Could Winning Be Worse Than Losing For Denver?

I could use this moment to reinforce my contention that Trevor Siemian is the best of a mediocre stable of quarterbacks, but I must concede that choosing between mediocrity is highly subjective when talking QB's.

All of you Broncos fans who are still debating the value of this stable of quarterbacks should stop it, that ship has sailed. Brock Osweiler and Siemian are, at best, career backups while Paxton Lynch is fighting like hell to overcome that ankle injury (wink, wink) and prove he even belongs in the NFL.

I totally understand Lynch's fears given the toxic combination of our offensive line, crappy play-calling and over-inflated expectations of every quarterback. But even with one eye, you can see that the pirate Paxton is headed back out to sea soon. In other words, unless we commit to a full rebuild and wait for him improvement plan, that ship has sailed too.

Deciding to play Lynch in an inconsequential game because Kansas City has secured the AFC West title doesn't lessen the dangers of playing any NFL player who isn't desperately angling to display his skill and will to win. Unlike Lynch, Siemian is tough as nails and eager to play with pain as needed. If the Chiefs aren't okay with losing prior to the playoffs, this game could send Lynch back to hijacking forever, assuming our offensive line and play-calling jump ship again.

Nonetheless, if there remains any debate in the Denver quarterback conversation and you'd like to flip a coin between Siemian and Osweiler, I will save you the trouble and give you Osweiler on an ounce of durability Siemian hasn't proven to possess.

It's not really important that the Broncos fans or the coaching staff have finally sort of accepted the mediocrity of their quarterbacks even if it has helped them to start calling more of the kind of plays that gives NFL QB mediocrity a chance in hell. CJ Anderson looking like CJ Anderson should have been our primary quarterback plan from day one, but too much conversation about Jamal Charles, Devontae Booker and bringing the "juice' confused all of that.

While a fair amount of losing has shined a light, exposed our weaknesses and shown us a direction for winning, recent games still point to a coaching staff hell-bent on proving to Elway that they can bring that juice he hired them for, despite every attempt to do so leading to turnovers, losing and a bunch of excuses why they have no choice but to juice it up when down one or two scores early, as if the smart fans of Denver forgot who hired you and what he asked you to bring.

At least Vance is no longer sprinkling this rancid tasting juice he and John concocted with that excuse of no identity anymore. Someone in the GM office must have informed him the two guys that are responsible for establishing such things.

Though we seem reluctant to embrace it, the identity of this team is the identity of winning in this league. We should know it by now because Seattle set the tone when they destroyed us with it in Superbowl 48, and every team since (Denver in Superbowl 50, the Patriots in 49 & 51) either mimicked the same formula or they don't have a ring on their fingers.

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots may have been forced to abandon it when coming back to win the crown last year, but even Brady and Belichick employ the run the ball and play defense approach until you make them change it. No name after no name has proven effective running for New England, and the Atlanta Falcons were clearly the team trying to win with the offense during last years Superbowl defeat to the Patriots.

Like Floyd Little and The Orange Crush D, are Terrell
Davis and great defense more symbolic of the Broncos
identity than a scrambling Elway and his rocket arm?

Despite minimal rushing attempts in way too many games this season, Denver fans have consistently watched Broncos running backs maintain a solid statistical standing (3rd in the NFL)  along with a consistent defense that tries to overcome every attempt by our juicy offense to give games away.

Interceptions dating back to our championship season two years ago have created a collective longing for the days of the No Limit Soldiers. Now, you can virtually hear a collective exclamation all across Broncos Country of "run the damn ball....please", each time the team goes three and out.

When the Broncos have won in recent years they have primarily committed to a single back approach and to running the ball twice as much as they pass. When they lose, no particular running back get's enough attempts to find a rhythm and the run to pass numbers reverse themselves. It's that simple. Elway desired something juicier than Tebow from the moment he first acquired Peyton Manning and he continues to look for better and juicier stuff like he enjoyed from his younger years when he was a young stud Californian turned Bronco trying to cheat the process with a rocket arm and coming up short in the end.

In a search for something juicier, Elway lets go of an older John Fox in a move that was mutually desired. Friendship or not, the exact same thing could be said of the Kubiak departure. Elway's current marriage to Vance Joseph came with a couple of years of courting him and with a prenuptial expectation of something that sounded to fans like a return to the run-first approach in Denver that was famous for a salute and for making household names out of anybody who took to the Broncos backfield. Why John isn't a bit wiser about the dangers of the juice only John, and maybe his ex-wife Janet, understands.

If that last paragraph was too outdated or double entendre-filled for some to follow, you can trace Denver's commitment to an identity to very recent history when we begrudgingly ran the ball behind the legendary Peyton Manning en route to a Superbowl victory. The more this team attempts to win in a way diametrically opposed to methods of a recent past, our Superbowl 50 magic starts to look more and more like the wisdom of Elway's former love, Gary Kubiak, who decided to salvage their friendship by ending the coaching relationship.

Kubiak and tons of smart fans might have left that championship season feeling towards Elway the same way the rest of us are starting to feel now. Even in victory, those skeptical fans were right to question Elway's general ability to manage tough situations, much less to be the full-fledged General Manager and VP of Operations over a proud and accomplished organization.

From my personal Kharma-inspired view of life and sports, much of the bad luck is the byproduct of Elway's  Tim Tebow mistake, when he ironically had no choice but to manage around someone else's mediocre first-round QB pick who was also learning to play but was actually winning while doing it, unlike now. That also worked way more than Elway anticipated and Tebow earned a chance to stay in this league, at the least, to learn the game behind Manning.

With Tebow and Kubiak, Elway shunned the hoopla and results to prove he could do better.

On the surface, Superbowl 50 appeared to be Elway's fulfillment on that promise, but once again, it's beginning to feel more and more an accident with every passing day. Well, not an accident, but certainly not as much of an Elway creation as we thought at the time.

Since that Superbowl victory, a few of the players Elway determined expendable (Malik Jackson, Danny Trevathan, TJ Ward) have left some to wonder if he even recognized the elements that stirred our defense into greatness. Some of the same concern applies to his drafting of quarterbacks.When you look at his quarterbacks on paper, they all have "the look" though none have shown the 'it' factor that makes Russell Wilson or Drew Brees not need the statuesque look that Elway seems to covet.

The slight against Elway and his current coaching staff is for their passionate departure from an identity that won a ring, and for possibly putting politics over championships by rejecting Colin Kaepernick. Kharma is a ghost. Letting go of Tim Tebow and head coaches more capable than Vance Elway while deciding Kaepernick didn't deserve the same cup of coffee you gave Mark Sanchez are coming back to haunt Dove Valley and everyone who works there.

TIn fact, it might be the ghosts at Dove Valley that have apparently forced some folks on the Broncos coaching staff to start accepting their identity and return to the Tim Tebow formula for winning games, making winning much more likely regardless the competition. Control the ball and limit turnovers and Denver still has a defense able to dominate teams like the Indianapolis Colts,  the New York Jets or even a Kansas City Chiefs team that has little to nothing to play for this today. Turn the ball over and the Broncos make pathetic teams with pathetic names like the Washington Redskins look special.

If the juice John covets is actually just creative play-calling, he's actually on the right track. Denver will need something juicier than Vance Elway and his staff could muster this season if he is fortunate enough to find his voice and return to introduce himself to fans who still don't know much about him.

Assuming he is not retained, Vance at least can start trying to recapture whatever remains of his own forgotten name and reputation. If I were Vance Elway, I would take solace from the reality that this team has looked virtually the same no matter who has coached it in recent years, so it might not be the head coach causing this.

Hindsight and the tape say had they given CJ the ball another 15 times for 88 yards versus the Washington Redskins, they probably would have eliminated the passing game turnovers that turned a very winnable game against them.

From my view of things, what the Broncos are scrambling to accomplish on the field to close out this season is only solidifying how utterly incompetent they are in the front office.

Ovussly, the recent championship history did not make this
job the jewel Joseph hoped it would be.

