Thread: The Denver Broncos 2008 Season: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly-First 4 games

I was only able to see the first 3 games on tape. Game 4 was unfortunately the first live game I was able to watch this season. After breaking down the first 3 weeks and watching this weeks game, here's what I've come up with:


The Good:

Offense- This unit is something special. Yes, they will have bad days, as they proved vs. the Chiefs, but they can score against anyone. In the first quarter of the season, they are averaging 435.5 yards and 33 points per game. Cutler and Marshall are opening eyes around the league as they make thier case for becoming 2 of the top young superstars in the NFL. Eddie Royal will get some votes in the Rookie of the Year balloting. Ryan Clady is doing a pretty good impression of Gary Zimmerman, and the rest of the offensive line is playing lights out as well. The Broncos offensive line has allowed a grand total of 1 sack this season in 158 passing attempts. (Yes, they are credited with 2, but 1 was charged due to an unforced Cutler fumble behind the LOS.)

Special Teams- Well, let's narrow that down to Matt Prater. He's made 9 of his 10 field goal attempts, and is 3/3 from outside of 50 yards. He was also leading the league coming into week 4 with 7 touchbacks on kickoffs. Have we also found our next franchise kicker? Time will tell.



The Bad AND The Ugly:

The Defense: Up to this point in the season, the defense has been about as effective as a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest. After 4 games this unit is giving up 409 yards and 29 points per game. For those of us who didn't think it could get worse after last season, we may be proven wrong. Despite the fact that this team has played with a lead most of the season thus far, they have only 6 sacks in 4 games. That's 1 sack in every 22.5 pass attempts by the opposing team. They also have just 1 interception and 2 fumble recoveries. They are giving up 5 yards per carry to opposing RB's, and 277 yards passing per game to opposing QB's. As we saw against KC, when the offense is not playing lights out, this team may not win a game. Can this defense become a force before this season is over? I don't think so. You can point a finger at the scheme, the defensive coordinator, and the coaches in general, but there is still a serious lack of overall talent. It's going to take the kind of investments with the draft and free agency that the Broncos have made with the offense to make this unit elite.




So what do we do? I can't speak for everyone, but I'm going to focus on the positive this season. The offense is fun to watch. It's explosive, young, and as talented as any offense in the NFL. Let's not forget that the average age of the offensive starters is just 25.6 years old. Barring injuries, we can enjoy the nucleus of this group for many years to come. We may have found our franchise QB, WR, TE, FB, OLT, ORT, ORG, KR, and K.

As far as the defense is concerned? Perhaps a good game of suduko is in order while we wait for the offense to get back on the field.

Nice breakdowns, Ziggy!

Matt Prater is playing almost lights out. More than the FGs I have confidence that he'll make, I really like all those touchbacks. I'm wondering how well Kern is doing. Did we choose the right kicker from the 2 who overachieved this preseason? ......

I know the rush defense is much better now than last season, but the pass rush and pass coverage seem attrocious. Also, there were quite a few whifs in tackling, or guys who seemed to be nowhere near the action.

With regards to the defense, I have no idea whether it's the scheme, the players, both? I have no idea how it gets fixed. It doesn't seem to have an identity. I also don't like that they don't hit harder. Tackling is fine, but the hard hits is what gets teams to respect you, specialy those pass catchers in the middle.

Good posts.

About our D, I think it's both schemes (and coaches) and players fault. We have a lack of talent and coaching about D-Line. Our LBs (except DJ) are nothing special... You can have the best corner, it won't help too much when your front sucks like that! I could pass for 300+ yards against this D ! The QB has the time to read a newspaper, drink his coffee before passing... It's not acceptable. Every NFL QB can look a HOFamer when you give him so much time to throw.

Omac, I do agree... Where are the hard hits? Damn... I like football for that too ! Look at Ravens & Steelers D... They don't tackle, they HIT !
My D's philosophy is to make the O pays for any yards they take.
Stop playing flag football !!!

