Broncos 2008 season

[Steve_Atwater]

Well, the final rosters is in and, well, is it just me or is this one anonymous bunch? You remember a Broncos club coming into a season with so few established playmakers than this one? Tough to get pumped about a club like this one. May turnout allright, but on paper... I won't even try to guess what they're record could be, but it's hard to imagine that this club could finish over ,500.

We'll know more after we see them play on monday. I won't pass judgement just yet, but on paper it dosent look good.

[Steve_Atwater]

Boy that was fun. Is there anything more satisfying for a Broncos fan than wathcing the team blow out the Raiders in Oakland? I mean, this side of winning a Super Bowl?

That was very nice, a great evening for all of us, but let's not get carried away here. The Raiders were disorganised, they were indiciplined, this was not a true test of how good the Broncos were. We'll know more about how good this club is next week when we face the Chargers.

Also, let's not annoint (SP?) Eddie Royal as the second coming of Rod Smith just yet. He played tremendously, but first games are a tricky affair. Anyone remeber how great a first game Quentin Griffin had a couple years back? Commentators started comparing him to Barry Sanders right away. He bellieve he lost his starting job a month later.

In all and all, I see let's not get carried away. This sure beats losing, this sure beats losing big in week 1, but I think it would be a mistake to draw conclusions after one game, especially, a game played against a Raiders team that really seemed out of whack.

[Steve_Atwater]

Very entertaning game last week. And we got two big calls going our way. Personally, I always liked Ed Hochuli, ever since he officiated Super Bowl 32.

So that counts as a win, altough we probably shouldn't have won. Cutler fumbeling the ball was eerily reminicent of another game against the Chargers back in the days. Late in the game, close to the end zone, Broncos trailing by less than a TD, Elway rolled back, tried to pass and lost the ball wich ended in Junior Seau's hands. The Chargers won on that play. Can't tell you what year it was, but it was almost a carbon copy of that.

Anyhow, 2-0, leading the division as we face the Saints this weekend. They have a great offense, our defense showed flaws last week. Could be another shootout. We'll see if that whole Brandon Marshall story affects the team, him primarily.

[Steve_Atwater]

OK, what did we learn today:

- We can win with the alternate orange jerseys (perhaps they had won with those already, but I can only remember losses).

- Brandon Marshall is a heck of a receiver. He's gonna have a fantastic career in football, unless he throws it away by behaving like an idiot.

- The defense can't stop anybody.

- We are now 3-0, but boy we could easily be 1-2. Like last year when we started 2-0 but almost started 0-2.

- The Broncos are a very exciting team. The offense will need to score a lot of points this season. We won't win 7-3. There's gonna be plenty of shootouts befor the season's thru.

[ATLFalcons]

Yeah, this is an exciting team to watch, Cutler has a lot of targets to throw to and the running back trio for the Broncos is formidable. I can see this team going 12-4.

[Steve_Atwater]

12-4 might be a little much. I'm not sure we can win 12 games with such a porous defense. But I sure hope they can win 12. They way things are going right now in the AFC, that could very well give us a first round bye in the playoffs.

[ATLFalcons]

12-4 might be a little much. I'm not sure we can win 12 games with such a porous defense. But I sure hope they can win 12. They way things are going right now in the AFC, that could very well give us a first round bye in the playoffs.
The Broncos can outshoot most of their opponents, so I really think they can win 12. Come playoff time when it's time to hunker down and play D I don't think they'll succeed.

[Steve_Atwater]

I have to admit I was surprised to see people being so surprised that the Broncos lost to the Chiefs. I mean, knowing the way we almost lost to both the Chargers and the Saints at home, going on the road to KC could not be a piece of cake. Wasn't such a big upset to me.

What have we learned:

Not much. That we have no defense. At least there was some pass rush in the first three games, there was virually none on sunday.

That we wont score 30 points every week. Sometimes the offense is just out of sync, we cough up the ball... A team that's all offense is living dangerously.

That it's gonna be tough against the Bucs on sunday.

[ATLFalcons]

I have to admit I was surprised to see people being so surprised that the Broncos lost to the Chiefs. I mean, knowing the way we almost lost to both the Chargers and the Saints at home, going on the road to KC could not be a piece of cake. Wasn't such a big upset to me.

What have we learned:

Not much. That we have no defense. At least there was some pass rush in the first three games, there was virually none on sunday.

That we wont score 30 points every week. Sometimes the offense is just out of sync, we cough up the ball... A team that's all offense is living dangerously.

That it's gonna be tough against the Bucs on sunday.
I'd expect another loss to TB, they bring the pail and hardhat every week.

