The Mile High Salute

After another brutal loss, I get to hear the constant hum-drum, I told you so attitudes. Now the Cutler lovers and the McDaniels haters, who have up till now been silenced, are beginning to re-emerge. Constantly I have to hear, “See, our offense sucks with Orton”. It’s starting to get on my nerves!

I will concede that our offense has not been good the last couple games, and has been a little less than solid all year long. Moving the ball between the 20’s hasn’t been a problem, just like last season with Cutler, but scoring has, similar to last year’s offense. The difference? There’s a defense to back our offense up. If the Broncos had to solely depend on their offense, then there would be a problem. Luckily, there is a great defense in place and as long as the offense takes care of the ball, unlike against Pittsburgh, Denver has a shot at the end of the game.

To me, there are three different emotions a fan feels during the NFL season. The first is confidence. Depending on how things went the previous season this will vary widely before the first preseason game. Confident is also how many fans feel no matter how bad their team is, see Raiders fans the last 6 years. The second is worried. This is the emotion that I always find myself in. No matter how good the Broncos are, I’m always worried about something in the upcoming game, season, or draft. Most fans feel this after a few losses or about facing a Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. The last is Panic. This is an emotion that Raiders fans should feel, well as long as Al Davis is still running the team. This emotion is usually reserved for times such as Denver choking and blowing a three game lead at the end of the year last year. But, for some reason, many Broncos fans are panicking after only two losses.

Now, the category I fall into right now is worried. I am a little worried about how Denver’s offense is struggling lately. The way the offensive line is getting blown apart is very troubling, especially since that was considered the strongest unit for the Broncos. Also, the lack of a mid-range passing game, much less a deep passing game, combined with an inert run game is spelling trouble for McDaniels and Orton. Opposing teams can pack the box with 8 or 9 guys knowing that the ball is not going more than 15 yards down the field on any given play.

My feeling toward the defense is still confident, however. The defense has more than held up their end in the last couple games. The D has almost scored as many points as the offense in the last two games as well, offense 10 defense 7. True both Baltimore and Pittsburgh put up 20+ points each in the second half, but it is difficult to keep good offenses out of the end zone when you are on defense for 22 minutes in the half. A little help from the offense and fewer 3-and-outs would help the “struggling” defense out tremendously.

Overall, I think everyone again needs to step back and take a look at the big picture. Denver is still 6-2, with a road win over the only challenger in the AFC West in the San Diego Chargers. It is not nearly time for panic in Denver. Even if Denver loses to Washington this weekend, the worst they will be is tied for the AFC West lead.

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