After months of watching our new coach take to the podium and aw-shucks us into thinking he is either too nice or can't coach football, we still don't really know if he can coach when he keeps going for it on fourth down in the second quarter like a battered wife afraid any point deficit speaks to an imminent beat down.

I would call Vance Elway a wife who needed a better prenuptial lawyer, but that five-year deal doesn't kiss ass even if Vance clearly does. If he stays or goes, he'll be like Tiger Woods ex-wife, just fine.

There's really no way Vance is the main reason we have switched quarterbacks like underwear from preseason on anyway. His devotion to Elway created that mess. My biggest problem with Vance Elway comes when he is questioned about his quarterbacks. He almost never says 'I", preferring instead to describe every decision that is made as "We decided", which means "Elway made me do it" to us smart Broncos fans.

When addressing the brilliant media of a smart fan base, Kubiak often had to differentiate between decisions where he made the final call versus decisions when Elway might have felt differently. Kubiak demanded freedom from front office intrusion when he took the job and regularly shot back at reporters with the words "John understands that I have a team to coach".

In hindsight, did John understand or did he have an issue with the previous coaches he couldn't intrude upon?  Ovussly, Vance Elway and a five-year commitment to a company man coach who tows the company line kinda answers that question fo' us, doesn't it? Reports say John will announce his future with Vance after the final game ends, so we'll soon see.

Warning, Vance Elway!!!

Simply towing the company line might appear to be in the best interest of your career, but not necessarily in a town like Denver where fans are just too smart and too engaged to even endure HOF coaches for a minute too long when it's time for them to go. It's also not so smart if you are building a future resume of coaching style expectations for other teams to examine. Eventually, Vance will need to divorce himself from being John's newest love interest just to establish his own name as an NFL head coach, especially since John is treading water at GM and seems more focused on becoming an owner someday so he can do his intruding like Jerry Jones does it.

Vance would also do well to realize that John's history with coaches thus far has not been any better than his quarterback drafting skills. Smart fans of Denver are willing to give John and Vance Elway time to grow with the rebuild, but we haven't forgotten the kind of coaches John already let go of. A coach with any less a spine than our last three runs the risk of becoming like Jason Garrett or whoever is the next Jerry Jones puppet in Dallas.

John and Vance need to immediately take a knee and pray together. Partially to stay together beyond one year- which will look terribly bad on both men- and partially that Kyle Sloter never turns into much of anything so Broncos fans don't have to burn John and Vance in effigy as we continue searching for a future at quarterback that isn't currently in-house.

Instead of squeezing through impossible Superbowl windows, I'm all in favor of drafting and developing offensive players who can catch a punt return or play with pain to open a Superbowl door in the near future instead of just beating these two frightened ponies called Isaiah McKenzie and Paxton Lynch to death.

Even if they finally play every player we need to know about on today, John and Vance Elway should both be held accountable for this team's lack of player development, the unwillingness to play players you trusted enough to keep after preseason, and for an overall directional stalemate.

If you follow the talk radio circuit, you realize that Elway is catching heat for sure. Yet, crap notoriously runs downhill where Vance and the coaching staff that Elway gave him currently reside.   

A GM who recognizes his own mess-ups, and isn't pressing his new coach to clean up poop he inherited would have already forced Paxton to play, bad ankle (wink, wink) or not. The accountable GM would also take to the same talk radio circuit that is lambasting him and his new coach to explain the team's direction just as he readily did when dumping Tebow for Manning or stealing coach Kubiak's Superbowl 50 credit.


Any GM who DOES NOT care to clean his own mess and chart a comforting path towards correction for his very smart fans to follow would also readily allow a coach he signed for five years to continue to play mostly veterans players, and to try and save a lost season against teams that stink and are a lot more experienced with tanking than the Broncos.

It's as if Elway doesn't realize our team stinks too and will need major free agency luck or a major draft and wait overhaul, not just another aging quarterback who will struggle mightily behind our crappy offensive line just as Peyton and everybody else has.

And for certain, we do not need another rookie quarterback unless John and Vance Elway now understand what waiting on a rookie quarterback entails. Any team unwilling to develop and wait for its young talent needs to be like the Patriots and reconsider the draft as a primary building component beyond stashing trade-bait like Jimmy Garapolo for some other desperate team.

You also will need to have Tom Brady playing quarterback for a few decades if you want drafting not to matter nearly as much. We will all soon see if Belichick can coach without a legend playing quarterback or will the Patriots be forced like so many others to accept the 'tank and rebuild' approach after Brady hangs it up?

Is Von Miller A Denver Bronco For Life? Should He Be?

I realize fellow Broncos fans might appreciate the break that winning for a couple of games had given us from those Broncos haters who love to razz us when we are down, but those teams haven't won in a long time and are enviously staring at our Superbowl 50 ring when they talk. Their emotions are not to be treated as genuine or as a reason to see winning as terribly necessary right now. The time it will take to build this back up might take longer than our most expensive players have to wait. We run a dangerous risk that emotion might slow our willingness to release, and thus acquire key assets at crucial moments.

Who we have coaching our team isn't quite as important as the question of who that coach will be asked to keep or discard going forward. Yet, if John is truly evaluating the same coach he's on the hook to pay for the next five years instead of simply evaluating his young talent and letting his coach learn, prepare yourself Broncos Country, for the fourth Broncos coach in 5 years as Elway tries to alleviate the pressure smart fans are presently mounting against him.

On the other hand, even if Vance is still John's main squeeze after he hyphenate's his name next year in a liberation statement, Vance Joseph-Elway cannot be expected to develop long-term confidence in his on-going relationship with John or in any of these players if John is forcing him to play certain guys while also looking for a new coach to love. Whenever an NFL coach has doubt about his players or questions his own job, every mistake feeds into those existing doubts and questions.

While I realize that an agile quarterback and a slot receiver are just what the doctor ordered for this busted season and team, this conversation is not about needs as much as it is about beliefs. When you believe or are very hopeful in a player, they get the number of tries that McKenzie and Lynch keep getting, which is why it is vital to give Vance a team he believes in versus a roster and a coaching staff of John's preferred people. Kenneth Faried being exiled from playing time with the much improved Denver Nuggets is a great example of what it takes at times to win.

Or just let Vance go.

Instead of finding a coach who you trust to develop your drafted players, John seems hell-bent on chasing the trophy with a couple veteran stop-gaps that can become our next Neil Smith or DeMarcus Ware. Although he passed on making Calais Campbell into that guy when he came free, Domata Peko was a home run hit for John. TJ Ward was too before he got away.

The problem with great stop gaps is that few of them play offensive line, and the wealth of edge rushers is forcing every team to draft and groom their own offensive front while they hope like hell for the right quarterback to make that draft commitment pay off. Meanwhile, GM's are often forced to change coaches when frequent stop-gap measures are employed just to make any failures in the approach point towards coaching and not the approach.

What Does Rebuilding Look Like?

For reasons that I'm not impressed with, this team is trying to save a coach with a five-year contract from getting fired. Maybe playing to win is always a better scenario than playing to gain draft positioning, but I can't help but wonder just how many of these veteran players we are currently committing to chasing wins do we already know are gone at years end?

Including our desperate fight to actually come back and beat the Washington Redskins, I've felt a certain kind of way as I watched teams like the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Jets leave the field as the draft winners while my Broncos walked off celebrating the score. Those teams have bottom-dwelled long enough to understand the impact of one or two wins in actual or potential selections- assuming you decide to trade back for additional picks- while the Broncos are more worried that losing too much could tick off Aqib Talib and have him slapping people upside the head like he did when last season soured.

When Talib himself is on the record saying he doubts he'll be retained, it leads me to feel like Denver might be proving a lot of things by focusing on winning to close out the season, but forward thinking is not one of them. Could winning actually be worse than losing for the Denver Broncos? Winning without finding out what you have for the future is a loss of a different kind if you ask me.

I could create a list of all the young players on the ship has sailed list versus the guys who can't get off the bench to find out, but Kyle Sloter is gone and I've already talked too much about Lynch and McKenzie. The rest of the rookies have been on the bench for so long I would need Google to remind me of their names. But that's the problem with every regime change. The blossoming talents like Jordan Taylor get's lost in the shuffle of a new coach trying to determine his established talent first.

