Thread: Good/bad Broncos vs. Dolphins

So this was a really good game to do this for and I'm chomping at the bit to post again so here goes...

Good:

Manning: Was still off on a few throws, but still had a really good game overall.

CJ: I seriously love this guy, probably my new favorite player. Such a hard runner and really has some deceptive speed.

DT: Another beastly effort from him.

Sanders: Continues to make spectacular catches week after week.

Von/Ware: For being held all day long, they were putting some good pressure on the QB.

Harris: He did get beat once but still a good game.


Undecided:

Ward: I just can't decide what to think of him. He is a great physical presence who can blitz and help in the run game, but he just sucks in coverage. I know he had the pick, but it was on a pass tipped right to him that I could have caught. I guess you just have to take the good with the bad here.


Bad:

McManus: Cut this guy today. Seriously. I don't want to hear about how prater sucked early then improved. This guy isn't prater. He is 32nd in the NFL in field goal accuracy. Pass.

Burse: You just cannot fumble in that situation. Inexcusable.

Fox: He seriously needs to be banned from challenging. At the very least he needs to fire whoever in the booth tells him to challenge.

It seems like there should be more in the bad column as poorly as we played for three quarters, but that last quarter really made up for a lot of the bad. It's really encouraging to see us win that type of game.

Manning missed at least 3 TD throws where the receiver was open. It wasn't his best day despite the numbers.

CJ is what we thought he was.

The offensive line manhandled a very good front 7.

Virgil Green is our best run blocker regardless of position.

Emmanuel Sanders was one of the steals of free agency.

This team may still win a super bowl despite the coaching staff.

I would say the addition of Virgil Green is both good and bad. Good in the sense that he really helps seal the edge in the running game, but bad that we have to rely so heavily on one player to get it done. When he has not been in the lineup this year, we have struggled to run the ball. We need a plan B.

Sanders is just freakin' phenomenal at this point. Not even the most optimistic fan (or GM) could have predicted how lethal he'd be out there. Our best FA pick up by far.

We had a 50/50 run/pass ratio. We controlled TOP and despite the defense acting like a sieve in the first half, only gave up 313 yards. Let's stick with this new look offense. I know they had Cornick out there as a sixth o-lineman at times, Virgil Green can block and CJ and Juwan just pound the ball. As I said in the game thread, that's the kind of thing that will win playoff games.

I normally don't advocate cutting a guy and I'm not good at predicting things like that, but I'd be surprised if McManus is our kicker next week. I gave him a pass before, as he tried to get his feet under him, but you can't miss a 33 yarder, at home, under any circumstances. Give me any wily veteran for the stretch run.

Originally Posted by BroncoWave

So this was a really good game to do this for and I'm chomping at the bit to post again so here goes...

Good:

Manning: Was still off on a few throws, but still had a really good game overall.

CJ: I seriously love this guy, probably my new favorite player. Such a hard runner and really has some deceptive speed.

DT: Another beastly effort from him.

Sanders: Continues to make spectacular catches week after week.

Von/Ware: For being held all day long, they were putting some good pressure on the QB.

Harris: He did get beat once but still a good game.


Undecided:

Ward: I just can't decide what to think of him. He is a great physical presence who can blitz and help in the run game, but he just sucks in coverage. I know he had the pick, but it was on a pass tipped right to him that I could have caught. I guess you just have to take the good with the bad here.


Bad:

McManus: Cut this guy today. Seriously. I don't want to hear about how prater sucked early then improved. This guy isn't prater. He is 32nd in the NFL in field goal accuracy. Pass.

Burse: You just cannot fumble in that situation. Inexcusable.

Fox: He seriously needs to be banned from challenging. At the very least he needs to fire whoever in the booth tells him to challenge.

It seems like there should be more in the bad column as poorly as we played for three quarters, but that last quarter really made up for a lot of the bad. It's really encouraging to see us win that type of game.

I thought Foxy's challenge was ok given the circumstances at the time and the fact it was the first half, but I see your point.

Good:

A balanced attack that never seemed to panic (35 runs/35 passes!)

O-Line was on a mission and blocked with authority, also Virgil Green was a huge lift

CJ Anderson had the best RB performance I've seen under Manning. He didn't dance around, he bowled people over and always fell forward

Our Sanders/Thomas are a better 1-2 punch than Decker/Thomas was last year and this game cemented that for me

I LOVED that we converted a short first down yardage with the run game!

The Bad:

Defense was on their heels the first half

Special teams mistakes (missed FG/fumbled punt)

PENALTIES ON OFFENSE!


