Thread: Broncos schedule - Tough or not so tough? Discuss

Ok, I got into a brief discussion with Brandon Spano last night about the Broncos schedule. I said the schedule was very tough and Spano said that he didn't think it was as tough as many think. He wrote up his thoughts a while back with his rationale why the Broncos were setup to run through the schedule with a lot of W's.

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The Broncos schedule eerily spells success
By Brandon Spano

When the Broncos 2012 opponents were announced a few months ago, everybody looked at the list and automatically thought that Denver had a very difficult task on their hands. But as I stand here today and break down the schedule with those same teams on it, it appears to me that the Broncos are lined up for a run that we haven’t seen from the team in over a decade.

No matter how you stack it, Denver will certainly be challenged this upcoming season. But in the NFL, timing is everything. And the stars have appeared to line up right over Broncos headquarters.

At first glance, you see the Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, and Oakland Raiders matched up against Denver in the first four weeks. What you might not have noticed is that three out of the first four games are at home. Home field is everything in the NFL and so is momentum. This could not be more perfect for the Broncos.

The opening game on Sunday night looks to be daunting, as the Steelers travel back to Mile High for a revenge game. The Steelers should be the only ones worried. This game will be close to impossible for Pittsburgh to win...

Read the rest of Spano's breakdown here: http://www.milehighsports.com/?p=9718

So, what say you? Tough? Not so tough? Or, just your average, run of the mill NFL schedule?

By the way, if you don't listen to Brandon, you should. He has a great show on Mile High Sports. Typically, it's almost always dedicated to the Broncos. He has regular guests like Andrew Mason, Lindsay Jones, players or personnel from the Broncos and does a lot of fan interaction, whether reading/answering Tweets sent to him during the show, or of course phone calls if you choose to call in. He's on Mile High Sports Radio (1510 AM / 93.7 FM locally) from 8:00-10:00 PM MDT and you can listen online at http://www.milehighsports.com/?page_id=7209

Would have to agree with Spano. Over the course of the years schedule has really meant very little as ive seen teams lose to what would be deemed "easy" teams and win games that no one thought they could. At the end of the day its the true "contenders" who are more consistent with their wins. They may drop a odd game here or there but for the most part if your a serious contender than you beat the easy teams along with the hard ones. If Denver is for real than they should be able to prove it on the field. We have the best QB in the division and even though the Raiders and Chiefs are improving their QB's dont scare me. The Chargers window is closing fast as they also go through a influx of changes. My biggest concern this year is winning back the homefield advantage. Win 8 games at home, hopefully pull out at the very minimum 3 on the road and we should be playoff bound.

The way I see it.....if Denver runs a "10" personell package.....there is no secondary that can match up with DT...Decker...Stokely...Willis on the field at the same time.....Peyton sees the mismatch.....and its go time.

I also don't think it's as tough as some make it out. Our toughest games are @ATL, @NE, and @BAL but I think the rest of the schedule has some winnable games on it. PIT, HOU, and NO are our toughest home games but I think we win at least 2 of those. (NO is AWFUL on the road and we should at least beat PIT or HOU). Past that I see us going 4-2 in division and winning against CIN, CAR, TB, and CLE. That would put us around 10 or 11 wins, which I think takes the West.

Originally Posted by Northman

Would have to agree with Spano. Over the course of the years schedule has really meant very little as ive seen teams lose to what would be deemed "easy" teams and win games that no one thought they could. At the end of the day its the true "contenders" who are more consistent with their wins. They may drop a odd game here or there but for the most part if your a serious contender than you beat the easy teams along with the hard ones. If Denver is for real than they should be able to prove it on the field. We have the best QB in the division and even though the Raiders and Chiefs are improving their QB's dont scare me. The Chargers window is closing fast as they also go through a influx of changes. My biggest concern this year is winning back the homefield advantage. Win 8 games at home, hopefully pull out at the very minimum 3 on the road and we should be playoff bound.

Agreed. If we get past Pitt and Houston early on noone else on our home schedule really scares me. The Saints stunk on the road last year and our other 5 home games are very winnable. I would be disappointed with anything less than 7-1 at home.

Originally Posted by Superchop 7

The way I see it.....if Denver runs a "10" personell package.....there is no secondary that can match up with DT...Decker...Stokely...Willis on the field at the same time.....Peyton sees the mismatch.....and its go time.

More likely a lot of 11 & 12 personnel, I think.

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You know, I thought our schedule was ridiculous, but this article makes a LOT of sense. I have to agree with him.

Originally Posted by Davii

You know, I thought our schedule was ridiculous, but this article makes a LOT of sense. I have to agree with him.

He makes a lot of interesting points, but no matter how I toss it this schedule looks really tough. We have some interesting match-ups both home and away, and there are not many gimme games on the schedule. If we get through our growing pains early and pull out some home cooking, we will be all right. If we struggle early the second half of the schedule looks a little more friendly to me. Good teams make a run. If we only make one, I'll take it at the end.

The opening game on Sunday night looks to be daunting, as the Steelers travel back to Mile High for a revenge game.

This is a bunch of bogus hype! Even if you lose 60-0, them hanging a week 1 lose us this season doesn't equal us ending their play-offs last season.

Originally Posted by BaileyTheBest

Agreed. If we get past Pitt and Houston early on noone else on our home schedule really scares me. The Saints stunk on the road last year and our other 5 home games are very winnable. I would be disappointed with anything less than 7-1 at home.

Now, my homerism is strongest just before the preseason start, so indulge me. If we get the hurry up offense working early, we'll finally have home field advantage that we seemed to have lost with the old Mile High. We could win all eight home games, and I think we should. If we split on the road, that would be a damn fine season. Well that and a SB win.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

This is a bunch of bogus hype! Even if you lose 60-0, them hanging a week 1 lose us this season doesn't equal us ending their play-offs last season.

Hype is the name of the game today. Still, Pittsburgh is going to remember their last game of the 2011 season. I'm sure they will be fired up.

Originally Posted by Canmore

Hype is the name of the game today. Still, Pittsburgh is going to remember their last game of the 2011 season. I'm sure they will be fired up.

Even if the Steelers are still bitter over losing to what they believed to be an inferior team lead by an inferior QB, replacing Tebow with Manning changes everything in terms of the significant of this game. Whatever statement that they might have wanted to make against the Tebow lead Broncos this year went up in smoke when Tebow was traded.

Originally Posted by FanInAZ

Even if the Steelers are still bitter over losing to what they believed to be an inferior team lead by an inferior QB, replacing Tebow with Manning changes everything in terms of the significant of this game. Whatever statement that they might have wanted to make against the Tebow lead Broncos this year went up in smoke when Tebow was traded.

You have a valid point. Still, The Steelers have had all off season to stew over the Denver loss. We are going to get their best effort Sunday night.

Enjoy thrashing Cincinnati this year. It's going to be a classic Marvin Lewis year for us.

Originally Posted by King87

Enjoy thrashing Cincinnati this year. It's going to be a classic Marvin Lewis year for us.

Come on King, your team exceeded everyone exceptions last year. It seems to me that you have a few building blocks to build upon. You still have Andy Dalton who was impressive as a rookie QB, & that guy who did the flip over that Cards defender for a TD. Those 2 alone should give you something to look forward to this year.