If the same five-year contract coach who decided to make Trevor Siemian fight for a job he had already earned is now fighting for his own job, it's because Elway has made it that way. In doing so, John has also accidentally forced his coaching staff into benefitting from the lack of intrusion that Kubiak demanded and should be inherent to their job description, not just a by-product of a busted year.

Broncos Country is still curious about DeAngelo Henderson, Jake Butt and a few other young players that I'm Googling right now. Simply announcing Lynch as the starter proves to me that John realizes our curiosity too. He might also realize that now is NOT the time to totally step away from desperately needed analysis of future players even if he failed to see that then (upon the hiring of a first-year head coach) was NOT the time to get overly involved. On either note, Elway has played it wrong. The same bad mistakes that started during the Superbowl 50 season linger but are no longer being drowned out by the cheers of a fanbase who used to have a lot to cheer about. Now they are selling off their tickets fast and cheap.

Winning when your season is an utter bust is a feel-good bonus that makes players and fans of bad teams sleep a bit easier at night. Beyond that, several former bottom dwellers have risen to the top of the current NFL mountain by embracing the reality that winning can be initially counter-productive to the rebuilding process, a process that most winning organizations struggle to embrace.   I am not saying that our rookies and younger players shouldn't fight like hell to try to win the game if given a chance to show their value. I am saying that at some point amidst a busted season they should be asked to try.

WE DON'T REBUILD, WE RELOAD? BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!!

Not every organization seeks when to tank the season and rebuild, however, every organization that needs to do it had better find an opportune moment to capitalize on its arrival as opportunities to tank and rebuild can be fleeting and hard to recognize, especially for teams like the Broncos who appear unaccustomed to the practice and will probably retain the bulk of this team and reload it instead of using key pieces to acquire the pieces they need to rebuild it.

I get it. Winning is almost always better than losing, and no brand new coach wants to learn about their team while losing games. But timing in life is everything, and there really is only one thing to learn from reacting too late. It's called hindsight. Armchair quarterbacks and opinionated pundits like myself rely on hindsight, regularly. NFL coaches and former quarterbacks who become GM/VP's should avoid it like the plague.

For Better Or Worse, The Broncos Are Must See TV

Even with the absence of the legendary Peyton Manning, the narrative would mostly be exactly the same as last year if not for that SB50 victory by my hometown Denver Broncos. and the hindsight view of what Manning did for this team as well as what he demanded of the AFC West opponents who hope to be champions too.....and because of concussions.

The Dallas Cowboy fans would like to remind you how they still dominate apparel sales even though Denver is the team defending the crown.  I'm the kind realist like true Broncos fans who've seen highs and lows, and who understand that Peyton did improve the AFC West, making it harder for this team to beat a bunch of improved teams without him. In reality, the America's Team shows plenty of signs of being better than 4-12, and expecting a healthy version of the richest team in football to continue to stink is a tainted glasses view of things.

In reality, we kind of need the Dallas Cowboys to become truly relevant on the field again just to offset the negative impact of all the concussion conversation that keeps hurting the league.  The future influx of our best athletes into sports other than football will reveal the impact of all this hysteria. What the league could really use right about now is a return of those Boys,  Love them or hate them it matters little.  They have the LeBron effect that draws both sets of eyes to the viewing.  It is an effect that the NBA will sorely miss when LeBron finally calls it quits. It's an effect that the NFL needs back via Dem Boys.

Some of this prediction might be might deep down longing for a league I love, but I am predicting that the richest team in football, the Dallas Cowboys, won't suck forever and the end of forever is now.  I am predicting that they actually bring the rookie running back along slowly enough, and he begins to show his promise near the end of the season, but they will grow terribly enamored by his talent and forget that he is not ready for playoff blocking assignments, causing them to lose in the Superbowl to my Denver Broncos, who will avenge the loss from our very first Superbowl, Superbowl XII.

Among the rest of football punditry the prognostication is mostly the same as last year, adjusted by two words; think and expect. They don't think we'll do quite as we'll or expect that we know how to overcome the challenge of losing key players without getting hungover from the thrill of  a SB50 victory.

I'm here to show them all why that all sounds good, but they are likely to be wrong.

While certain things have changed, nothing about our performance inspiring, championship coaching will be different, and that's why we win.

Actually, it will be somewhat different for our coaches who are returning after instant success while teaching a brand new system. Last seasons success gives the coaches instant street cred that will shorten the learning curve a bunch.  Their willingness to play everybody will give us an early glimpse of our future potential. Whether we realize that potential in the form of another Superbowl should not be a desperate goal of the fans, even if the team desperately intends to shut up the naysayers by repeating.  Loads of low expectation league wide will help them perform, unless loads of unreasonable expectation from Broncos fans cause us to make changes not conducive to our long term development.

Kubiak won't plan to be knee jerk at QB, but Broncos fans_some still salty about losing Brock Osweriler- will be, and that is the one element that concerns me the most.  From an outside perspective, our expectations this year is only distanced from last year by the trophy we bring to each game. Beyond that, we'll struggle to be favored in most of the games, meaning we will upset popular expectation- and Vegas- to do what we intend to do this year.  But don't get mad at Vegas or popular expectation for the respect they are indirectly showing to Peyton Manning the legend while seemingly dissing us.

We won't have Peyton, and nothing is going to help us know the impact of that except playing. With honest analysis, there are just as many signs of potential for better as there are for worse. The challenge of going 3-3 or 4-2 in the AFC West is enough to make things tough given the difficulty of the rest of our non-conference, Superbowl champions schedule. Splitting in the AFC West used to be good enough.  This year, add in the rest of the schedule and that might not be good enough to avoid a Wild Card(better)....or worse.

That offensive line seems better, more stout, more depth and eager to set league rushing records behind a guy who closed out games with amazing skill and style in CJ Anderson. For those who watch practice, they see CJ barking out protections to Mark Sanchez, who is seasoned enough to understand what the back is telling him. CJ says the barking is worse, or less useful with the younger QB's get more confused with such guidance, an early sign of which QB is getting the internal nod to lead this team this year.

Anderson stands poised to prove himself our new offensive team leader while proving his coaches game plan championship worthy, and not just something we accidentally won with. He also must prove himself able to stay healthy enough to help out his mighty might backup Ronnie Hilman, who is better...when used in small guy moderation- worse when overworked.

The entire stable of backs will be enlisted like back in the days of the original No Limit Soldiers and the Mile High Salute. I would expect that we carry an extra back with the return of the fullback too. The goal appears to be to make the team into a run whether you're expecting it or not team; a commitment that will demand chemistry they can't yet have with their rebuilt line, and health they've not shown in recent years at the offensive line or among the injury prone running backs.

Which is why we'll need depth and chemistry, the most challenging holy grail of any Superbowl pursuit.

Keep in mind that the run or bust approach (clock control with minimal turnovers) will also be forced to work  despite a league of coaches not fooled by media skepticism or punditry. Opposing coaches will bring defending champion preparation against the Broncos, mindful of the film, the ring we just earned, the Superbowl MVP we just signed and the thunder our boys brought to bear while earning it last year. Until further notice, that is the vision of us that they all see on film. Which means that the media skeptics are either counting on mostly championship efforts from each of our potential opponents, or certain decline from us.

They are mostly predicting decline Broncos nation, even though there truly are as many reasons to be excited as there are to be worried.

Linebackers are in place and ready to wreak havoc.....assuming Demarcus Ware can bring as much to the field as he brings to the locker room. They will likely need both to win it all.....although Shaq Barrett and Shane Ray are potential stars that might be ready to fill a void if Ware can't overcome those dreaded back issues he's plagued with. It might be better, or a blessing in disguise if the young players get the lion share of the reps and all that much needed development while Ware slowly heals himself for another title. It will be worse if we get stuck with players who are not our guaranteed Hall of Fame end rusher and foolish to ask young players to perform like a legend.

Once again, it's all a coin flip either way. Just like the secondary.

