Missing Persons Report

Missing: Broncos Offense

Last known whereabouts: San Diego, CA

Identifying marks: 5-yard hitch, bubble screen

Possibly sighted last week caught in trap in Landover, MD

Stopping short of issuing the above APB, you really have to wonder where exactly the Broncos offense has disappeared to. Even more so, you have to wonder what’s wrong with the Broncos as a whole. There are several theories, perhaps the most humorous being the “Curse of Kern”. The only change the Broncos made during their bye week was releasing punter Brett Kern and replacing him with equally mediocre Mitch Berger. Kern was subsequently picked up by the Titans. Since then, the Broncos have lost three straight while the Titans have won three straight. While it may satisfy the superstitious, anyone believing a punter has that much influence on the outcome of games doesn’t watch enough football. In Denver’s three losses Berger has had virtually no effect on the outcome; he hasn’t hurt or necessarily helped the Broncos.

The theory that I have as to what ails the Broncos is certainly more plausible than a punter curse and is relatively simple: the Broncos defense carried the team through the first six games and is now unable to do so. The defense hasn’t played bad, they’ve actually been one of the league’s better units. Unless they are ’85 Bears good though it is simply impossible to expect a defensive unit to carry a team with an absolutely inept offense. Top that off with spotty special teams play, and it’s obvious how much the defense has carried the Broncos. Unfortunately, a few glaring weaknesses have been exposed. First, the Broncos OLBs have been prone to over-pursue plays and teams have exposed this by running outside around them for a great deal of yards. Not that this is the only way teams have been running all over the Broncos in the last three games, just the most obvious. Second, teams have been able to pick up the Broncos’ blitzes and take advantage of the holes in coverage. Lastly, the Broncos defense has done a poor job of generating turnovers, putting up goose eggs against both the Ravens and Redskins.

Upon delving a even little further into the stats, the Broncos are actually quite lucky to even be 6-3. They have only held an advantage in time of possession in four games all season; of course they had the ball more than the Raiders and Browns. Yet they had only a 43 second advantage over San Diego and a little over a minute over the Patriots, not counting OT. In every one of their three losses the Broncos held the ball over three minutes less than their opponent, and his was also the case against the Bengals and Cowboys.

Perhaps this is an indication that the Broncos have run out of luck, or that perhaps they have overachieved to this point. Although when you allow a team to show you that they are running a fake punt only to call timeout, show the fake again and throw for a TD when you knew a fake was coming, perhaps you deserve to lose. Of course that means a punter had a direct effect on the outcome of the game, so perhaps I’m wrong altogether.

You Can’t Run All The Time

Amongst the great many things I love about my wife is that she loves to watch the Broncos with me. Earlier in our relationship, I would have to explain some of the more elaborate details of the game to her. One concept that bothered her was running the football. “Why don’t they just throw it all the time?” she would ask me. On Monday night, the Steelers showed exactly why you don’t throw all the time. Not that the Broncos didn’t try to run the ball, they just couldn’t. Perhaps this might work if you have John Elway, Peyton Manning or Drew Brees at QB, but if your QB is named Kyle Orton, not so much. Not that Orton is a bad QB, but he’s not going to single handedly win games for you. Without any sort of running game it becomes extremely easy to defend the Broncos’ offense, especially when they run the same short pass play on virtually every down. Not once against the Steelers did the Broncos attempt a pass longer than 20 yards. I’m not sure any receivers even ran routes much more than ten yards long.

Of course as was the case against the Ravens, Orton wouldn’t have had enough time to try a deep pass. Once it became painfully obvious that the Broncos could not run on the Steelers, master blitz designer Dick LeBeau went to work. It didn’t matter that the Steelers only got to Orton twice, the overall effect was achieved to the tune of three interceptions, the first he’s thrown to defensive players all year; his first and only other int was thrown to Randy Moss. Apparently the Ravens exposed several vulnerabilities in the Broncos’ offensive attack as the Steelers shut it down even tighter than the Ravens had the previous week.

Defensively, a major concern did arise against the Steelers: Champ Bailey is human after all. Santonio Holmes badly burned Bailey on several plays, most notably when the Steelers drove for what was eventually the winning score. Also disturbing was the fact that Champ had a few missed tackles, particularly on Pittsburgh’s last TD where he essentially let Hines Ward go over him to score. Perhaps allowing a garbage time TD in the game isn’t a big deal, but it sends the absolute wrong message, especially when the few remaining Broncos fans in the stadium are being beaten to death by terrible towels.

