Originally Posted by
broncos_mtnman
Yeah, I know we were only down by one point at the half, but when you only score one TD in 4 drives against the QB who treats the Broncos like an unwanted, ugly step-child everytime he plays them, you had to know in your gut that the Broncos didn't have a chance.
After a promising 1st quarter, where Travis Henry ran for nearly 75 yards and Selvin Young coming up with 45 yards, along with a Jason Elam FG and a Jay Cutler TD pass to Marshall, it looked like the Broncos plan of keeping Peyton Manning off the field was going to work.
But alas, there are four quarters to a football game, and the remaing three belonged to the Colts.
As I expected, the challenge for the Broncos was going to be stopping Clark and Addai. I expected the Broncos to play alot of deep zone in order to keep the Manning Show in front of them. Past teams have shown that this strategy will work, provided you get the necessary play from the defensive line and the linebackers. The theory being that short run and pass plays can't beat you..... as long as you keep those plays "short."
But alas, there's the rub.
With the terrible tackling and over-pursuit that the Broncos defense is becoming famous for this year, plays that should have only allowed the Colts to gain a few yards each, were frequently going for over 10 yards at a time, and resulted in yielding a disturbing 226 net yards rushing.
But the onus doesn't lie solely with the defense. As mentioned above, the Broncos offense would once again struggle getting TDs when they reached the red zone.
But wait, it wasn't just the offense and defense that failed to perform in this game. Sadly, the Broncos special teams gave the Colts average field position close to the 40 yard line, while giving us a much worse 20 yard line average start.
I expected the result we got, but that didn't make it any easier to watch, nor does it make it any more acceptable.
Here are this week's 4 downs....
Most Glaring Weaknesses (I could almost paste and clip these)
1st - Tackling, or lack thereof. For the 4th week in a row, the Broncos would allow way too many yards after contact.
2nd - Run defense. I already covered this above. If the Broncos don't find a way to do a better job against the run, this season could be over by the end of October.
3rd - Red Zone production. This is something that I hope will get better real soon. Failing to score TDs in the red zone was one of the Broncos greatest weaknesses last year. So far, it hasn't gotten any better.
4th - Pass protection. Considering we were using ALOT of 2 and 3 TE sets, I found it very disturbing that Jay seemed to have the pocket collapsing on him way too soon. Only his ability to scramble and throw on the run kept the Colts from having alot of sacks.
The Good Things
1st - The running game. With Travis Henry gaining over 100 yards in just the first half, along with Selvin Young gaining over 40, the running game was clearly the highlight of this game.
2nd - Jay Cutler. As mentioned above, Jay was great at scrambling and throwing on the run, even across his body on a few occasions. His 1st TD pass was a scramble right to Brandon Marshall, and there was a great first down pass to Nate Jackson under similar circumstances. Jay also ran for a TD on a play that failed us last week against Jacksonville.
3rd - Daniel Graham. Great blocking and pass catching today.
4th - Shanny's offensive gameplan. While it didn't hold for the whole game, Shanny clearly had the right game plan on offense. For the third time in 4 games, the Broncos offense netted over 400 yards.
So now the Broncos find themselves in a three-way tie with the Raiders and the Chiefs at 2-2, with the Chargers coming in at 1-3.
The Broncos need to bounce back against the Chargers next week, then use the bye week to get healthy and ready for the toughest part of the first half of the season, with home games against the Steelers and the Packers.