The secondary should be better and the most reliable group with so many returning players, but worse without Aqib Talib whose future makes that an unanswered question while we wait to see if he'll face punishment from the league.  I'm excited to let Bradley Roby get starter reps because I would love to see how he handles it- meaning even I really have no way to know until he gets the chance.

Unanswered question? Coin flip on the results.

Receivers are better with lots of depth from fresh talent in the fold....but they might appear worse because they must relent lots of pass opportunities to an uncertain, developing tight end core, a position vital in a Kubiak offense. Way too little tight end production last year lead to way too many turnovers and a less than stellar Superbowl jaunt, though winning it all is always better than losng, even when it's worse than you intended for it to look.

I would like to claim that learning how to win close games last year might actually be a sign of something better..... if it didn't feel worse because all of that good fortune seemed to come from Peyton's presence and prowess, and was used up on the successful pursuit of SB50..

After coming up short in recent years, scratching and clawing seemed a better approach last year......yet, expecting more of that again seems worse, maybe a little more desperate than confident now that we are defending our title and not chasing after one necessarily.

The Broncos really aren't claiming any cool rally cry, just an expectation for improvement of a team that most recently won it all. That shares no information about what improvement looks like or what other teams are doing to better themselves. Which means, getting better is always relative. If too many teams outpace your improvement, you're going to look worse and probably not repeat the same success as you had before.

 Fans mostly react out of emotion, not reality. Until further notice, champions are suppose to be respected. Just because you doubt the champions chances doesn't instantly give you room to dismiss them until they've dismissed themselves. Those who actually compete understand this, so a few smart pundits who played are watching the practices, getting out of their emotions from last year and recognizing the potential for better, not worse, while the rest of you just want to be right about this team being worse than they were when they proved way better than you expected.

2016 kicks off in less than two weeks for the defending champions, and we are all eager to know if the Broncos can get better, or if last season was a pure anomaly and the results will be dramatically worse. The signs are so unclear thus far, they demand WE watch closely. searching for signals that point either way.

In other words, until further notice- until we prove unworthy- my Denver Broncos are MUST SEE TV and the rest of your teams are optional viewing.

If you aren't planning to watch the Broncos preseason opener
you aren't really a fan of the NFL. Just saying.

Finishing Your Career Like John Elway Is Beyond Dreaming

To the credit of Brock Osweiler, the young man has waited a long time to show us the skills that he brings to the table as a quarterback, but in reality this team could just as easily win the Superbowl with Trent Dilfer if it had to.

That is the name that comes to mind whenever you are talking about the "game manager" tag that usually only becomes a key aspect of the conversation when you have the kind of defense to make it part of the conversation.

Like Baltimore did back then, Denver has that defense, and no matter how great the shadow cast by the name Peyton Manning (his game these days is hardly shadow worthy), the biggest shadow of them all is coming from the Denver Broncos defense.

In many ways, it was the shadow of the defensive excellence that has made Peyton's mediocre play so very intolerable.  Now, it will be the thing that demands Osweiler repeat his no turnover Chicago Bears performance against every other team on the schedule and in the playoffs if he hopes to join Trent Dilfer on the list of  game managing, Superbowl champions.

Running the ball is not always about the yards.

To the back handed credit of Brock "The Unknown" Osweiler -and my repeated criticism of Peyton "The Audible King" Manning- sometimes just running the play that the coach called is the best play.

For over a decade now, coaches on teams with experienced quarterbacks have had to decide how much "Peyton Manning" freedom they would give their quarterback to audible in and out of plays as they see fit.  Manning was the blueprint, and in essence, coaches have had to decide whether the offensive coordinator or the quarterback would establish the offensive identity.
                            
In Denver, WE HAVE PEYTON MANNING and the limits on how much Manning gets to effect the play calling began.........never.  Well, it actually did start a little bit last year when our previous Offensive Coordinator (Adam Gase) would yell at Manning for changing out of run plays EVERY time a defense gave a fake look.
                   ______________

What's the biggest difference between a Denver Broncos team with Peyton Manning versus one without him?  PLAY CALLING
                   _______________

This year, Kubiak has played the tug-o-war of play calling with Peyton like John Fox and Adam Gase did because Kubiak is the head coach and the play caller too.  When Manning didn't stop turning the ball over, and just so happened to have enough of an injury to use as his excuse, Kubiak finally benched Manning and took 100% control over play calling.

In other words, the identity and experience of Kubiak as a play calling head coach has never really been seen by this team or this community until the Chicago Bears game.  Actually, even Kubiak was stuck in a post Manning fog until late in the second half when he finally started running the football and playing to the strength of the team- the defense.

He was adamant about that point in his post game speech, and he has actually claimed the necessity of it (ball control and defense) even when he didn't insure the consistency of it under Manning.

This team has had a defense and a running game for four years that deserved an 80% to 20% run to pass balance that Manning just do well.  The biggest difference between our defense in four years is an older Chris Harris Jr. and Aquib Talib versus Dominique Rodgers Cromardie who gave Denver easily as much as Talib has- minus the eye poking.

By maintaining an 80-20 balance from here until the final game, Denver should be the last team standing.  Sure, Kubiak could have vicarious dreans for Brock, the backup who could actually replace the legend and become one himself.  Many times in the past, Kubiak himself was cast in the role of replacement to John Elway during injury, creating similar controversy when Elway wasn't performing up to par. That should be the least of his concerns this time around. (unconfirmed reports from 104.3 The Fan radio show say Elway is actually more in favor of Osweiler than is Kubiak)

Whether Osweiler plays well in a few games and not so well in others, creating a way for Manning's smooth return, or if Osweiler lights up the sky and blocks Manning from an easy return to action, THIS TEAM MUST RUN THE BALL.....PERIOD.

Personally, I would prefer a healthy Manning with 20 years of experience and knowledge to finish out our 80-20 run to victory so long as the men in the locker room agree with me.  Running the ball more consistently would not only make Manning appear to be a better quarterback, it will make him a better quarterback.

If the Denver Broncos are to win in the end, whoever hands the ball off will still only be credited for being the game manager of an all-time great defense.  That won't be great for the Manning legacy, but it will beat the heck out of not winning at all or winning with Osweiler handing it off 80% of the time instead.

Trying to finish your career like Elway did is a fairy tale, and fairy tales only happen once.

What's Wrong With Peyton Manning? Who Still Cares?

Back in those 'so called' good ole days, when Peyton Manning was lighting up the stat sheets and keeping all of you part time Denver Bronco fans- full time Fantasy Football fanatic- happy and healthy in your league standings, the criticism against Manning was minimal at best.

In fact, I often felt kind of lonely and sort of mean writing posts that declared to hell with Peyton Manning and all of his fancy smancy trick offensive calls.  Sure, it was going to put the defense on the back of their heels, for a little while.  If coached by Bill Belicheck, Manning's mystical offense loses its power and control, looking like the dead run and shoot style from the now defunct USFL.

Yeah, Manning looks like some hot scheme gone cold just like the run and shoot.  He can still exploit the less experienced NFL secondary players, but even they have the film from that Superbowl loss to the Seattle Seahawks, who have functionally written the doctrine on defeating Manning.

Screw you too Brew.

If you chart it, we have basically seen some version of that approach every since that fateful game.  Win or lose, its the better way to go with Manning and the geriatric scoring bares that out.

Was that a dig at Manning's advanced age as an NFL quarterback?

Screw you Peyton Manning.

No, no!  This time its a good screw you Manning versus last years cursing of all that "Omaha, Omaha" crap that hasn't kept Peyton from being one of the NFL's greatest turnover artists and not Manning the Magician that he still thinks he is.

This time I say screw Manning because we truly don't need him to win anymore, giving him the potential to be the most respected game manager in the NFL; which is also an ultimate disrespect to all-time great passers.

Game managers are not respected in a world that finds no fantasy football value in such a thing.  Those of us who recognize the slippery slope of competitive addiction that lies in fantasy football or any one of those Facebook games, can still watch NFL football and our beloved Broncos for the value of the experience.

High scoring starts of previous seasons, that ended with stress and concern about how to close out a tight battle with a worn down defense that has played too many minutes because we show no commitment to run, kinda sucked for me.  Offensive production that amounts to points on the board may seem valuable no matter how you get them, but all points are not created equal.

