Peyton Manning, Broncos not looking past 1-4 Jets

[Denver Native (Carol)]

The Jets are coming off a 31-point shutout, are 1-4 after losing their last four straight, are led by a young quarterback whose off-the-field decisions have been questioned as much as his on-the-field decisions and have a coach who could be without a job if things don't improve.

But the Broncos are looking past all of that.

"Our guys look at the tape. They don't look at the record," Broncos coach John Fox said. "... And (the Jets) have a good football team. They lead the league in sacks ... offensively they're in the top five in rushing. They have great backs, a quarterback that make things happen with his feet and arm."

rest - http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_26688259/peyton-manning-broncos-not-looking-past-1-4

[Joel]

I'm glad they're not looking ahead to SF, because I worried they just might. It's a textbook trap game: Top team coming off a one-sided win against another top team, with another big game against another top team next week, but now heading from Mountain Time to the East Coast for an early game against a team desperate for a win to save their season and possibly their coaches job. On paper, any team that can beat Arizona by 3 TDs should destroy a much worse Jets team SD shutout by 31, but going to sleep on ANY NFL team is asking to get beaten.

It's good to hear they're taking the Jets seriously and the season one game at a time. This schedule has few creampuffs, so even if the Jets ARE one of them, we can't afford to let one of our only easy games get away. Ideally, we sweep SD so lesser tiebreaks don't matter, especially since we have as many losses through one less game, but right now it looks a lot like KC this time last year: We're neck and neck with a division rival for the AFCs best record, so ANY slip could be the difference between a bye and playoff homefield or an extra playoff game, with ALL of them on the road.

[Krugan]

I cant imagine this team overlooking anyone.

There are still to many issues for them to look ahead in the least.

[Ravage!!!]

I cant imagine this team overlooking anyone.

There are still to many issues for them to look ahead in the least.

Agreed. If we kept KC in that game like we did, than it shows we still have a lot of work to do. Ex: Why we come out at halftime this year so off when last year we came out after half on fire? We need to play hard, sharp, and do our best to play a 3rd quarter worth a DAMN against the Jets.

[VonDoom]

Does any team ever come out and say, "Yeah, we're looking past this team"?

[Bronco9798]

5741

[slim]

Early east coast games are always rough for us.

[BroncoWave]

Early east coast games are always rough for us.

That tends to be the case for most west coast teams. The whole "west coast teams struggling when playing an early game on the east coast" thing is definitely real. Regardless, though, we should have no problem disposing of the Jets. They are a dumpster fire right now.

[slim]

That tends to be the case for most west coast teams. The whole "west coast teams struggling when playing an early game on the east coast" thing is definitely real. Regardless, though, we should have no problem disposing of the Jets. They are a dumpster fire right now.

It will be closer than you might think, IMO.

I am a little worried, actually.

[Al Wilson 4 Mayor]

Their offense has been so bad I think there's a chance our defense might outscore them.

[HORSEPOWER 56]

I hate games like this. The Jets do have talent. They can run the ball and have a stout D line. They also have something to prove right now. Makes me think of the way the media was dogging the Pats last week after getting smoked by KC. They turned around and took it out on Cincy.

I have a feeling they're gonna come out fired up and get after PFM early. I hate playing teams with nothing to lose. I think our defense will play more of a factor in this one than our offense. If they can establish the run early, it takes a lot of pressure off Smith. I think they'll play a much better game vs us than they did vs SD.

[spikerman]

I don't believe for a second they aren't looking past them - at least a little.

[BroncoWave]

It will be closer than you might think, IMO.

I am a little worried, actually.

If we win by less than two touchdowns I'll be really surprised.

[Joel]

Does any team ever come out and say, "Yeah, we're looking past this team"?
No, but when they make a point of EXPLICITLY saying they're not, it shows they're aware, not spending all their time watching SFs game tapes instead of the Jets.

There's two things I hate about playing awful teams:

1) Injuries can happen against anyone, and, unfortunately, many players have the idea cheap shots make up for lack of talent.
2) Anything less than a totally dominant blowout prompts some people to ask questions like "that's practically a college team, so why did a supposed SB favorite 'only' win by 10?"

Look at the last years Jags game; 35-19, but we only led by 2 at the half (and would've been TIED if their 2 PAT right before the half hadn't failed) so everyone awed by our 50 pt blowouts started asking if we were overrated because we started slow and "only" won by 16 @Perennial Doormat. On top of that, Franklin got hurt, Vasquez had to slide over to his spot and Indy destroyed BOTH ends of our offensive line the following week to hand us our first loss of the year. Sixty minutes every week; hopefully the past two seasons worth of heartbreak has taught us that lesson by now.

[Bronco9798]

I don't like these games either.

[FanInAZ]

If there was ever a team that you should look ahead to, the 49ers aren't it. I watched their games against the Bears, Cards & a good chunk of the Eagles; & they just don't scare me. For some reason, they just aren't as good as they have been in previous years.

