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Thread: Halfway point: Where the Broncos stand

  1. #16
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    The Broncos are the first defending SB team to ever start a QB that never threw an NFL pass, or something like that. From the get go there was concern about the offensive line and depth on said line. So, it's not like anyone really thought this was going to be an offensive powerhouse. I think a lot of people, fans and media, thought the Broncos would start 2-2 or 1-3 or so.

    I think the Broncos are sitting in a good place. After Osweiler left and the Broncos were left with Sanchez, Siemian and Lynch and then it became clear that Sanchez was the same as always and not a great option, I don't think too many people would be upset if you said "at the halfway point the Broncos will be 6-2."

    So, while not always pretty, they've won more than they've lost. Most importantly, the offense at times has shown what could be. There have been what, around 3.5 games out of the 8 where the line has blocked well and the running game has worked. If, and halfway through the year it's a big if, the coaches and players can figure out how to get consistant run blocking and pass protection from this line, then I think we could see improvement in the offense before the playoffs arrive.

    Either way, I look at this team overall very similar to last year. A very good to great defense and an average offense.

    The Broncos defense is giving up 15 more yards per game, but on the other hand they dropped the points allowed from 18.5 to 17 and that has been against some pretty good QBs/offenses.

    So, I'm in no way panicked. No question I would like to see more offensive production, so that if the defense allows 21 or 28 or even 35 points the Broncos still have a chance to win, but as long as the Broncos are still one of the top defenses in the league (and they are), then the team has a chance to win every weekend, as long as the offense isn't a turnover machine.

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  3. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by GEM View Post
    What's that I hear in the distance? It's sirens. ..the fan police are on their way! Oh goody!
    Oh, im not asking you to change your tune or turn in your fan card. I just think its funny that all of a sudden people are surprised by the offensive woes when they were just as bad last year.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GEM View Post
    I'll be Debbie downer... We aren't going anywhere far with this offense. It's nice to be 6-2, but this feels like the fakest 6-2 I've seen in quite a long time. Say we went to the super bowl and the opponent was the Vikings, their D would eat this offense up and spit it out. So I'll enjoy the defense, though they are noticeably worse without Malik and Trevathan against the run, and try not too expect too much. Then I can be completely surprised if they go far.
    I have some company it seems. I was annoyed as I've ever been I think after a Broncos win yesterday.

    I'm stunned by how atrocious the offense has played. At the outset of the year it looked like we had improved the O-line significantly and were well poised to run. Heuerman would help solidify the TE spot, and our game manager QB had the arm to get the ball to his 2 Pro Bowl WRs when needed on 3rd downs. It seemed like a reasonable formula.

    Turns out Heuerman is a bust and our O-Line, despite a talent upgrade, is as atrocious as ever. Siemian was and has been -terrible- of late - whether that's injury related or not he has been awful. And then turnovers on top of it?

    Good grief.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Joel View Post
    I'm more curious how we're 5th in the AFC despite this:


    Division, conference and other tiebreaks aren't even a factor for the Texans and Steelers: We're a full game up on the Texans (AND hold the first tiebreak, since we beat them; only way they could be ahead of us would be in a three-way tie where someone else had a higher division/conference winning percentage, so we got eliminated before head-to-heads became relevant.) And even with Pitts bye, 6/8>4/7, so we're ahead of them, too (same applies to KC, despite their perfect AFCW record: That only counts as a TIEBREAK, and we're not tied, we're ahead.)

    A lot could depend on whether Smith's actually concussed, and how long he's out if so (not to mention our injuries.) But I do agree with the assessment that it looks like the AFCW will come down to whoever wins the most games in the Denver-Oakland-KC round robin, so our visit to the Black Holes huge. One of my coworkers has had this game circled all year; rooted for Atlanta against us specifically so the Black Hole game could be for 1st place in the division (though I don't think he planned on losing to KC in the interim; that definitely complicates things, since they're only half a game behind both of us.)

    Bottom line is that we host the Cheats and still have both games against KC and Oakland ahead of us, so we control our own destiny. For good or ill; there's no evidence our line will ever hold up this year, and much evidence our QBs and RBs can't hold up behind Swiss cheese any better than Manning, Oz, Anderson and Hillman did last year. That Thomas trade's looking better and better; can we trade for 5 of him?
    Wildcard teams get seeded behind division winners in the playoffs, Joel.