Time of possession is a point of another sort in the game of football, and tilting the field for a rested defense is not only similar to scoring, that is virtually an Aquib Talib interception away from 6 points in this era of Bronco football.

If Peyton Manning- who used to humbly step to the podium and say he didn't really care how the team accomplished a win back when he was usually the reason for the win- actually doesn't really care how the team wins, it is now time to put up or shut up and follow the diagram for success no matter where it seems to be taking this team.

The last guy to get us over the top (Terrell Davis not John Elway), seems to think the same kind of stuff that I feel regarding what we are seeing out on the field.

According to Davis, "I see things a little different than some. I see a team that can get in an ugly brawl and win".

Why does it matter that Terrell agrees with me?  It doesn't.  It only matters that he is agreeing with me while using those recognizable terms that only come to bare in the championship moments of sports.

Inevitably, every sporting event- that doesn't involve the massacre of one team over another- gets compared to THE ultimate sporting event, the one in which your arse is truly on the line.

Boxing comparisons are supremely cliche but represent the only vernacular we have when sports ascend into the realm of war.  MMA doesn't quite translate the same and Bruce Lee is that hero we don't even dream of being like, so we dare not compare his one finger punch to anything that happens on a field or court. But, boxing?  Everyone can relate to a good fist fight and might have even dreamed of what it feels like to win one.

Superbowl legend from the Dallas Cowboys Michael Irving, stated it in an interesting way.  He said (I will paraphrase) if you want to hurt a team you attack them at their weakness.  If you want to utterly destroy them you attack them at their strength.

No matter what teams are doing to take attack the strength of Manning's offensive exploits when firing on all cylinders, nothing they do to Manning can disrupt the undisputed strength of this team- its defense.

I called this defense special even before Manning started playing poorly enough to bare that witness as well.  Only real, Orange Crush-like Bronco fans who actually care about defense, recognized the constant call to action that the defense had to answer in previous seasons, carrying Manning through what has become increasing moments of predictability.

Manning will never be the best player on this team for as long as he remains on this team.  Manning is still in the top ten list of best players on the Denver Broncos team, and Brock Osweiler is not even in the top 20 or 25 considering players who recently stepped up and impressed in the absence of injured starters.

If all you really have left in Peyton Manning is someone who can be the consummate game manager for a team that probably needs one more than any team has needed one in recent years, then this Denver Bronco team just found its QB for this year and the next.

What's Different With Denver's Defense?

Manning can reduce the mental error and turnovers, and needs to do it for the sake of his career and legacy.  How he closes the book on his career is soon to be determined.  Will he get a title and ride out like Elway did?  Can this team actually get better with rookie Shane Ray or old man Demarcus Ware out of the lineup?

Speaking of what do you see, despite injuries of their own, this Bronco fan sees a team that has played well on defense for the past two seasons culminating in this breakout year in which our number one acquisition in the off-season was not any one player, but one very special coach.

Wade Phillips is the only real difference between the defense we now laud and the under schemed, over utilized defense who are essentially the exact same players as before. Between Phillips and a stellar special teams unit, the Broncos are as good as every other undefeated team out there, who all have some areas of needed improvement despite their spotless records.  Fix our capable but sputtering offense and the Broncos would clearly be the best team in a league unsure who the best team actually is.

When things get tight, hold strong Bronco Fans.

This defense and its new coordinator deserve exactly what they are getting right now- the culmination of several years of good work gone mostly unnoticed. They are a marriage made in football heaven, and the reason why I would take these Broncos, including our more than capable QB Peyton Manning, into battle against any team with the absolute confidence that we can win.

None of my old screw you Manning posts had any confidence that we could actually win without Manning performing at least marginally well. Now I really really mean it.

Broncos Building A Championship Or Bust Foundation

To run or not to run.

That is the question that has betwixt'ed the Broncos for the past few season, maybe for as long as Peyton has been at the helm.

Years of Manning's marvels have littered the league and the record books with evidence of a quarterback who knows how to unravel a defense,  and an equal amount of evidence of how he did it as well.  When the method didn't change, the evidence of how began to mount in favor of the defense; nothing more telling and tolling than the empty backfield and the declaration of hope that it gave hopeless defenses who used to face off against Manning without a clue of what he'd do next.

Nobody conquered Manning.  They all survived and  a few overcame him in the end.  An army can win battle after battle, but will only be remembered when they storm the hill and overtake the castle.  Those great teams from Minnesota and Buffalo that nearly won four titles, but failed on them all, are historical blurs for a select few fans who lived to watch it happen. For a few years after they finished, we actually showed a great deal of respect to Minnesota's QB, Fran Tarkenton or Buffalo's Jim Kelly.

Modern fans don't get reminded at all about teams and players that did a lot of good stuff, but couldn't get it done.

Dan Marino could be in the GOAT (greatest of all time) debate.  But he didn't win.  As a result, only those who watch him on his Sunday football show even know his name anymore.  And none of them put him into the GOAT argument like we did right after he finished playing.  If you are too young, Dan Marino may as well be Dan Fouts for all the aerial success that each had that never amounted to Superbowl victories.

Currently, my 3-0 Broncos are stuck in the middle of an approach that calls for running even when it doesn't result in large production.  It is hard to argue with the record, yet easy to question the run game results, assuming of course you are the naturally paranoid type of person who needs to question such things of an undefeated team.

I could address the question of the run game by reminding Denver's critics of the defensive stalwarts that opposed us to open the season. Baltimore, Kansas City and Detroit- teams with well developed defensive identities of their own-  are teams that also like to run the ball and play good defense themselves.   Yet, that would sound like an excuse since way too many of us have insisted that running is the only way to really win in the end.

We and thee (Broncos), are equally aware of the necessity of running the ball, which is why this year appears to a be run game that isn't working instead of one that got abandoned altogether long before games end as was the case many nights under John Fox.

Save for the close out, 10 minute possession in the Baltimore game that was rich with running, the results in the run game have appeared to be less than stellar.  But, if you factor in the time of possession victories that have insured a fresh defense; one that is currently number two in total takeaways on a team that is leading the NFL in turnover differential, then the scenario appears more like a star rising to meet its stellar stature.

These Broncos are bullies by intention.  It may not appear that way with our 55 yards per game run average, but they've destroyed opposing run games and created key turnovers whenever opposing run games have titled the field against us (11 turnovers, 10 takeaways through 3 games).

Manning is taking a few too many hits and had a few too many turnovers himself while slow footing it out from under center, so Coach Gary Kubiak has been forced to compromise his run dreams by adding way too many pistol sets (QB in the shotgun with running backs behind the QB) in an attempt to keep opposing defenses somewhat honest.

But that also places our running backs an additional few yards behind the line of scrimmage versus a normal "underneath the center" run attack. creating a stronger necessity for a crafty and capable running back to cause misses and make up the lag. Until the running backs improve their pass blocking, the whole plan will have to adjust a bit explaining an offense that is sputtering beyond the run game.

CJ Anderson is nursing injuries from that first game beating he took, and Juwan Thompson just joined him on the beaten and battered list, but Ronnie Hilman is still fresher, running for his future, and seems to create those necessary misses that has kept opposing defenses honest.  Even with dinged up backs and marginal production, there has been no disrespect or disregard for Denver's run game.

In fact, the opposite is true in that teams have committed mightily to stop our run, opening up Denver's pass game to just enough breathing room to win games for us.  From my point of view, the passing game is much more shaky when you consider the easy connections we nearly made and the impressive catches we've had to make to fill the void and save games.

But even that is some nit picky, bull crap paranoia.

Yo Bronco fans!  Chill out and stop
playing fantasy football with your
home team players.

For me, the signs are so clear that I've lost my room to criticize, and thus my reason to write a bunch of paranoid postings like we pundits have correctly crafted to condemn the home team for 3 years straight.  Sure, they could get better in areas, but the last three Peyton Manning seasons have placed a huge premium on looking good over being good when being good matters most, in the playoffs.

