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The Denver Broncos are a one-dimensional team again

Greg Shelley Written by Greg Shelley, Thursday December 17 2009
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Apparently, the Denver Broncos are a mirror image of their 2008 selves, putting up respectable defensive numbers and fielding a mediocre offense in 2009. While that has brought some newfound success, it’s not likely to translate into playoff success.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong, barring another epic meltdown, the Broncos are most likely headed to the playoffs as a wildcard. Unfortunately, the odds are against them surviving the first round. This is certainly a different team than it was in 2008 when they went 8-8, but the jury is still out on how much better it might be.
 
While the Broncos were among the league leaders in offense last year, they have fallen back into the lower 50% of the league in most offensive categories here in 2009. Of course, they have offset that by revamping their defense, taking that side of the ball from among the worst in the league in 2008 to among the best in many categories. Oddly, new coach, Josh McDaniels was previously known for his smarts on the offensive side of the ball, but he seems to be getting lots of credit for the improvement of the defense and little attention about the demise of his offense. In truth, the new defensive coordinator, Mike Nolan, with his 11 years of experience with four different teams as a coordinator on the defensive side of the ball, deserves most of the credit for the defensive renaissance.
 
Naturally, this new team imbalance—all defense, little offense—has many fans invoking the spirit of the 2000 Baltimore Ravens team, but this Broncos team is definitely not in the same category with them. In 2000, the Ravens’ defense gave up a mere 60 yards per game in rushing and lead the league. Here in 2009, the Broncos’ defense is giving up 107.4 yards per game to the rush and are ranked #15 in that category. To make matters worse, the Broncos offense is playing a fundamental running game, presumably to protect the weaknesses of Kyle Orton, which has them ranked #12 in rushing and #19 in passing.
 
The fact that their offense is 20th in the league in points scored and their defense is still giving up over 100 yards per game on the ground should be cause for alarm. Some good, and some not so good, teams have had great success in bloodying the Broncos’ defense and offense this year with the same fundamental game that Denver is trying to master. The Broncos have given up 27 or more points in each of their five losses to-date, and they have lost those games by an average of 18.4 points per game while scoring an average of just 10.6.
 
Three good teams, including San Diego, Indy, and Baltimore, along with a not-so-good Pittsburgh team and an offense-less Redskins team, have figured out that you only need to focus on what little rushing attack the Broncos have. Once you take that partially away, you force the Broncos’ offense to beat you in the air, and with Kyle Orton averaging right at 20 completions per game for just over 220 yards, that is not a strong likelihood. Apparently then, all you need to do as a defense is find someone who can cover Brandon Marshall, and the Broncos’ offense is completely stifled—just ask San Diego, who only allowed three points to the Broncos in Denver.
 
After the first six wins of the season, many people, especially Josh McDaniels following the New England victory, thought the Broncos were big-time contenders, but now that the season has progressed, you can see that Denver has only beaten two teams with less than five losses. One was the miracle win over Cincinnati to open the year; the other was to the then 2-2 Chargers who haven’t lost a game since and rebounded with a 32-3 thumping of the Broncos just last month.
 
Still, Broncos fans can take heart in what remains of the schedule. They get two big-time losers at home in the form of the Raiders and Chiefs, and they go on the road to play the Eagles. At 9-4, the Eagles are likely to trounce the Broncos, but at least the Broncos have the opportunity to sneak into a first-round playoff with a 10-6 record to finish the year. Even if they lose in the first round, which is likely, they will have essentially proven to be better than last year, but now that the league has gotten familiar with the McDaniels approach it will be very interesting to see if the Broncos can produce a genuine contender in 2010.

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