[Steve_Atwater]

You always try to come up with the positive in every situation. But I don't believe there's any positive that can come out of last night's debacle.

- we couldn't stop Sammy Morris, who isn't exactly the second coming of Walter Payton. And he walked all over us with such ease. We didn't stop Sammy Morris, but I don't think we could have stopped Bam Morris, or former Cincinnati Red Hal Morris either.

- The Champ Bailey-less secondary proved to be pretty weak. Our two starting safeties are not very good, but that third stringer we replaced Marlon Mcree with... not so good.

- After allowing the Jaguars to keep the game close by constantly giving them the ball last week when we should have buried them early on, I'm sure the coaches repeated over and over again all week long to protect the football. And what did we do? Turn the ball over. I was kind of wondering why Shanahan used Michael Pittman as his primary back in the basence of Selvin Young and not Andre Hall. Now I know.

- And to add to all that, the penalties. My godness. Nate Webster hanging on to Cassell's face mask for dear life on a third and long deep in their zone... That should be counted as a turnover. Should have gotten the ball, the got to keep it, and I believe they scored on that drive.

- Cutler was hurt, both Bailey's had to leave the game. Am I forgetting anything?

Thank God we could generate some pass rush. And thank God the Pats insisted on throwing the ball, despite the fact they could have ran the ball on every play of the game. Would probably have ended in the 60's...

So, to sum up, the Chargers are playing pretty poorly, the division is weak, but we just can't capitalize on it. We should be running away with this thing. Unfortunately, the Broncos are a pretty lousy team...

[Steve_Atwater]

Well after two nice wins, the team is back to it's old trcks and pulled a stinker against the Raiders. They hadn't scored a touchdown since the 80's, they got three in the game. Then again, I guess it's no surprise that the team isn't very good considering that the Broncos have the ultimate no name defense: Not in the sense that we have a solid D formed of rather unknown, un-heralded players, but rather beacuse even hardcore Broncos fans who watch all the games can't name 3 of our starters! Tough to win on a regular basis in those circumstances.

Then again, the no-name part of their defense played pretty well. Who exactly is Chris Johnson, if that's his real name, who shut down Brandon Marshall for most of the game?

Good news is, the Chargers just cannot win a game. So we might hang on and win the division, then bow out in the first round of the playoffs.

[Old Sweater]

Awful game for the Broncos today.

I have the funny feeling that it is going to come down to the last game of the season against the Chargers.

[Denbrnc]

Nah, I think that it will be wrapped up against Buffalo.

[Steve_Atwater]

Well, I think we can all agree that this is the biggest game of the season.

We absolutely need to win this one and clinch the division. Next week in SD, I doubt very seriously that we can pull it off.

When the season began, I wouldn't have said that it would be a disapontement if we didn't win the division. Not by any means. But at this point, after leading all the way, after having the Chargers so far off, on the brink of elimination for three weeks, not being able to close the deal would be very disappointing. Not that I think we stand much of a chance in the playoffs, but still.

So the Bills, at home, we need this one bad.

And BTW, a big thanks to the Chiefs who couldn't hold a two touchdown lead with 77 seconds left. Let me repeat that SEVENTY-SEVEN SECONDS!!

Thanks a lot.

[Steve_Atwater]

Will I sound overly negative if I say that were in deep trouble?

OK then I wont say it.

But we're very much in trouble. No team has ever missed the playoffs after having a three game lead with three weeks to go. Why do I feel we'll make history next week?

Altough, we've been surprised by this team before. The wins in Atlanta and NY were impressive. This Broncos squad seems to play better on the road then at home.

Yesterday was a classic exemple of what happens when you kick field goals instead of scoring TD's. You let the opposing team hang around and what do you know; you get burned.

Doesent look so good. But the 08 Broncos have kept us off balance all year. Who knows, we could come out and pound the Chargers.

But I doubt it.

[football junkie]

The final game will feature a match up of two of the best young QBs in football: Rivers vs. Cutler.

Cutler must be demonstrably better to make up for his team's horrible defense, lack of consistent running game and road status. If Cutler can overcome these challenges -- he'll propel himself to the next level of QB, IMO.

After a win like that, the Broncos will be dangerous in the playoffs. If the Chargers win, it's one and done. That is unless Tomlinson finds his superman outfit in time for January.

[CCN]

I think it's really time for Jay Cutler to show he's a quarterback at the level of John Elway. Saying you have a stronger arm is nice and all. Doing something to help your team win in the most important game in your professional life is completely different.