All in all I loved this game. I never thought I would see a Manning led team just destroy a physical defense by outmatching their physicality. I think this bodes well for our playoff push. Our Run D needs to find itself again next week in KC though!

Originally Posted by Ziggy

Manning missed at least 3 TD throws where the receiver was open. It wasn't his best day despite the numbers.

CJ is what we thought he was.

The offensive line manhandled a very good front 7.

Virgil Green is our best run blocker regardless of position.

Emmanuel Sanders was one of the steals of free agency.

This team may still win a super bowl despite the coaching staff.

Going through New England? Not how we're playing right now.

Good -

This was exactly the offensive performance I was hoping for... We actually let CJ tote the rock, we let the o-line find a little rhythm, the play action game was working as a result.

It makes the St. Louis performance all the more puzzling - like why wouldn't you give the ball to CJ after his performance in Oakland? Hopefully that miserable Rams game goes down as a turning point/learning experience for this team.

I liked seeing Omar Bolden returning kicks. He deserves the job over Caldwell.

Bad -

Talib's play has fallen off considerably. He doesn't seem like the force that he was at the beginning of the year.

In general, we don't seem to be disrupting offenses as much as we were earlier in the season. I'd like to see more blitzing to keep offenses on their heels.

Orlando Franklin is incapable of having one complete game without screwing up something.

John Fox sucks at game management. His challenges are consistently bad and so is his clock management.

At the same time of having Orlando on your bad for one penalty, I thought he had a damn good game yesterday. He opened up a lot of holes for CJ to run through. Shlereth even directly tweeted him last night telling him what a good game he had.

Great- CJ. The guy made people miss, doesn't go down at the first contact. Made some amazing plays and extended runs. Best of all he falls forward. I remember how so many of us who clamored to see more of CJ last year based off his preseason performance were told we were stupid, and it's just preseason, and the coaches know more. Maybe not eh? This guy has been here the whole time while the staff and FO have been painfully working through Ball and Hillman. If this team is going to go RBBC, it needs to be CJ and Howard for the rest of the year. If and when Ball and Hillman are healthy they should know their role is to spell those guys.

Ward-You could see how disruptive and effective he can be with the reigns off.

Good-Game Plan and clock control. We finally saw a team that showed they can take a punch and punch back.

Bad-defense. This team has to find a way to get pressure when playing from behind or tied. More importantly, they have to start getting some takeaways

I forgot to mention Special Teams. They have been quietly horrible all season. Yesterday it was on full display. Consistent penalties on kick/punt returns. Long returns for the other team. Fumbles.

#comeonman!

Buff, Talib hurt his hammy early in the game yesterday, so I give him a pass for that game.

Originally Posted by BroncoWave

Buff, Talib hurt his hammy early in the game yesterday, so I give him a pass for that game.

Eh on Talib...for the $ he's getting paid he's #77 out of DB's in the league. That's not great. Then again, I wish we would have found a way to keep Rodgers-Cromartie over Talib to begin with.

What metric rates him #77? Just curious.

the oline first and formost was stellar!

Cj ran like a stud.

Sanders runs so hard. I wish DT would run as hard as sanders does. DT would then be unstoppable.

Did I mention the Oline?

Gase- brought in an ENTIRE new game plan. New packages. Not the same stale crap we always see (about 15 plays), but we still went to the WR bubble screen a lot.

Roby, he got beat a few times, but he freaking lays the lumber on fools. If we could just get some luck on our side to recover all of these fumbles.



BAD:
Defensive play calling. Talib is a press man corner. Not a zone guy. He needs to be lined up on the man to jam him and slow him down.
When we blitz we are very effective. We never blitz.
Peyton had several bad throws that could have been tds. A little off for him. Normally thats cash money.
Not recovering these fumbles we make
Stupid challenge by fox.
Zone defense. Mix zone and man is fine, but straight zone adn we get burnt.
I am not a fan of how they are calling the defense until they have to. It seems like when they must get a stop, we bring the heat, press the wr and attack. And we are more successful then not. All other times, we seem to just rush 4 straight ahead and hope they get there.

Regarding Fox's challenge yesterday, since I've defended him in the past. Two things:

1. That challenge was pretty inexusable imo. The only redeeming factors was that it was the first half, and a potential turnover. But it was obviously incomplete.

2. The call had to come from someone above in the booth. I say this because it took so long to challenge. Fox barely got the flag out before the Dolphins ran their next play, and they were in no special hurry to do so. Since it took so long to make that decision, I have to think that someone above talked him into it. Whoever that person was, needs a change in job description.