Positive outlook on tonight's game.

[BroncoWave]

We were on the road, against a really good team, made tons of mistakes, had several fluky things happen against us, had horrible coaching decisions, and only lost by 6. I see us handling Washington and SD before the big showdown with KC.

[AlWilsonizKING]

had horrible coaching decisions


THIS more than anything was what kept pissing me off the entire game.


PEACE!!!

[Dapper Dan]

This will be the loneliest thread on the board.


I agree. Colts are a good team. We lost because of stupid mistakes. Everyone's on the Seahawk's dicks. Colts beat them. With the mistakes the team made, this shouldn't have been a close game at all. The team got a loss. The pressure is off. They'll learn and grow.

[G_Money]

Bad coaching decisions, play calling, adjustments, bad reffing, terrible play, Manning couldn't hit the broad-side of a barn, we turned the ball over a bunch of times...

Lost by one score to a very good team on the road.

There are worse things, and I'm glad our receivers got to play a really physical secondary. The lessons we should be able to take from it should help against the Chiefs, not to mention the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. ;)

But we've GOT to be able to convert third-and-short and in goal-line situations. It killed us in the Baltimore game, and we haven't fixed it. I know our line is hurting badly, but we've got to get it done.

Any team can lose with a bunch of turnovers, but it's hard to win close games if you can't get first downs and touchdowns when you need em and they're right there for you to man up and take. Hope we figure that out in the next couple months.

~G

[jhildebrand]

This team lost to a suspect Chargers team. A chargers team with equally devistating losses on Defense that held them under 15 points. Let's not call them a really good team. This team lost due to a piss poor game plan, piss poor execution, and turnovers.

Also, the d has been shredded since Philly. They need to get it turned around!

[jhildebrand]

John Fox/Adam Gase was Dan Reeves part deux tonight with the conservative gameplan especially on the 3rd and 1's

[wayninja]

These all seem more like excuses than positive outlooks.

[BroncoWave]

This team lost to a suspect Chargers team. A chargers team with equally devistating losses on Defense that held them under 15 points. Let's not call them a really good team. This team lost due to a piss poor game plan, piss poor execution, and turnovers.

Also, the d has been shredded since Philly. They need to get it turned around!

This team also smoked the 49ers and beat the Seahawks. They are a good team. They were probably overlooking SD a bit with us coming up. Not unlike us against Jax.

[BroncoWave]

Also, our D did not get shredded tonight IMO. We gave them a BUNCH of short fields. I think this was the best our defense has played since the second half against Philly.

[Dapper Dan]

These all seem more like excuses than positive outlooks.

Depends on how you choose to look at it.

[jhildebrand]

These all seem more like excuses than positive outlooks.

Moral victories. Orange slices. Participation trophies.

[GEM]

We kicked our own ass more than the colts kicked our asses. Learn from it, fix it and cut hillman.

[BroncoWave]

We held the Colts to 334 total yards. How exactly does that equate to our D getting shredded?

[jhildebrand]

Also, our D did not get shredded tonight IMO. We gave them a BUNCH of short fields. I think this was the best our defense has played since the second half against Philly.

Our D wasn't shredded like they were by Dallas, Philly, and Justin Blackmon but they were tore up pretty good. After the first 3 and out Indy had to open the game, how many more were there? They couldn't get off the field and Vickerson couldn't keep his helmet on!

[Krugan]

Positive, down by 19, they didnt stop and quit, like years past, but made it a game despite not being able to wipe with either hand.

There was hope all the way to the end.

Better cut Vick too, that guy is a free 15 yard machine. 3 tonight I think, but that gets overlooked too.

Because of you know, that fumble.

[GEM]

Moral victory...oh **** no. We sucked. In all aspects we sucked. We did everything wrong in this game. We did everything we could to get blown out. We played ourselves, the colts and some horrible referees, and we list by 6. That isn't a moral victory. That's a good team learning they need to be great to win in the NFL. So no whining, no bitching and damn it if you don't have some God damn conviction in this team, get out of the way. We are the Broncos and we believe in Mile High ******* magic!!!

[BroncoWave]

It's odd, I wasn't really all that bummed out at all after this game. This kinda felt like one we had a decent shot of getting beat in. Winning on the road in the NFL is tough, especially against good teams. We will bounce back against Washington next week. And we still control our own destiny in the division.