[Joel]

If there was ever a team that you should look ahead to, the 49ers aren't it. I watched their games against the Bears, Cards & a good chunk of the Eagles; & they just don't scare me. For some reason, they just aren't as good as they have been in previous years.
They look incredibly dysfunctional this year, rage-quitting games with stupid penalties that ice comebacks for teams like the Bears (way to christen the new stadium with class, guys) while players openly grumble their head coach should be fired. It's hard to believe this is a team that made three straight NFCCGs and a SB, but maybe it's as simple as there being no sastisfaction in finishing 2nd (or 3rd.) If Philly had any D at all, they probably win that game, and shelling Dallsas before it figured out how to salvage ITS D was no accomplishment either.

They're still LOADED with talent at many positions though, and have something to prove now, so I'm not taking them lightly. They definitely scare me less than before the season started though. I expect them to get their stuff together eventually, but hope we play them before that happens (if they want to make SD their statement game, that's fine by me. :))

[Bronco9798]

If there was ever a team that you should look ahead to, the 49ers aren't it. I watched their games against the Bears, Cards & a good chunk of the Eagles; & they just don't scare me. For some reason, they just aren't as good as they have been in previous years.

Yeah but any team can put it all together for one day. You should really fear every team you play to a point. If not, you might just get beat. It's only a 16 week schedule for everybody (yes 17 with a bye week) and every week means something, especially when you start getting into this part of the season.

[Joel]

Yeah but any team can put it all together for one day. You should really fear every team you play to a point. If not, you might just get beat. It's only a 16 week schedule for everybody (yes 17 with a bye week) and every week means something, especially when you start getting into this part of the season.
Fer reals; just 2 games is usually the difference between a 10-6 team making the playoffs (maybe even as division champs) and an 8-8 team watching them, and at 9-7 anything's possible. The season's already ¼ done and the difference between the NFLs best and worst team is just 5 games; sure, 5 games is a lot, but not to separate #1 from #32. 5/8 division leaders are CO-leaders tied for 1st place, and if not for the byes all but ONE would be. As you say, we're just now reaching the part of the season where we have enough games to separate contenders from pretenders.

It's more true now than ever; how many 10-6 or 9-7 teams have we seen reach or even WIN SBs in the past decade that wouldn't even have reached the PLAYOFFS with one or two more losses?

[VonDoom]

No, but when they make a point of EXPLICITLY saying they're not, it shows they're aware, not spending all their time watching SFs game tapes instead of the Jets.

There's two things I hate about playing awful teams:

1) Injuries can happen against anyone, and, unfortunately, many players have the idea cheap shots make up for lack of talent.
2) Anything less than a totally dominant blowout prompts some people to ask questions like "that's practically a college team, so why did a supposed SB favorite 'only' win by 10?"

Look at the last years Jags game; 35-19, but we only led by 2 at the half (and would've been TIED if their 2 PAT right before the half hadn't failed) so everyone awed by our 50 pt blowouts started asking if we were overrated because we started slow and "only" won by 16 @Perennial Doormat. On top of that, Franklin got hurt, Vasquez had to slide over to his spot and Indy destroyed BOTH ends of our offensive line the following week to hand us our first loss of the year. Sixty minutes every week; hopefully the past two seasons worth of heartbreak has taught us that lesson by now.

I was actually going to mention the Jacksonville game last year. Never was so much anger directed at a 15 point win.

I'd love to blow out the Jets, but despite what the Thursday games will tell you so far, blow outs just aren't that common in the NFL. We just need to win; I don't care by how much.

If we don't destroy them the way SD did, though, I predict a lot of teeth gnashing on this board, even in victory.

[Canmore]

You look past an opponent or down on them and the results are usually bad.

[Joel]

Even with SDs strong start, I feel reasonably confident about winning the divison, and fairly so about a bye and even homefield given the quality of other division leaders. So I'm mainly looking at regular season games in terms of what they tell me to expect in the postseason, both in terms of specific areas and weekly consistency single-elimination games require.

That's why I keep coming back to the line and the run game: It's the ONLY real weakness I can see on a team otherwise SOLID everywhere—but I KEEP seeing it, ever week, every season; pretty much since the last couple years with Shanny, really. Yes, we led the NFL in rushing in 2011; We also led the NFL in ATTEMPTS; our AVERAGE wasn't even top five. I keep hoping against hope we'll improve or make some change that works (and at times in last years playoffs it seemed like we had—until the one-dimensional SB where we got beat because a great D sold out on stopping the ONLY thing we do well.)

[MasterShake]

Yeah I'm not looking past them either. I did look down and laugh as I tripped over them, though.

[Joel]

The defending SB Champs won their last game by two scores but are still fielding pointed questions about why they looked so BAD beating the awful 'Skins by such a small margin. And if this is an easy game—IF—it's one of the few on our schedule, so we need to exploit that opportunity, especially since we're tied for first in the division and in a three-way tie for first in the AFC. The Bolts haven't had their bye yet, and are @Oakland this week, then host the Chiefs before coming to Denver, so they'll probably retain at least a share of first place until we play them even if we don't drop another game first.

We need to bury these guys early and keep shoveling till the final gun; even then the consensus will be "It was Denver vs. the Jets: What'd you expect?" Be ready, and play sharp for 60:00.