This team appears to have come up short if you consider the mere presence of Manning as a reason why we should have won at least one of the last three Superbowls.  The true narrative is that we've only played for one of three and lost the only Superbowl we played in rather resoundingly, looking like a team that really had no reason to be in that game in the first place.

I don't know if this team will win it all.  What I know is that they are seriously building to become one that can. No, I've never built a championship football team, but I've seriously played with enough building blocks to trust the quality of this design.

John Fox No Longer Denver Broncos Coach. Is Adam Gase Up Next?

All signs point towards the hiring of Adam Gase as the next head coach of the Denver Broncos.

Is Gase Up Next (....and is
 Manning okay with that)?

Why not? By season's end, we not only  came to know who Gase is, we started to forget who John Fox was as well.  Reminder: John Fox is just as afraid of the big moment as is the current starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos.  As a result, John Fox is a former Broncos coach and  Adam Gase, the guy most responsible for the mid-season transformation of the Broncos, is likely to be the guy who takes over.

The loss of Fox doesn't bode well for the future of Jack Del Rio who's vanilla approach to defense gave the best quarterbacks in the league way too much time to think.  These two old school coaches saw Denver as their next best hope for career resurrection and they remained arm and arm throughout the trials of expectation and the travails of coming up short. If reports about John Fox being a candidate for one of the open NFL head coaching positions are true, Del Rio might be well served to follow his friend Fox.  Before Gase, two previous offensive coordinators were gobbled up by the head coaching circuit and Gase will become the third in a row with or without the intervention of Elway who had better hire him or watch him work from another sideline next season.

Gase might become another beneficiary of coaching the great Peyton Manning, but he is also the first coach since Tony Dungy to remind Peyton who the boss is.  Manning has been given such freedom throughout his years as a quarterback that his decision to continue playing, after multiple surgeries on his neck, was as much a function of his support from management as his freedom to "Be Peyton".  Elway offered a reasonable attraction for Manning when it came to managerial support, but he could only continue to allow Peyton to be Peyton to the extent that it fulfilled the larger objective.  Elway's off season focus on the defensive side of the ball should have clarified the larger objective, but Gase had to deliver the message to Manning because Fox simply wasn't smarter than Manning when it came to coordinating offensive attacks.

So Fox had to go.

Fox might not be much smarter than Del Rio either because Denver's vanilla defense rarely found a sprinkle of nuts or candy on top.  Although players seemed supportive of Fox overall, winning was never something they seemed to do for the sake of the coach.  Fox was a great team builder, but an average button pusher in the heat of the moment.  If he gets another job, he will always be forced into great game planning  because on the fly adjustments are not in his wheel house.  Better coaches seem to work circles around Fox who's predictability is becoming legendary.

The real question is whether or not Manning is willing to press on while being pressed down beneath the thumb of head coach Gase?  Despite the obvious success that the run game revealed to Denver Bronco players and fans, Manning seemed to be having less fun at football when the game plan adjustments took the ball out of his hands.  During the playoff loss to the Colts, Manning passed up on 20 yards of open field that would have allowed him to run  (don't laugh) and convert an important third and 5. Instead, Peyton failed to thread the needle to a well covered Emmanuel Sanders.  Those who later claimed that he didn't have the legs to run might have missed the 4 yards that he quickly ran from the middle of the pocket just to attempt the pass to Sanders.

Manning loves to remind you how physically mobile he can be when necessary, but fails to recognize how mentally immobile it reveals him to be from a holistic approach to football.  Manning's mobility is limited to whatever it takes to complete a pass, so the only thing the Colts had to employ against a pass happy Bronco team is the Seattle Seahawks Superbowl blueprint of pressing the outside receivers.  Denver's desperate cry for a healthy Julius Thomas was as much a game plan giveaway as is his presence on the field which immediately denotes something other than a run play.  Thomas, who is notoriously poor at run blocking, became the visual equivalent of an empty backfield for Denver's defensive opponents, and the Colts salivated at the opportunity to make plays when such offensive declarations provided them.

Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson have likely decided that it is time to send all of the old guard out to pasture, not just Denver's aging Bronco, so Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers had best be ready for a real fight in the conference finals.  As for Manning, he is no longer the glue of his team and might soon become the kind of glue that an old horse fears the most.  While the Broncos could use his ability to help them transition into the future, he is likely too proud to finish his career as the game manager that C.J. Anderson and a well stocked defense need him to be, but too old to try and start again somewhere else.  With such an abrupt exit from the playoffs....again, whether or not Manning returns to the field next year is probably a question that even Manning himself has not figured an answer for.

As a matter of decision making, Manning should know that Gase will remain in his face and C.J. will become the chosen Mr. Anderson who fixes this matrix.  Denver also becomes a leading candidate for the acquisition of Jameis Winston(FSU)  or Cordale Jones(OSU), college quarterbacks with the kind of stuff that might impress someone like the great John Elway who has to recognize that his true challenge will be overcoming the great quarterbacks who threaten to own the league for years to come, and that Brock Osweiller is not equal to any of them. Will these great college players fall within the reach of Denver or will Denver be forced to trade (maybe even Manning) for a chance to find its future quarterback?

Stay tuned.

Peyton Manning Who? Defending the Gospel of John

Just a quick reminder.

Peyton Manning is the quarterback that threw all of those passes to the league leading receiving duo, Demarius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders.  Add the early season exploits of Julius Thomas who dominated touchdown receptions even afer he was out for several weeks with injury and Manning was setting a pace to annihilate the record books that he already destroyed  last season.

Another quick reminder.

During those games I boldly declared the Denver Broncos defense to be the most complete and therefore BEST defense of them all.  As it stands today, Denver's D ranks #4, but no other team with a top 5 defense has the top receiving corp as well.  With national concern raging over the spiritual transformation of the Broncos, skeptics who question this type of miraculous change quickly pursue reasonable explanations as to how sinners can become saints and how Manning has relented to the "run the ball", defensive Gospel of John.

C.J. Anderson's has evoked claims of blasphemy towards those who dare call him another Terrell Davis, but the numbers and the first defender who keeps falling on their face makes you wonder if C.J. (Christ Jesus?..) is the hope of Denver's football salvation. The Gospel of John included the potential to strike you with a timely pass in between T.D.'s exploits, but it also might have involved a quarterback sneak or two just to remind you of who was the Hall of Fame player and who was not.

In Sunday's game against the San Diego Chargers, the Broncos ran the ball all the way down field and within 2 yards of scoring a touchdown, and tried their best to let their Hall of Fame QB finish it off in the only way that he can.  It resulted in a 3 point score instead of a touchdown, but it mostly resulted in a deepening question of "what's wrong with Peyton" and what happened to the flag football team that he use to be the leader of?

Is his arm finally showing the results of age?  Is he injured in some way that the team doesn't care to reveal so they've been babying his ailments with the support of a run game? What gives?

The real question that fuels this concern is whether or not the Broncos can win it all with or without the finely tuned weapon of their lead gunslinger and will he have rusty bullets when it comes time to pull the trigger in a real gun fight?

Will Manning frown his way to a championship victory?

With all due respect to everything that he has accomplished in the league, and for my team over the past few season's, SCREW PEYTON MANNING.  He had better be glad that Father John Elway had the foresight to compile the BEST DEFENSE IN THE LEAGUE.  If  Aqib Talib is actually healthy again and can bring his field knowledge to bear in the takeaway game then we are even better than I expected when I first made the claim.  Talib's defensive player of the week selection (8 tackles and 1 interception) says he is. Had the Broncos chosen to prepare for December and January football when they were still lighting up the skies, Denver's defense would easily rank at the top of the league. The fact that they are 4th in defense and  are the most dangerous offensive team in the league is exactly what Father John envisioned.  If he had to place the championship hopes of  his team into the palms of an old quarterback, he probably would rather put a uniform on himself.

Manning's dismal results in the playoffs are worthy of consideration and alternative planning.  Some guys are simply way too wired for success to properly embrace it at significant moments.  Having the courage to fail miserably is the pinnacle of true success.  Manning simply doesn't seem comfortable enough with failure to pull the best out of himself when the risk of failure is at its zenith.  He is hardly alone in this malady since very few us are able to rise above our greatest fears without choking up a bit, but Manning is on track to be considered the most accomplished choker of all-time.