This brings me to perhaps the most disappointing fact of the night: Invesco Field doesn’t provide much of a home field advantage, and it’s been especially bad this year. At every game this season there have been an unusually high number of visiting fans. Against Dallas it was tough to tell who was actually playing at home; it was nearly the same against Pittsburgh. As a fan who has attended games regularly since the age of five, I cannot begin to tell you how disappointing this is. This should not come entirely as a surprise though. The first step in the wrong direction is the stadium itself. First, while it holds only one more fan than old Mile High, it is twice the physical size and doesn’t reverberate crowd noise like old Mile High did. Next, the ticket prices doubled when the Broncos moved across the parking lot to Invesco and have steadily gone up nearly every year since. In all, ticket prices have tripled in the past ten years. This has priced out many of the diehards and brought back in their place more well-to-do folks that while not lacking love for the Broncos lack the same recklessly intense passionate fandom and are thereby more prone to behave themselves and sit on their hands than scream their heads off. On top of that that many of the diehards left still have not warmed up to Josh McDainels, like the guy I sat next to Monday, and would rather sell their tickets than use them. All in all, this has made Invesco rather amenable to all those that visit, unlike the house of horrors that Mile high was for most teams.

Of course as always the cure for all of this is winning, they can begin this week by beating Washington. Albeit, I’m concerned as this lines up as the classic trap game. Washington is lightly regarded and has had highly publicized front office turmoil, and the Chargers come to Denver the following week for a major divisional showdown. Considering both teams’ ineptitude on offense this could be a very ugly game. Should the Broncos lose though, it really will be time to panic.

Crashing Back To Reality

There’s no sugar coating it; the Broncos were completely and thoroughly manhandled by the Ravens on Sunday. First things first though, a little perspective:

This was not losing to the Chargers 44-3.

This was not losing to the Patriots 41-7.

This was not losing to the Lions 44-7. That’s right, the Lions, who’ve gone 2-22 since.

While still a major loss, it was far from being embarrassing like those recent losses. Rather it was a wake-up call; a nasty reminder of the harsh reality of the NFL. From the very first play from scrimmage when Kyle Orton was viciously blindsided by an unblocked Jarrett Johnson, you knew this game would be different. Recently there had been rumors of the demise of the Ravens’ defense. Orton and the rest of the Broncos’ offense have bruises that prove otherwise. Knowshon Moreno might still be looking for his head after the hit Ed Reed laid on him in the second quarter. The Ravens played defense with amazing physicality, even by their standards. Whatever portion of the day he wasn’t already on the ground Orton spent running for his life. Officially Orton was only sacked twice, but I think they may have missed a few.

Defensively the Broncos weren’t bad, but they weren’t in the dominating form that would compensate for the absolute lack of any offense. Having only one truly long sustained drive meant the defense got little rest even when they were able to get stops and get off the field, and those stops came not nearly often enough. As well, Baltimore has quietly developed into one of the better offensive teams in the league and have had little trouble scoring on anyone. Perhaps little more could have been asked from the defense other than possibly generating a turnover, which they didn’t.

The most troubling aspect of the day was that not only did the Broncos’ special teams allow another return TD, they were altogether awful. Mitch Berger, brought in over the bye to replace the since released Brett Kern, was lucky to not have any punts blocked. Ed Reed actually had one of Berger’s punts pass right through his arms. If the Broncos intend on winning more games the special teams absolutely must improve. Allowing teams to return kicks not only for scores but for great field position is a recipe for disaster.

All things considered, things are still good for the Broncos. They are still in command of their division at 6-1, two games up on the Chargers with the Raiders and Chiefs both in self-destruct mode. Just as I have done here, it would probably be best if the Broncos spent little time dwelling on the loss and simply focused on their next opponent, defending champ Pittsburgh. One loss is no big deal; it happens. Two in a row, even to quality opponents, is something the Broncos definitely want to avoid. The bye stopped any momentum the Broncos may have had, but two losses in a row would completely shift momentum in the wrong direction. Hopefully Monday night the Broncos will shift that momentum back in their favor.