t there yet. He needs more learning, more cooking, more experience. It’s really easy to fall into the traps you’ve always fallen into. It’s easy to slide back into your comfort zone when asked to really grow and reach for the stars. It’s what people do, it’s what athletes do, it’s what Siemian does sometimes.

He has flaws in his game, yes. He backpedals 15-20 yards to avoid sacks, only to get sacked. He trusts his arm a little too much and throws horrible interceptions. And yes, he routinely needs to put 1-2 more yards of air under his deep passes. He’s guilty of all of that.

But he’s trying. He’s trying to get out of his comfort zone. He’s trying to grow and not fall victim to sliding into the ease of his past comfort zones. And when he de-programs his brain and body to ditch old habits, we will see a much improved Trevor Siemian. We saw it with Tebow, he’d work on his mechanics, but when the game lights were on, he reverted back to his comfort zone... reverted back to what he always did, and it ruined his career. Siemian needs to not fall prey into those same traps. He needs to keep growing, keep pushing the limits, and truly never go back to what he’s always known, because what he’s always done and known got him drafted in the 7th round. Breaking that habit can get him paid as a top half QB, and it can solve the Broncos QB situation for the next 15 years.

Von Miller

As I said in our lowlights: The NFL officially taught us that 7 year olds have thicker skins than grown ass men. “High Five, Up High, Down Low, you’re too slow” is perfectly funny, acceptable, and good natured when you’re 7, but it’s a personal foul in the NFL? Seriously? So a 2nd grader is more capable of handling such shenanigans than a 25, 28, 35 year old? C’mon NFL, you’re better than this.

That penalty iced the game. The Bills went on to get a field goal and extend the lead to a two score game instead of punting to Denver. That was one of the most, if not the most absurd penalty I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

And even if someone has seen worse, the fact that it’s POSSIBLE to say such a statement and have debate about it only proves my point: That penalty was atrocious and the NFL needs to be completely ashamed of itself.

Offense fell back to earth

This is one of the bigger disappointments of the game. Not that it should come as much surprise that the Broncos offense would struggle. The Bills do have a really good defense afterall, but it’s the way that the Broncos couldn’t score that is so frustrating.

Jamaal Charles was averaging over 6 yards per carry and had an amazing touchdown. CJ Anderson was at 4.5 yards per carry... And they got 17 combined carries.

I get it though, the passing game was absolutely there for the taking. It seemed like Emmanuel Sanders was open virtually every play, and that’s tempting. Especially in today’s Patty Cake style of NFL.

But you can’t abandon the run when the run is working so beautifully, even if the big plays are there in the passing game. If you can’t keep the defense guessing, they’ll start creating turnovers as the game goes on because they see you are now one dimensional. And that’s exactly what happened.

Side Note: Sanders caught that 40 yard bomb. He took 3 steps, a football move, and then he fumbled and recovered his own fumble. If 3 steps and a football move doesn’t constitute a catch, then the NFL is making things way too complicated.

And lastly...

Our Defense will be fine.

Sure, our vaunted #NoFlyZone hit some major turbulence, but they’ll be fine. Our run game yet again geared up to stop McCoy, and they were fantastic at it.

What I saw was time and time again the Bills receivers finding places that Chris Harris Jr and Aqib Talib weren’t. That’s the recipe for success, and it’s why Tight Ends and Running Backs often have so much success against us.

But this is just one singular game. These guys are way too good, way too smart, and way too prideful to allow a one off to affect them.

And because special teams often times gets lumped into defense, I’ll go on the record as saying I loved the idea of the fake punt, I simply hated the execution.

Now lets all take a breath, calm down, and really try having some perspective about what this game really was. It was our first away game of the year, all the way across the country, and at a playing time that we simply aren’t use to. It was also our QB’s 17th career game. So lets not get all down in the dumps. We will win again, and next week is at home. And lets not forget that so many upsets happened this week that it’s hard to freak out any worse than most of the other team fanbases.

GO BRONCOS!