Father John could pursue the doctrine of Thomas (Julius or Demarius) and he certainly saw the value of Emmanuel (Sanders) and C.J. (don't call me Christ Jesus) Anderson, but all of these valuable pieces of the puzzle are not the focal point of the picture.  Denver's defense is where the money was spent and where the future lies.  Brandon Marshall will need to hurry back and continue to remind us that we forgot all about Danny Trevathan, the player he so capably replaced, but super safety T.J. Ward is a special player that can plug that hole a bit until Marshall returns to the line-up.  Ward is certain to repeat as a Pro Bowl selection and might need to be locked up long term similar to the way Chris Harris Jr. was locked up with a long term contract.

Every week seems to be a new question of who is best, the front 4 or the secondary.  Denver's secondary took a lead after last week, but due to the consistency up front, the debate rages on.

What is no longer worthy of debate is the Gospel of John.  This is a formula for victory and now, only backsliding will pull this team from their destiny.  Denver might have to travel through New England to win  it all, but they seem unafraid of the journey because defense and run games travel very nicely.

Thanks for everything Peyton, but the more we forget about you the better.

Denver Broncos Defense Making A Name With No Name Players

We spent a full season slobbering over the other worldly exploits of the Manning they call Peyton

When Manning is long gone..I'll be stuck on the Broncos

, but remain curious as to whether he will shake the label that keeps his little brother (and dad) in the debate as the greatest Manning quarterback of all time.  So long as that debate rages on, this Bronco fan is focusing on the team that I will love and support long after Peyton decides to poop or get off the pot. That being said, it is time that we share some of the same adoration saliva that we spilled on Manning and lather it all over our defense.

Ready for some drooling?

The Denver defense is proving to me that they are the best in the league.  Yeah, I said it!  The best in the league.

You need proof?  Well, I don't have the actual film review that play graders use when evaluating performance, but trust me when I tell you that I watch the game VERY closely.  My expertise may be in basketball, but my passion is the Broncos from as far back as I can remember.  In my own football humility, I sat quietly in the background over the years that the great "shut down" cornerbacks like Deion Sanders and Darrell Green ruled the roost. There became a great debate over who dictates QB pressure, the pass rush or the cover corners who buy time for the rush?  By the time the debate came to an exhausted conclusion, it became clear that no one had a definitive answer for why great pass rushers can create pressure or why great cover guys force QB's to only see half of the field.

Bradley Roby made the grade...and Kayvon Webster into a forgotten backup

This fly on that proverbial wall did not leave that conversation without taking notes about football, and for years I have been imagining the team that could do both.  Yeah, I know you think Seattle has that team, but they don't.  These guys are stout up front and mean in the secondary, but they can be burned in one-on-one coverage, and the film has forced every team towards that approach when playing the Seahawks (who fell to the Dallas Cowboys yesterday).

Do you remember a Bronco named Kayvon Webster?
 If you forgot about this guy, who played well for the Broncos in the Superbowl last year, it is because of another cat that we are getting to know, despite rarely getting to hear his name.  Bradley Roby could be exactly what we thought we drafted, and it might have already clicked in for this dominant, starting rookie.  If Roby is good than Chris Harris Jr. is great, and his stature among DB's in the league says that Denver already has a top 5 cornerback.  Aqib Talib and TJ Ward are footnotes in this paragraph because of the dominance of my first two examples, but I guarantee you that both New England  and Cleveland are sad when they witness what their former players are now doing in Denver.

Who is Quanterus Smith, and is he the reason Vonn Miller is back already?

The secondary will only get better, but they are not nearly as dominant as the front four is right now, so forget about those guys for now.

Demarcus Ware and Vonn Miller?!  Nuff said.  Terrance Knighton will go to the Pro Bowl because NO ONE can run against the Broncos.  He might take Derek Wolfe with him after yesterday because there was a definite Wolfe sighting in New York.

But forget about those guys too.

Who is this Smith dude that had to come into the game when Vonn Miller got his bell rung?  When I witnessed Vonn falling a try to stay up, I was curious about who would fill that spot, and if the Jets would instantly attack the Broncos with Miller missing.  The very next play after Vonn went  out resulted in a Demarcus Ware sack.  Ware got credit for the sack, but Mr. Smith created the pressure that forced it to happen.

By the time I Googled to find the name Quanterus Smith connected to #93 of the Broncos, I started to shake my head at the embarrassment of riches.  Quanterus Smith is the easiest explanation to why Vonn Miller got his game back so quickly, and why he tried to stay in the game when he got his bell rung.  This unknown dude can play and seems more powerful than Miller, which allows him to create pressure without compromising his lane assignment.  The New York Jets defense was rather impressive as well, but they seemed emboldened by the exploits of the best defensive coach in the game with Rex Ryan.  Any time you make it tough to score, you  indirectly make it easier for your offense to score by giving the ball back to them over and over again.  Sometimes good defenses will stifle scoring, other times it forces frenetic scoring patterns like it did in New York against the Jets.

What separates the good defenses from the great ones is the ability to take the ball away, and that has yet to become a trademark of Denver's D.  In New England, they teach this skill to a level that nearly neutralizes their defensive weaknesses, but gamblers always crap out eventually. If Denver never improves in this area, it will only matter if we continue to put the ball on the ground while trying to develop a solid run game.  The turnover battle does not really have to be won, it simply cannot be lost.

After 6 weeks of football, it might be a bit early to determine who the best defense in the league really is, but thus far, I will take the Denver defense over any of them for both current performance and immense upside.    The better your defense performs, the more likely any coach is to honor their efforts with a solid run game.  Since the Broncos finally got a 100+ yard rushing performance, Fox will have to finally honor to the new MVP of Denver and give them the respect, and consistent run support that great defenses demand.

Broncos Star QB Must Recognize Denver's Defense As The MVP

What's up with Peyton's fourth quarter production.

Every attempt that we keep making to answer the question about Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos seems to leave us more clarified about the competition and not the home team or its leader.

Much like the first two weeks, Manning has finished a really close game with no reason for anyone to believe that he is the game closer that will be necessary for the final climb to the top.  This Superbowl rematch started out eerily similar to the original game.  Much like the Superbowl, Denver's improved defense gave Peyton time to decide if he wanted to show up or not.  Another fumble on our opening offensive play shut down Denver's confidence in Montee' Ball and running the ball with Ball.  In a wild stroke of luck, Ronnie Hilman actually resurfaced early in the game, even though he was inserted to give Peyton another passing weapon (screen out of the backfield) and not a reliable running attack.

By games end, the Broncos had settled on 20 running plays versus the 47 running plays that San Diego used a week prior to upset the Superbowl champs.  Granted, the Chargers were lucky enough to do it on home turf, but their blueprint was never designed to yield humongous yards on the ground.  No self respecting defense would ever give up too many yards on the ground anyway.  The commitment to running is like making slow love.  It may take a while to yield the benefits, but its well worth the patience shown.  Three years and three weeks into the Manning experiment, and the Broncos are still full of quick triggered, youthful exuberance, but lack the wisdom of experience.  Their defensive effort in last nights game was similar to that of the Superbowl, but failed offensive series after failed offensive series is likely to run any defense into the ground, even an improved one.

Three weeks into the season and John Fox is also continuing to use the same 'tired' excuse as an explanation for shoddy play down the stretch.  Fox has yet to explain the lack of offensive execution late in games that has made the first three games such an adventure, or assign his QB's fourth quarter departures as the reason for the dilapidated defense in Denver that he  does keep referring to.  Its likely that Fox is just another well paid talking head who understands football, gains the love and respect of his players with a jovial, laid back personality, but can not hold the leader of his team to the highest level of expectation- which Manning is so apt to do when other players fail to execute.  Is there no one in the Bronco organization to tell the quarterback to step your end game production up?