[Dapper Dan]

It's odd, I wasn't really all that bummed out at all after this game. This kinda felt like one we had a decent shot of getting beat in. Winning on the road in the NFL is tough, especially against good teams. We will bounce back against Washington next week. And we still control our own destiny in the division.

In December/January, in Mile High, this is a different game, IMO.

[CrazyHorse]

At least we got the pressure of going undefeated off our chest. 18-1

[BroncoWave]

In December/January, in Mile High, this is a different game, IMO.

I agree. I would love another crack at this team. Now that Peyton is over the emotion of playing them, it won't be as big a deal as tonight.

[DenBronx]

I would have rathered us loss to Washington than the Colts.

[Dapper Dan]

I agree. I would love another crack at this team. Now that Peyton is over the emotion of playing them, it won't be as big a deal as tonight.

If they play in Denver, they need to have a special Stanford Cardinal alum celebration. Elway, Lynch, McCaffery, and Luck go out and party to throw Luck off his game.

[CrazyHorse]

I would have rathered us loss to Washington than the Colts.

Hopefully we make Shanahan's homecoming as pleasant as Manning's was tonight.

[Dapper Dan]

Hopefully we make Shanahan's homecoming as pleasant as Manning's was tonight.

They should do a video!

[igoe4broncos]

There's a reason teams don't go undefeated. Games like this happen to even the greatest teams in the leagues each year. It was just a weird game where Denver didn't get many breaks at all, and a lot of the mistakes the Broncos made are correctable.

It sucks to lose, but I expect this team to get much better from this loss. It should make them much more motivated and hungry.

[GEM]

There is no homecoming. This isn't his home. He isn't a Denver bronco anymore. I love shanny, always will, but if he's in our stadium on the other side of the field, he's the enemy. I don't welcome the enemy in my house.No homecoming, that's saved for when he comes back after he retires.

[Ziggy]

Manning hasn't looked right since he got his neck twisted around in the Dallas game. His 'stronger arm' this season seems to have disappeared. I hope I'm wrong on this one.

[tomjonesrocks]

Manning hasn't looked right since he got his neck twisted around in the Dallas game. His 'stronger arm' this season seems to have disappeared. I hope I'm wrong on this one. He certainly didn't look right tonight, that's for sure. I didn't notice anything vs Jax, and he certainly shredded Dallas after that play, but I'm definitely concerned.

[DenBronx]

@VicLombardi: Wes Welker very glib just now: "we'll learn from this...some guys need to grow up".

[Joel]

Our D wasn't shredded like they were by Dallas, Philly, and Justin Blackmon but they were tore up pretty good. After the first 3 and out Indy had to open the game, how many more were there? They couldn't get off the field and Vickerson couldn't keep his helmet on!
After the first three-and-out there were 5 more. Six, if we count the Ihenacho turnover on 2nd down in the fourth; seven if we also count the 11 yard, one play TD drive after Hollidays return-fumble. But the strip-safety gave Indy 2 points and the ball on their 34, leading to a 66 yard TD drive, and Mannings tipped Int gave them a FG on one of those three-and-outs; combined with Hollidays fumble that was 19 points, nearly half of what Indy scored, and just enough to beat us.

The D itself only gave up 20 points to a very good offense, though allowing them a TD in <1:00 to end the first half was bad. Then again, if we hadn't thrown three stright incompletes and set them up at midfield, maybe our D at least holds Indy to a FG there. Then we're down by 5 instead of 9 on our last drive so we can keep going for the TD instead of kicking the FG and hoping to recover the kick for a Hail Mary.

There's no such thing as an ugly win or a pretty loss, but even if there were this was an ugly loss. Our line couldn't get our backs any push in short yardage or protect our passer in long yardage, hence we failed to convert 3rd and 1 TWICE in the first quarter and wound up with a couple three-and-outs of our own. Plus, y'know, the Colts pass rush scored a minimum of 5 points with the safety and tipped interception, 12 if we count the TD they scored when the safety gave them the ball. And Champ's probably done for the year; we can only hope/pray he can play next year. This sucked.

