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BroncoWave
09-22-2014, 08:21 AM
Alright everyone, what would you say the good and the bad were this week? Here's mine.

Good:

Sanders. This guy just produces week after week after week. He looks well on his way to the pro bowl.

Welker. Made some nice plays in his first game back. It's great to have him back in our offense.

DT. This is the one I expect to get some flak for since many people say he was a no-show. I honestly believe he was injured, and what he did on that last drive to keep us in this game earns him a spot in the good column IMO. He was clutch.

Pass rush. Really pleased with the pass rush today. Wilson is so damn good it's pretty much impossible to contain him, but our guys were getting there consistently. Von Miller is back.

Ward. Guy continues to make plays every week.

Run defense. I thought we did a really nice job of keeping Lynch bottled up. He made some nice runs here and there, but I think we defended him about as well as you could have hoped.

Manning. Was he off on a few throws? Yeah, but he still wound up with over 300 yds and 2 TD. That is no small feat against this defense.

McManus. Made all of his kicks and did not allow Harvin to return a KO. He did his job. More on him later.

Bad:

That nullified offside call. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that is the worst call I have ever seen in an NFL game. Whatever ref overruled that offside call should be fined and suspended. That was just flat out horrible.

Running game. Not much to be said here. Just completely and totally ineffective. This is a pretty major area of concern.

Play calling. I'm seriously sick of our draw plays up the middle on second and third and long. The next time that works this season will be the first. Like, what are we trying to accomplish with that play? Yeah the defense is expecting a pass there, but passing is still going to work more often than running will.

Colquitt. Is it just me or are all of his kicks low line drives that are easily returnable? If this McManus kid can really punt like people say he can, I would not be opposed to keeping him when Prater gets back and telling Colquitt to hit the road.

Can't really think of too much else bad from this game. When you go into Seattle and take them into overtime, you can't afford a lot of bad areas of play, and I think we played pretty well in most areas this week.

MasterShake
09-22-2014, 09:16 AM
Good:

Prior to this I was under the impression that the Seahawks were 30+ points better than us. This game showed me that the changes we made give us a chance against a very good team with a historic defense. Sanders is exactly the type of receiver you need against a fast defense because he can move left to right as well as vertically which their secondary seems to struggle with. Our short passing game seemed effective but untimely drops and penalties killed it. Seattle had to play out of our minds to keep us from stealing a win.

EDIT: And our defense played lights out most of the game except OT. Von Miller created lots of disruptions and the secondary looked like they were swarming. That safety on Russell Wilson would have been the turning point had we won.

Bad:

We have not seen a full game of consistent offense from this team. If and when they put it all together and our defense can start gelling more we can be dangerous but right now it is too inconsistent. The running game and conservative play calling is actually killing our time of possession instead of helping it. I hope we just realize we don't have a good running scheme and just go back to burying teams with points. And like I said above IF we did end up winning we didn't deserve it and we would have stole one. That doesn't exactly breed confidence. Also the turnovers once again came at the worst time, but it was nice to see the defense hold after the opening fumble.

Overall:

I still think that Denver and Seattle are the two best teams in the NFL but Seattle will have the edge as long as they can create turnovers and stifle our offense. The good news is I think that if Demaryius Thomas doesn't have a bad day and Welker is 100% and we clean up some dumb mistakes we could sustain drives and score more. Emmanuel Sanders is the key to our offense against them, and maybe the rest of the year. I think he is a huge upgrade over Decker, though I do miss Eric in the Red Zone. The good news is we still have teams like Arizona and San Francisco to sharpen our knives against. I think we have a good shot to be a 1 or 2 seed again, especially since our only competition so far seems to be Cincinnati. New England looked worse in a win than we did in our loss.

tripp
09-22-2014, 09:22 AM
I agree on all points. I was thoroughly impressed with our pass rush. Man this is the first game this year where I thought our defence looked mean and stingy. As much as I love having Talib and Ware, my favourite acquisition this year is Ward. I haven't seen a defensive player that nasty since John Lynch in Denver.

Emmanuel Sanders every game has had an explosive, big gain play. I feel like we don't nearly use him enough. Sanders is a player who is loud and energetic, the same can't be said for anyone else on Offence, and personally I like the fire and intensity Sanders brings.

It's obvious DT has a foot injury, he's had it since last week and has been playing through it. You can tell it's bugging him, and I think this bye week will do wonders for him. Normally I'm not a big fan of early bye week, but if it's the difference between DT being healthy or not, I'm all for it.

Welker showed us just how much we needed him, he came up big for us on a couple of plays to give us the first. He looks hungry, and I think it's absolute bull sh*t we didn't get a flag for the hit on Welker that could have very well gave him another concussion.

The bad:



Play calling. Why are we still attempting bubble screens after it hasn't been working for us the last 3 times we attempted it during the game? Is it just me or do we like nothing but inside hand offs? I haven't seen any runs where we go wide. Either we don't put running plays on a high priority or we're OK with a yard or 2.

Something that was completely out of our control, which you said, the offside call which was originally called, and then put the flag back in his pocket for whatever reason. Killed the drive. Although we shouldn't rely on penalties to help keep a drive going, they're apart of the game.