At the conclusion of last nights defeat in Seattle, Denver cornerback Chris Harris Jr. tweeted a comment that Russell Wilson is better than Luck, referring to Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts.  If Harris Jr. had the courage to tweet such a comment about two up and coming QB's in the league, what do you think he feels about the old guy he has on own team?  Both Luck and Wilson show late game execution that Manning lacks since so many defenses are certain that he will ONLY sit in the pocket and pass when the game is on the line.  Harris Jr. might be right about his evaluation of Wilson, but he might also be admitting what is starting to become clear about Manning.

The Broncos would love to win it all on the backs of their best player, but they simply have overestimated how good he actually is.  Manning will always be knowledgeable enough of the game to make average teams pay dearly, but against the best of the best, Manning becomes mortal.  In fact, he is pretty average. If you can remember the last time he ran for a first down against pocket pressure you might have witnessed the first time as well.  In some ways, it is remarkable how well the Broncos perform on offense given the fact that they can be forced into predictability so easily. .

Harris Jr. wasn't out of bounds with his comment.  Wilson is special, and capable of winning it all once again.  It is not as though he has skills that are beyond that of most QB's in the league (although his ball fakes are legendary).  In fact, his lack of physical stature actually leaves him at a disadvantage compared to the average NFL QB.  Wilson makes up for every shortcoming in his game, and in his team, by squeezing the life out of his own potential.  When you watch Wilson make plays, it makes you wonder why he doesn't do more of the same throughout the course of the game.  Why doesn't he ignore the run game and Marshawn Lynch?  Lynch performed well last night, but was held below his normal production by a stingy Broncos run defense. Lynch finished the game with only 88 yards on 26 carries, or 3.38 yards per carry, but scored the game clinching touchdown in overtime.

Wilson only passed for 255 yards on 35 attempts, yet the formula for a Seahawk's victory will rarely include 300+ passing yards when balance and patience are their agenda.  Denver did acquit themselves better in the final scoring, but they did not show themselves truly competitive throughout the game, except on defense. If  Wilson is better than Luck then he probably is more capable than Manning too at this point in each players career.  No matter how you size up these players in a head to head comparison, Wilson is not the MVP of the Seahawks team, just as Manning isn't that for Denver.

For both of these Superbowl contenders, the collective defense is the MVP of each team, and it will be the team that relies on its defense the most that will win the next match up, which most expect to be for all the marbles.  When the game mattered most, Wilson grabbed the reigns and kept his defense from being needed,  however, it was his reliance on them throughout the game that made it possible.  Denver was an overtime away from a 3-0 start to a season in which their star quarterback has yet to outplay his competition.  Scoring is down in Denver, offensive production is sporadic, and the Broncos still appear to be the team most likely to take on Seattle in the end.

WHY?

If the current signs are legitimate, Denver has fielded the most impressive defense in its storied history and very few people are talking about them as the real hope that the Broncos have to capture the crown.  Manning has to see how impressive his defense has performed, but, thus far, seems to be the most unaware Bronco in the stable. The defense might be growing weary late in games, but to these tired eyes, it is totally on Manning whose style of play says that he still thinks of himself as the primary key to victory.

Manning, Luck Horse Race Gets A New Chapter. Broncos By A Nose

It will be great for Denver when Peyton Manning finally gets that second championship that has eluded him for so many years.  Only then will we ever get back to a sense of normalcy.

What does normal look like in the world of NFL football?  It looks like fans of teams that win opening round games against the hottest young quarterback in the world, accepting the win for its value and not parsing it into the meaning of life.  This is only football people, and WE Bronco fans won the game. In last years horse race, the Colt won by a nose.  This season, the Bronco exacted revenge, but this rivalry is destined to produce a tight horse race every time, despite the lofty expectations created by so many off season free agent acquisitions in Denver.

In the end, the regular old drafted rookie that doesn't cost so many millions like a free agent, was the player who saved the day.  In hindsight, rookie cornerback Bradley Roby was the key player in more ways than one final stop.  Not only did Roby knock down a key fourth down pass intended for future Hall of Fame receiver Reggie Wayne, he made a third down, goal line, one on one tackle that lead to a fourth down, goal line stop as well. With vaunted cornerback Chris Harris Jr. operating on limited minutes as he returns to action from off season surgery, back up Tony Carter seemed ill-equipped to step up to the challenge of the large Colt receivers (Carter had just given up a touch down to the Colts on the previous series). The fact that the rookie Roby was placed one on one with Wayne in the first place is as impressive as the play he made against him.

Let ESPN's Sportscenter tell the story, Manning was the same stellar performer last night that lit up the stat sheets and the highlight reel most of last season.  He certainly had his fair share of moments, but none were saved until the waning minutes of a this very close game.  When the game was on the line, Andrew Luck, not Manning, made the more spectacular plays.  For an athlete who's career has been defined by regular season greatness and post season meltdowns, late game departures should add to the negative knock against Manning.  It feels like national journalist' often pre-write their expectation of an outcome and slightly deviate the transcript if game results demand.  Since Denver held on for the victory that most anticipated, and Bradley Roby was not the expected hero in the pre-write, he becomes an added footnote in a story that deserves a deeper look beneath the surface.

These Broncos are better than last years Broncos, but not a whole lot better (yet). They have better talent but not better chemistry (yet). Creating chemistry is challenging for sure, because finding that proper chemical mix for maximum impact takes trial and error.  In the first trial of the season, there were plenty of errors to point out.  The Denver Broncos still do not insist on ball control when the quality of opposing quarterback clearly calls for time of possession versus speed of scoring connections. Was that part of the game plan or did the Colts force Denver to look just like they did the past two seasons?

Laser sharp passers will always be able to rise above imperfect offensive execution, but they can not change the primordial rules of football. Passing is predictably risky, so running the ball and great defense is the only reliable route to a championship.  Running the ball and demanding yards against a defense that is committed to stopping the run is offensive domination.  Passing your way up the field provides a lot of fanfare and hype, but, even when succesful, gives the ball back to the opponent way too quickly to be an effective approach against the best of quarterbacks.

Like Andrew Luck, for example.

It may not be this season, and probably not even next, but Luck will be called the best of them all one day.  Whether that extends itself into the realm of all time greatness or just the greatest of this era is the story football fans are watching unfold before our eyes.  During last nights game, the Bronco's best hits on Luck never made me wince in pain like I do every time Peyton takes another whack from the defense.  Andrew Luck is the closest marriage I can imagine between the quarterback that we have now, and the one who wrote the Bronco legend, John Elway.  He has the best physical and mental attributes of each of these great players and is destined to share in championship revelry along with the great QB's of NFL history.

Will Luck's championship journey begin this season?

In my eyes, the Broncos just played against the team that they will be forced to overcome in order to return to the big dance.  Luck is a legend in the making, and ironically, Manning may need to ride the back of his old team and its new leading Colt to secure his own legendary QB status.  What better way for Peyton to ride into the sunset than getting the best of a story book rivalry between the former Colt turned Bronco, and the Colt's new thoroughbred who is already sticking his nose into the race of all-time great quarterbacks?

Last nights game was another chapter in the lore of Luck .vs. Manning mania; players inextricably linked by their equestrian lineage, their quarterbacking journey's, and the race to be the greatest stallion of all-time. The Bronco's victory insured that we would not have a triple crown winner and added Manning to a list, along side Brett Favre, of quarterbacks who have beaten every team in the league.  To Manning, that is only an accomplishment that speaks to how old you are, not how great.  Yet, getting this victory was a lot bigger than simply growing old.

Minus a couple significant plays from Roby, Luck might have kept his triple crown hopes alive since the two teams will likely see each other in the playoffs this year.  Now, Luck must look forward to that playoff game for a chance at redemption. This Bronco fan is not excited about being the team that has to keep Luck from happening because it seems clear to me that he will be the last man standing.

The consistent end game heroics of Luck make his prospects much more than luck.

This is fate.

POSTSCRIPT;  NO SHOWS = Vonn Miller, Derek Wolfe and the promised quarterback pressure that all of those expensive free agents were supposed to provide.

Demarcus Ware did show his immense talent, but seemed alone except for a few coordinated blitzes that brought linebacker pressure.

Congratulations to the much maligned Raheem Moore who set a goal to lead the NFL in interceptions and got two to start the year.