KANSAS CITY — Are the Broncos better than their 3-5 record suggests?
“Absolutely. Absolutely,” said Derek Wolfe
“Yeah, 100 percent,” said Justin Simmons.
“I feel like we have a great team,” said Von Miller. Bradley Chubb said the same.
Are they right?
The Broncos are an odd puzzle to solve. On one hand, they’ve lost five of their eight games, with their only wins coming against teams with a combined record of 5-14 coming into Sunday. On the other hand, they’ve lost three games to two teams with a combined 14-1 record by an average of 4.6 points.
In all reality, the only inexcusable loss they have on their schedule came to the Jets, and even that was a road game.
On Sunday, they gave the Kansas City Chiefs another run for their money, with self-inflicted penalties and turnovers being the biggest reason for the 30-23 loss. So what does it mean that they can hang with the league’s elite?
“Nothing. You lost. If you lose it doesn’t count for shit,” said Derek Wolfe. “All that matters is wins in this league. This is a production league. If you’re not winning that it doesn’t matter what you did. If you lose, it doesn’t matter how good you played.”
As they say, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. As they also say, you are what your record says you are.
Here’s the thing, though, the Broncos are significantly better than they were last year. Their offense is significantly more explosive than it was last year. Their running game is significantly better than it was last year. Their special teams are better than they were last year—punter notwithstanding. Their defense has held the Chiefs to their two lowest point totals of the season and held the Rams to their lowest output, as well. This isn’t a bad football team.
The Broncos are an average football team with a discipline problem and an unfortunate slate for a team that finished in last place a year ago.
“Coming into the season, I thought we were supposed to have one of the easiest schedules in the league,” Chris Harris Jr. said with a laugh of disbelief. “It’s funny, it really turned out to be the hardest schedule.”
And things don’t get too much easier, either. Sure, they have a three-game stretch against the Niners, Browns and Raiders, but every one of the other five games left on the schedule comes against a team that came into this Sunday with a winning record.
In their words, they need to win every one of their games from here on out to make the playoffs. In our words, if a couple loose tires fall off, 6-10 is a real possibility.
For a team that looks like they need a hard reset, that may actually be a good thing. For a team that’s clearly improved in many areas and a team full of proud veterans with championship rings, it’s a really tough pill to swallow.
The Broncos are probably better than their 3-5 record suggests. The Broncos are definitely better than they were last year. The only problem is that gets them from bad to mediocre, and in this league, mediocre isn’t any better than bad.
0 Comments (5 conversations)
Steve Cañon
The coaching staff has to be replaced. From there, O line, quarterback, secondary, and linebackers.
3 and Outstanding
Bill Parcels famously said, “You are what your record says you are.”
They are a sub .500 team, playing like a sub .500 team. KC didn’t beat Denver today. Denver beat themselves. 4 20+ yard plays called back to penalties. Stupid, avoidable turnovers by the backup QB pretending to be a starter. On any other team, he’d be riding the pine. The “future” of the franchise QB was the last pick in the draft who is no longer on the team due to issues that were known before he was even drafted.
What’s worse is now they have no choice but to trade off veteran leadership on the team in hopes of getting enough picks to try to fill the holes on the team created by poor drafting previously. There are no good options for QB in the upcoming draft. They overpaid for the underperforming QB they are stuck with now. In all likelihood, these issues won’t be solved this offseason. 2019 is shaping up to be a repeat of this season and last season.
Sure, they are a better team this season on paper. It’s not translating on the field where it counts. The head coach’s press conferences sound the same every week and fall on deaf ears. “We were winning until we lost.” “We have to get better.” Yeah, no kidding.
What makes this all worse is Denver has some of the most talented players in the league. Arguably the best pass rusher in the league. All of that talent, in the prime of their careers, is being squandered.
It’s time to burn the whole thing to the ground and start from scratch. They need to quit pretending there is something here when anyone else with two eyes watching can see there is not.
8 games left in the season is 8 too many. This season ended today. They are just going to parade around its corpse like Weekend At Bernies for the remainder.
MontanaBroncos
We’ve had it good for a long time. It’s our turn to suck. Until we get a QB like KC has, we’re going to be in the middle of the pack, where we were after Elway hung up his cleats with brief blips and teases like Jake Plummer until Peyton F. Manning came along. We’re a middling team with middling coaching, some great players and some middling players, including at QB. Basically we’re mild sauce. We better just get used to it. Hate to see 58’s late prime spent this way, but our glory days are a ways ahead of us. It’s KC’s turn now and they haven’t been in the Super Bowl since John Elway was 10 years old. So, we got that going for us.
Not Tim Tebow
In my opinion, if we had a different OC from the start of the season we would easily be ATLEAST 5-3 if not better. I give Vance some slack because he doesn’t get involved in offensive play calling.
ColoradoFanOxford
They are close to being a “good team”..:aka, fighting for wild card. They have played arguably the best two teams in league 3 times (Jets..whatever).
Penalties – this falls on the discipline of OC, DC and Vance
Awful RT and LT – I think Keemun works, if his running game is gold (has been) and he has time. He hasn’t. And the holding penalties show it.
Desire to win – this was what marked the late 90s and early to mid 2010s teams. Within leadership and key players, there seemed this amazing will to do whatever it took to have at least 1 point more than opponents. They are young at key places (now younger at WR). Harris and Miller can’t be the only ones with that will.
I wouldn’t waste a 1st pick on QB. Keenun has enough to win in this league. Right now Joe Montana couldn’t pick apart defenses with this o-line. And they need to sign a LB or DE who has that iron will needdd to win.
On verge of becoming a good team. Not sure Vance can get them there.