I really think this bye week will do us a lot of good. Time to regroup, and look at what plays are working, and what aren't. Time to implement some new plays that we think might work, and mix it up in our running game.

VonDoom
09-22-2014, 09:35 AM
If we're going to complain about non-penalties, we should include the fact that Earl Thomas (I believe) leveled Welker after the Chancellor pick, and the reporters on Twitter were saying that should have been a personal foul on a defenseless receiver. I try to avoid blaming the refs, even though the offsides non call was terrible. We still have to be better on offense during those five straight drives ending in punts.

I've been on the Sanders bandwagon since day one, and he is delivering. I hope DT is okay - I didn't see where he went out yesterday, and if it's been a nagging injury, it hasn't been discussed much. Hopefully it's nothing major, because we need that dude.

Loved the pass rush yesterday - this was finally the defense we were promised. Miller was great and disruptive, Ware turned it on as the game went along, etc. If only we had been able to corral Wilson in OT, but he has ice water in his veins and knows how to win these games.

Also, I love Ward (and have since we signed him). Nasty is a good word him. I worry that he's almost TOO nasty at times, as I've seen him try to separate a ball carrier's head from his shoulders in each of the last couple of games. I for one welcome that physicality.

I wanted that win badly as we improbably came back at the end of regulation, and I was exhausted after the loss. But if we wanted to prove we were a physical football team capable of going toe to toe with the best, then we made good strides yesterday.

Hopefully we rest up well during the early bye. Arizona is no joke and it's a game we need to win at this point.

Hawgdriver
09-22-2014, 09:39 AM
Good:

Dog's post in the gameday thread was pretty good. And I like Dread calling Manning on the carpet when everyone is focused on coaching staff for play selection. And even though Joelstoy lacks concision he seems right to focus on the Broncos inability to run against the Seahawks. Wait, did I say focus in the same sentence as Joelstoy? Ok, poor word choice.

Bad:

Lack of naughty selfies from GEM when everyone had their drink on. Turrible. Like, 2d quarter Broncos v. Seahawks terribad.

Ugly:

Post-game bickering and in-fighting.

VonDoom
09-22-2014, 09:41 AM
Also, the bubble screens have been our bread and butter for the last couple of years. They just don't do well against the Seahawks. Those work against almost anyone else. As was noted in the game day thread, the timing was off early on (Sanders had to dive to catch that one for one yard, where if he had caught it in stride, it might have become something) and the key to our screen game (Bey Bey) was not himself. Do I blame them for trying to run their offense like normal? No. Do I blame them for not switching it up when it was obvious it wasn't working yesterday? Yes.

Hawgdriver
09-22-2014, 09:44 AM
I try to avoid blaming the refs...

Same here. There is no point in denying responsibility for victory or loss, even when it's justified. But I'd love to be privy to the zebra HQ post-mortem for that game.

TXBRONC
09-22-2014, 10:06 AM
Same here. There is no point in denying responsibility for victory or loss, even when it's justified. But I'd love to be privy to the zebra HQ post-mortem for that game.

I'm with you guys on not blaming the refs for a loss but a blatantly call is still a bad call. Like you Hawg I would be very interested to know what Officiating HQ thinks about calls like the off sides call.

DenBronx
09-22-2014, 10:09 AM
Is it just me or has Colquitt fell off the map? He used to have booming kicks and would pin the other team deep. Now he looks pretty bad...

Joel
09-22-2014, 11:36 AM
I've been on the Sanders bandwagon since day one, and he is delivering. I hope DT is okay - I didn't see where he went out yesterday, and if it's been a nagging injury, it hasn't been discussed much. Hopefully it's nothing major, because we need that dude.
If I recall correctly, it was the 2nd quarter when he briefly left, at which point the sideline reporter mentioned they took off his shoe v. KC to try and massage out an injury that's still bothering him.

I really hope we turn it around after post-bye after a rocky start full of distractions and hobbles. We all know about Welkers two-ring circus that's behind us now, so Manning will have all three of his All Pro weapons again. Miller and Harris missed practically all of preseason rehabbing ACLs, and needed to be spelled the first two games, but their stamina and play was outstanding yesterday. Even though we merely shuffled the same starting offensive linemen, lines function as a unit that altered, but maybe the bye will restore their chemistrys equilibrium (pass protection's much improved, but the run... ugh....)

We peaked early last year only to fade as early leaders usually do; it's hard to be unbeatable every game for 5+ months. I'd rather start shaky but peak in the SB like most champions.

Beyond that, I pretty much agree with everyone elses points (especially those who agree with ME; those dudes are Arnold Einsteins. :tongue:)

Valar Morghulis
09-22-2014, 12:02 PM
good - tj ward is my new man crush

von miller was a menace all night

ware is as advertised

talib played well, just unlucky on that td, his coverage was good

manning threw for over 300 in seattle and one drive when it really mattered

sanders is turning me full blown gay

bad -

sanders is turning me full blown gay

our offence at times looked like the chiefs with cassell - so conservative and lacking imagination

our run game sucks ass