As far as I've seen Broncos, I think we never had a great D. We had good D and good schemes, but never a great D (such as Ravens, Giants or Bears one). But this year's D is really the worst I've seen as a Broncos fan. Pathetic...

Our O has to be really special if we want to make the playoffs this year.

Message to our D : come on guys... Give everything you have on the field. Hit hard... Just replace talent with heart !

Originally Posted by frenchfan

Good posts.

About our D, I think it's both schemes (and coaches) and players fault. We have a lack of talent and coaching about D-Line. Our LBs (except DJ) are nothing special... You can have the best corner, it won't help too much when your front sucks like that! I could pass for 300+ yards against this D ! The QB has the time to read a newspaper, drink his coffee before passing... It's not acceptable. Every NFL QB can look a HOFamer when you give him so much time to throw.

Omac, I do agree... Where are the hard hits? Damn... I like football for that too ! Look at Ravens & Steelers D... They don't tackle, they HIT !
My D's philosophy is to make the O pays for any yards they take.
Stop playing flag football !!!

As far as I've seen Broncos, I think we never had a great D. We had good D and good schemes, but never a great D (such as Ravens, Giants or Bears one). But this year's D is really the worst I've seen as a Broncos fan. Pathetic...

Our O has to be really special if we want to make the playoffs this year.

Message to our D : come on guys... Give everything you have on the field. Hit hard... Just replace talent with heart !

LOL, yeah, flag football sounds about right. If we can't stop them from making completions, we at least have to make them pay. Wear down their receivers and make them hesitate when they go over the middle.

Defense isn't just about schemes and tackling; it's also about attitude, and no one from the Broncos' defense instills fear with other receivers.

Originally Posted by frenchfan

Good posts.

About our D, I think it's both schemes (and coaches) and players fault. We have a lack of talent and coaching about D-Line. Our LBs (except DJ) are nothing special... You can have the best corner, it won't help too much when your front sucks like that! I could pass for 300+ yards against this D ! The QB has the time to read a newspaper, drink his coffee before passing... It's not acceptable. Every NFL QB can look a HOFamer when you give him so much time to throw.

Omac, I do agree... Where are the hard hits? Damn... I like football for that too ! Look at Ravens & Steelers D... They don't tackle, they HIT !
My D's philosophy is to make the O pays for any yards they take.
Stop playing flag football !!!

As far as I've seen Broncos, I think we never had a great D. We had good D and good schemes, but never a great D (such as Ravens, Giants or Bears one). But this year's D is really the worst I've seen as a Broncos fan. Pathetic...

Our O has to be really special if we want to make the playoffs this year.

Message to our D : come on guys... Give everything you have on the field. Hit hard... Just replace talent with heart !

I'm going to assume from that statement that you mean in recent years. Oh what I would give to have the old "Orange Crush" D with this offense.

IMO here's the "rub"...

When our high-powered offense plays mediocre (like against K.C.) or against a good defense they will not score 40 points.

When our terrible defense plays a mediocre or poor offense (like K.C.) we won't be able to keep them under 30.

In essence if we play a tough D or our O plays average we'll lose... if we play a good offense our offense has to be lights out or we'll lose.

Evidenced by prior wins this season we can only win imo if we score 30+ points per game. This defense shows no reason to believe they can keep any offense under 30 points.

Originally Posted by Ziggy

I'm going to assume from that statement that you mean in recent years. Oh what I would give to have the old "Orange Crush" D with this offense.

Well, I've discovered football in 1984-1985.

Oh yeah, I can remember the D with had at that time. Good, but not great. Our schemes were very great though. But when we faced the best physical teams at the SB, we all know what happened...
IMO, since Elway's era, Broncos were well-knowned for their O, not their D, even though I think we had some very good D from times to times... But not "great" in my book... Just my opinion. I don't think we have a D tradition like Bears, Giants, Steelers...