[GEM]

Wonder who he is talking about. :confused:

[GEM]

I was more disappointed last week than this week. Weird.

[tripp]

The rare occasion Manning shows everyone he is human against a team he's played on for 12 or so years. I never expected him to perform like he did against Dallas or Baltimore. Emotional game whether he wanted it to be or not. That doesn't excuse the secondary.

The one thing that sticks out in my mind the most... they show you Jack Del Rio looking at Champ Bailey on the sidelines after that TD he gave up... his facial expression towards Champ said it all, and Champ looked like a rookie with no explanation.

[BroncoWave]

The rare occasion Manning shows everyone he is human against a team he's played on for 12 or so years. I never expected him to perform like he did against Dallas or Baltimore. Emotional game whether he wanted it to be or not. That doesn't excuse the secondary.

The one thing that sticks out in my mind the most... they show you Jack Del Rio looking at Champ Bailey on the sidelines after that TD he gave up... his facial expression towards Champ said it all, and Champ looked like a rookie with no explanation.

Luck only passed for 228 yards. I don't get the bashing of the defense last night. This was probably the best game our secondary played all season.

[tripp]

Luck only passed for 228 yards. I don't get the bashing of the defense last night. This was probably the best game our secondary played all season.

True, I think I just have a lot of anger directed at the secondary for the previous weeks, kinda pools out still.

[OrangeHoof]

Naturally, I'm disappointed and a bit upset. From one of the first plays when the defender was literally holding onto Welker and nothing was called made me think the refs were going to give this game away and the Broncos would have to be great to win. They certainly weren't.

The o-line really misses Clady and Franklin. It seems the deep ball got removed from the playbook and all we could do was hand the ball off and throw short passes. We stopped challenging them vertically.

The Broncos had this coming after the way they played against Dallas and Jacksonville. Now they know they need to be better if they are going to reach the Super Bowl. I saw positives from the defense with Miller's return and I think what they really need to fix is the OL. It is still mid-season and perhaps they can make a trade with a team that is struggling for a quality OT.

[Nomad]

OH, Manning kept throwing ducks. I wouldn't have trusted him with the deep ball

[Coach Jonny]

None of this really maters anyway. We will make the playoffs and this will be just another bump in the road that we will overcome. Tough game in a tough place hopefully we learn from this. KC is what we need to be focused on. We need to wln our division. However, it was a hard one to swallow.

[Broncolingus]

Luck only passed for 228 yards. I don't get the bashing of the defense last night. This was probably the best game our secondary played all season.

..that's an interesting comment and something I was mulling over after the game...

...the defense seemed to be playing on a short field for most of the night...at least that's how it seemed to me.

...and the amount of 3-and-out's by the offense were reminiscent of the Orton days...

...the defense, to include the secondary, played better the second half of the game, but I still think that group has a lot of work to do if Denver's serious about the postseason.

[weazel]

I say forget about this game and move on... The team probably has already. It's probably a good thing, now they dont have to worry about the undefeated thing and people can stop praising everything they do. let them praise the Chiefs and the Colts now and the Broncos can just get down to business.

[VonDoom]

I say forget about this game and move on... The team probably has already. It's probably a good thing, now they dont have to worry about the undefeated thing and people can stop praising everything they do. let them praise the Chiefs and the Colts now and the Broncos can just get down to business.

I was actually coming on here to say something similar. Maybe the spotlight will be off this team now and the media can crown another mid-season champion.

There are definitely some alarming trends from the past few weeks that need to be addressed, turnovers being first and foremost. Have we had a positive turnover ratio all year?

Oh, Welker was a boss last night, though. Circus catches, even with contact coming. They should've started to go to him earlier.

[wayninja]

I was actually coming on here to say something similar. Maybe the spotlight will be off this team now and the media can crown another mid-season champion.

There are definitely some alarming trends from the past few weeks that need to be addressed, turnovers being first and foremost. Have we had a positive turnover ratio all year?

Oh, Welker was a boss last night, though. Circus catches, even with contact coming. They should've started to go to him earlier.

Yes, most of the year we've had a positive turnover ratio I believe. Manning not throwing a pick until week 4 definitely helped that.

The only thing that really bothered me about last night is how we didn't seem to want to play with any passion until it was basically too late.

