Thread: Five Reasons Not To Panic

Originally Posted by BroncoJoe

Pats play the Lions this weekend, then visit Green Bay and San Diego after that. The rest of their schedule are probably wins over the Dolphins, at Jets, Buffalo.

There is a chance they drop two, even though they're playing very well. Detroit has a stout defense (jekyll and hyde offense) and I don't see them winning in Green Bay. Who knows what team shows up with the Chargers.

I'm not sure we can win out though. We have the Dolphins, @ Chiefs, Bills, @ Chargers, @ Bengals then Raiders. I'd guess we drop at least one of those games meaning NE would have to lose three. Doubt that.

At that point, we can only hope NE suffers a loss in the playoffs before we'd have to go there.

I have to disagree, Joe. The only question mark in their next three games is GB. They will SMOKE Detroit at home and toy with the Chargers as they usually do. NE-GB is probably a toss-up with either of them capable of beating the other.

Detroit's had a soft schedule before now, and it's starting to show, but visitors winning @Lambeau in December's about as hard as winning @Foxborough. Having Verrett join Hardwick and Ingram on IR definitely doesn't help the Bolts, but they're still a good team, and most of the starters they were missing against us are starting to return now. It's very easy to see NE lose both those games.

The problem is even IF they do, we must STILL win out to get homefield, and must make the same strip to visit that same Bolts team starting to get healthy. The Pats are surging and we fading now; if we had our heads right and ANY kind of blocking we could beat anyone anywhere, but I've waited 2½ seasons for that to happen and it's worse than ever. If we put ourselves together well enough to earn homefield, we won't need it, but if not, it won't matter: The team the 3-6 Rams beat by two scores couldn't beat NE at Mile High nor anywhere else.

Originally Posted by Joel

Detroit's had a soft schedule before now, and it's starting to show, but visitors winning @Lambeau in December's about as hard as winning @Foxborough. Having Verrett join Hardwick and Ingram on IR definitely doesn't help the Bolts, but they're still a good team, and most of the starters they were missing against us are starting to return now. It's very easy to see NE lose both those games.

The problem is even IF they do, we must STILL win out to get homefield, and must make the same strip to visit that same Bolts team starting to get healthy. The Pats are surging and we fading now; if we had our heads right and ANY kind of blocking we could beat anyone anywhere, but I've waited 2½ seasons for that to happen and it's worse than ever. If we put ourselves together well enough to earn homefield, we won't need it, but if not, it won't matter: The team the 3-6 Rams beat by two scores couldn't beat NE at Mile High nor anywhere else.

This is all true. But, remember that it was at this exact point in the season that the 2012 Ravens went to 9-2 after beating the Chargers, then wound up the season losing 4 out of their final five including getting blown out by Denver 34-17 to finish the season 10-6.

Then they got hot in the playoffs, walloped the Colts, beat us on the Rahim Moore fiasco and then absolutely crushed the Patriots 28-13 in Foxborough. Then the SB wasn't even close until the power failure allowed the 49ers to claw their way back into the game.

So, frankly, who the hell knows what's going to happen? Last year was about the first year in the last 5 you could possibly have predicted a probable Super Bowl winner at this point in the season (the Seahawks looked very strong).

Originally Posted by Cugel

This is all true. But, remember that it was at this exact point in the season that the 2012 Ravens went to 9-2 after beating the Chargers, then wound up the season losing 4 out of their final five including getting blown out by Denver 34-17 to finish the season 10-6.

Then they got hot in the playoffs, walloped the Colts, beat us on the Rahim Moore fiasco and then absolutely crushed the Patriots 28-13 in Foxborough. Then the SB wasn't even close until the power failure allowed the 49ers to claw their way back into the game.

So, frankly, who the hell knows what's going to happen? Last year was about the first year in the last 5 you could possibly have predicted a probable Super Bowl winner at this point in the season (the Seahawks looked very strong).

As crushing as that loss to Baltimore was, I think its something I always keep in mind. Teams can struggle in the regular season and get hot just at the right time and blow through to a title. One of the things I like about Denver right now is that we seem to be picking up steam when we have to. It was great to see our team win when Peyton struggled a bit.

1 reason not to panic: CJ Anderson

Originally Posted by aberdien

1 reason not to panic: CJ Anderson

O-line looked much better, I didn't recall any holding penalties. Did see a few illegal formation penalties, but one was on Demaryius.

Originally Posted by aberdien

1 reason not to panic: CJ Anderson

Is it possible cj stands for neo

Originally Posted by tripp

O-line looked much better, I didn't recall any holding penalties. Did see a few illegal formation penalties, but one was on Demaryius.

I believe both of those were on Sanders. But your point stands - I think we only had five penalties last night, which was pretty refreshing to see.