For my knowlegde, were you talking about the Orange Crush of the 70's? I've never seen it, but people say that D was great...

Anyway, I do agree with you... I'll take any D we had before vs this one ! I'm praying for the return of the Orange Crush !

Originally Posted by omac

LOL, yeah, flag football sounds about right. If we can't stop them from making completions, we at least have to make them pay. Wear down their receivers and make them hesitate when they go over the middle.

Defense isn't just about schemes and tackling; it's also about attitude, and no one from the Broncos' defense instills fear with other receivers.

Yeah, I played QB at flag football... So, I guess I could play against our D... No?

3000% agree with your last sentence... Attitude !!! And make the O feels the heat ! They have to know they will pay for any plays they make against us !


Damn... I'm watching MNF game Ravens at Steelers... This is how I like a D !

Originally Posted by frenchfan

Yeah, I played QB at flag football... So, I guess I could play against our D... No?

3000% agree with your last sentence... Attitude !!! And make the O feels the heat ! They have to know they will pay for any plays they make against us !


Damn... I'm watching MNF game Ravens at Steelers... This is how I like a D !

Yeah, next draft, I wanna get a Ray Lewis or Urlacher type.

I'm actually still hoping Niko will be the attitude our defense needs. He's supposed to have better smarts than Webster, but not as athletic. The defense played well with him at mike against the Cowboys in preseason.

The only downfall to being so young on the offensive side of the ball is when all these contract expire and everybody wants more money to re-sign. Trying to do contract extensions between the young and the old will be a mathematical nightmare I would think with a salary cap involved. We may keep some, but you're going to lose a few to free-agency if they don't get what they think they should get paid. If they all play at a high level, the agents are going to want a big piece of the pie. Not sure if you could really make everybody happy trying to keep 53 guys under contract. Who knows. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out here in a couple of years.

I would think a lot of these younger guys and their agents are going to want to re-negotiate on some of these contracts before they even expire.

It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out down the road.

Originally Posted by Bronco9798

The only downfall to being so young on the offensive side of the ball is when all these contract expire and everybody wants more money to re-sign. Trying to do contract extensions between the young and the old will be a mathematical nightmare I would think with a salary cap involved. We may keep some, but you're going to lose a few to free-agency if they don't get what they think they should get paid. If they all play at a high level, the agents are going to want a big piece of the pie. Not sure if you could really make everybody happy trying to keep 53 guys under contract. Who knows. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out here in a couple of years.

I would think a lot of these younger guys and their agents are going to want to re-negotiate on some of these contracts before they even expire.

It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out down the road.

With the extension that the Bills just gave to Lee Evans, (4 yr/37.25 mill) Brandon Marshall will command at least $10 mill/year. Cutler will have to be one of the top 3 paid qb's in the league, and that's before we start talking about the O-lineman. We're not going to be able to afford luxuries like D Graham when the contracts start expiring. I'm guessing he'll be the first casualty in a year or 2 when we start looking to resign the younguns.

Originally Posted by Ziggy

With the extension that the Bills just gave to Lee Evans, (4 yr/37.25 mill) Brandon Marshall will command at least $10 mill/year. Cutler will have to be one of the top 3 paid qb's in the league, and that's before we start talking about the O-lineman. We're not going to be able to afford luxuries like D Graham when the contracts start expiring. I'm guessing he'll be the first casualty in a year or 2 when we start looking to resign the younguns.

If we look like a superbowl contender in that time, I hope some of those players try to compromise a bit with their salary increases to be able to keep some of our good players.

Originally Posted by omac

If we look like a superbowl contender in that time, I hope some of those players try to compromise a bit with their salary increases to be able to keep some of our good players.

Don't forget the agents are usually the greedy ones and they are the ones that drive the contracts up. The agents do the work, the young players usually just listen. An older veteran may give up some salary to compromise but usually the younger players want all they can get.