[VonDoom]

Yes, most of the year we've had a positive turnover ratio I believe. Manning not throwing a pick until week 4 definitely helped that.

The only thing that really bothered me about last night is how we didn't seem to want to play with any passion until it was basically too late.

I agree with that last bit. The team also looked uninspired against the Jags, but obviously, the quality of opposition was much different there.

Re: turnovers. I just did a quick look at all the box scores this year, and the only game we had a positive turnover ratio was the Giants game, where Eli threw four picks. I think we were +3 in that game. We're -2 for the year (so, -5 in six games that weren't the Giants) and our ten fumbles lost lead the league. I think we've only had one "clean" game this year, against the Eagles (who also didn't turn it over that day).

[Joel]

..that's an interesting comment and something I was mulling over after the game...

...the defense seemed to be playing on a short field for most of the night...at least that's how it seemed to me.

...and the amount of 3-and-out's by the offense were reminiscent of the Orton days...

...the defense, to include the secondary, played better the second half of the game, but I still think that group has a lot of work to do if Denver's serious about the postseason.
The Colts offense didn't score any more at home than they did in Seattle, and most folks think the Seahawks gave a darned good D (especially against the pass.) All our three-and-outs DID give the Colts lots of short fields though. So did the safety; they got the ball at the 50 after that. And at our 11 after Hollidays fumble. I forget where they got it on the pick, but they kicked a long FG after our D held them to yet another three-and-out. Our D held a fine offense to HALF A DOZEN three-and-outs, in addition to forcing and recovering a fumble that gave our awful offense an easy TD.

Our offense stunk, giving up either 5 points or 12 (depending how one counts the TD on the drive from midfield following the safety.) Special teams weren't much better; Holliday scored more points for them than for us. Our D played pretty well against a very good offense though; if our offense OR special teams had played as well we walk out of there with a win. Get well soon, Orlando....

[claymore]

Wonder who he is talking about. :confused:
I bet it rhymes with Dickerson. :D

[topscribe]

We were on the road, against a really good team, made tons of mistakes, had several fluky things happen against us, had horrible coaching decisions, and only lost by 6. I see us handling Washington and SD before the big showdown with KC.
Thank you for the positive thread. There is so much negativity after a loss
(including from me). Denver showed that the better team does not always
win the game, but they still showed they were the better team, IMO.
.

[weazel]

I was actually coming on here to say something similar. Maybe the spotlight will be off this team now and the media can crown another mid-season champion.

There are definitely some alarming trends from the past few weeks that need to be addressed, turnovers being first and foremost. Have we had a positive turnover ratio all year?

Oh, Welker was a boss last night, though. Circus catches, even with contact coming. They should've started to go to him earlier.

Damn Welker was a magician!

[Dapper Dan]

I can't remember where I read it, but Manning said "Yeah, I throw a lot of wobbly passes. I throw a lot of wobbly touchdowns too."

[Joel]

334 yards when they had as many short fields as they did, twice close to the 50 yard line IIRC, is getting ripped up. Luck 4 TDs. Luck running around in wide open space multiple times and only sliding once. That tells you he wasn't even worried.
I miscounted earlier: We actually held them to SEVEN three-and-outs. How many teams have held the Colts three-and-out half a dozen times in Indy this year? I don't see how all those short fields for their offense means our D was bad; it means our offense was bad. Our Ds only really awful series was when they couldn't play Prevent long enough to keep Indy out our end zone for the last 90 seconds of the first half, but I've given up on us learning to play Prevent at this point: We just don't know how, and can't learn. Even that one started at midfield and gave them time thanks to three straight incompletes from us.

Other than that though, where were Indys other 32 points?

3 off a 65 yd drive stopped at our 10.
7 off an 11 yd "drive" after Hollidays fumble
2 off Mannings strip-sack-safety
7 off the 66 yd drive after our free kick
7 off the 41 yd drive in the third
3 off a 46 yd drive stopped at our 35; a lot of teams miss that kick
3 off a -3 yd drive stopped at our 25

Now: How much of that is on our D, and how much on our offense? A lot of those drives started after one of our many three-and-outs (the 41 yd TD drive had a bonus: Unnecessary roughness on the punt return.)

If our offense OR STs play as well as our D, we win. That simple.