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    Quote Originally Posted by NightTerror218 View Post
    A lot of road games left.....yikes
    I think we finish 10-6 or 11-5.

  7. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Al Wilson 4 Mayor View Post
    I think we finish 10-6 or 11-5.
    If Denver changes nothing and doesn't improve at all in any area, they still face the Jags and Titans in the coming weeks so that should mean a floor of 8-8.

    Oakland - they'll be underdogs in both games - and will be deep dogs against NE even at home. Can they somehow split KC and pull out a win at New Orleans to get to 10-6?

    That certainly seems possible, but I think it's just as likely Denver loses embarrassingly at Oakland and finds a way to lose at NO in the coming weeks. Then sitting at 6-4, I think this team winds up trying to get Lynch ready for KC after the bye in an attempt to salvage the season. Just a gut feeling.

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    Smyth did some of the stat work for me already. Take a look at this:

    Patrick Smyth ‏@psmyth12 55m55 minutes ago

    Broncos' offense thru 8 games: 2016: 24.3 PPG / 2015: 24.0 PPG
    Broncos' defense thru 8 games: 2016: 17.0 PPG / 2015: 17.4 PPG

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  10. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Northman View Post
    Oh, im not asking you to change your tune or turn in your fan card. I just think its funny that all of a sudden people are surprised by the offensive woes when they were just as bad last year.
    No one is surprised, it's more along the lines of adding guys like Okung and Stephenson and our line looks mostly worse than last year. We have a qb who is in his first year starting and is playing with shadows because this line can't run protect, can't pass protect and he's getting the hell beat out of him. He doesn't have the ability to read a defense like Manning, he's just not there and he may never be. We don't have a long game, because he doesn't have the time for it to set up. We don't have an intermediate game because he somehow doesn't see guys coming in from the sides and throws int's or almost int's. Just a lot of problems and our defense just isn't as good as it was last season....they're still great, but against the run, there's definitely issues. Being on the field 60-75% of the time is doing them no favors.

    And it's not all of the sudden, a ton of posters have been saying since last year that the offense has been terrible.

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    Quote Originally Posted by VonDoom View Post
    Smyth did some of the stat work for me already. Take a look at this:

    Patrick Smyth ‏@psmyth12 55m55 minutes ago

    Broncos' offense thru 8 games: 2016: 24.3 PPG / 2015: 24.0 PPG
    Broncos' defense thru 8 games: 2016: 17.0 PPG / 2015: 17.4 PPG

    Yea, Its not much different and this is without a HOF QB at the helm.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GEM View Post

    And it's not all of the sudden, a ton of posters have been saying since last year that the offense has been terrible.
    I know, i was one of them and everyone kept telling me to relax and so i did and we won the SB. lol

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    Quote Originally Posted by VonDoom View Post
    Smyth did some of the stat work for me already. Take a look at this:

    Patrick Smyth ‏@psmyth12 55m55 minutes ago

    Broncos' offense thru 8 games: 2016: 24.3 PPG / 2015: 24.0 PPG
    Broncos' defense thru 8 games: 2016: 17.0 PPG / 2015: 17.4 PPG
    This is what I have seen as well. This team is exactly like last years team....there is no difference.
    Quote Originally Posted by Day1BroncoFan View Post
    I'm happier than tom brady in a gay bar....

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    Quote Originally Posted by Northman View Post
    I know, i was one of them and everyone kept telling me to relax and so i did and we won the SB. lol
    Right? Team is on pace for playoffs and has the type of team that can make a deep run once there. Last year shows us that even when we have major concerns, it's reasonable as a fan to have faith and enjoy the ride.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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    My glass half full take is that we are good enough to compete with and beat every team in the league. Our style lends itself to winning ugly.

    While the offense is a concern, I used to get equally frustrated with our offensive style under Manning where we were incapable of picking up any short yardage situations, and totally reliant on the finesse passing game... So in that regard - we are better suited to keep teams off balance with our current roster. I can remember being jealous of the Seahawks roster construction where Russ could pick up hidden yardage with his legs, or his arm, or they could hand it off - and they were just a pesky team that was hard to beat... We have essentially followed that blueprint and become that team.

    The upside is that we should hardly ever get blown out and we'll be in almost every game. The downside is that you really have to grind out wins and you rarely run away with any game.

    I'm not overly confident in this team but at the same time, we're built in such a way that is conducive to playoff success so anything is possible.

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  20. #29
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    I checked our basic statistics for the first half of this year and where we finished the regular season last year (it was too hard to find specifically where we ranked after eight games last year, so I just went with the final totals):

    2016 offense - 326.4 ypg (27th), 221.6 passing ypg (28th), 104.8 rushing ypg (20th), 24.3 ppg (13th)
    2015 offense - 355.5 ypg (16th), 248.1 passing ypg (14th), 107.4 rushing ypg (17th), 22.2 ppg (19th)

    Funny that our total offense is down, but our ppg is up more than 2 ppg. Our defense has something to do with that for sure, but we also had a bunch of defensive scores last year, as you will remember, so I figure it probably evens out.

    2016 defense - 301.3 ypg (3rd), 183.9 passing ypg (1st), 117.4 rushing ypg (24th), 17.0 ppg (5th)
    2015 defense - 283.1 ypg (1st), 199.6 passing ypg (1st), 83.6 rushing ypg (3rd), 18.5 ppg (4th)

    The biggest thing that jumps out there is something we've all talked about this year - run defense. We're similar in so many ways to last year's defense, but that's 33.8 more rushing yards per game allowed, which will be a big issue going forward if we can't correct it.

    My personal thoughts - the offense still looks mediocre at best, which is a shame given that we thought we'd see a lot of improvement there. Siemian has been fine, but I don't see him as a long term answer. Our line is either just plain not good or needs more time to work as a unit (it's hard to throw five guys together and expect them to be seamless, though I did expect better than what we've seen). That dovetails into the running game. Kubiak called it "non existent" after yesterday. That's one thing we are supposed to be able to do this year and it's just not happening the way it should, at least consistently.

    On defense, our passing defense is as good as ever. We've faced some real good QB's this year and have held them all significantly under their season averages. The run defense is a different story, as noted above. It's hard to do what we do best (rush the passer and cover WR's one on one) when we're being gashed in the run game and the opponent has second and four, third and one type situations.

    My concerns for the second half of this year are that we have a lot of hard games coming up, many against our own division (which I truly think is the best in football). We are still a good team, though, and our defense will keep us in any game and give us a chance to win. It's a formula that worked last year, but as I've said numerous times this year, it's not an easily repeatable formula year after year. I don't expect a repeat Super Bowl but then again I never did. I'd just love to stick to to Oakland and KC yet again and win this division. After that, anything can happen.

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  22. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by VonDoom View Post
    I checked our basic statistics for the first half of this year and where we finished the regular season last year (it was too hard to find specifically where we ranked after eight games last year, so I just went with the final totals):

    2016 offense - 326.4 ypg (27th), 221.6 passing ypg (28th), 104.8 rushing ypg (20th), 24.3 ppg (13th)
    2015 offense - 355.5 ypg (16th), 248.1 passing ypg (14th), 107.4 rushing ypg (17th), 22.2 ppg (19th)

    Funny that our total offense is down, but our ppg is up more than 2 ppg. Our defense has something to do with that for sure, but we also had a bunch of defensive scores last year, as you will remember, so I figure it probably evens out.
    I read the ppg comparison, stopped, and thought to myself, 'but 24.3 ppg benefits from 3 defensive scores!' Then I pulled up pro football reference to check last year, and it came back to me. Through 8 games last year, there were 2 Talib pick 6's and 1 Roby fumble return. Plus a Malik Jackson safety.

    Then I came back, read that you recalled those scores and figured it evened out. . . you nailed it!
    Quote Originally Posted by Sting
    "You know cos I just lost my parents--both my parents died in the same year...to this day, people come up to me and say 'my dad died and that album really meant a lot to me,' which is very nourishing {pats heart} for a songwriter to hear that your songs have a utility beyond just their own solace, that it actually helps other people."

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