There’s so much to process and say about this game and our season, the fact that we came within 5 points of winning is good, but it sounds like Drew will be out at least 2 weeks and that means our road to a 9-7 record and the playoffs gets really slim.

I think we should be okay with putting a little more blame on Chubb. There’s as good of a chance of him being a slightly above average, but not great player as there is of him being a star/great player. If we take out the game he got hurt (being generous), he’s had 1 sack in the past 5 games going back to last year. That doesn’t sound like even 75% of what he should be and he was at 100% for 3 of those games. Being double-teamed isn’t an excuse, how good the other pass rushers are doesn’t excuse it, there’s no excuse. You can look at team after team, player after player around the league, the good players generate pressures AND get sacks, the good players can produce and get sacks even without high-caliber talent around them. Even at 75%, he’s truly playing average, maybe slightly above average. If Chubb is good, and if he’s going to be great, he has to be playing better than this. I want Chubb to be a great LB and I’ve believed he would be for years, but this is very concerning.

Finally, why can’t this defense get sacks? I know we’re so banged up, but their o-line was injured and trashed too and we only get 1 sack? It feels like game-in, game-out, our defense can’t get sacks, there’s much worse defenses that get 4 sacks in a game when they have an okay or favorable matchup. Why is it so hard for us, even last year?

Keep Featuring Noah Fracking Fant.

Love
The Count

The loss of Drew Lock is 50% on the coaching staff for continuing to start a pathetic Elijah Wilkinson over a serviceable Dotson, and 50% on Elway for doing NOTHING at left tackle for the last 3 years. Hope Drew is back to normal in a few weeks and both parties learned their lesson. Inexcusable. That’s all, I am sad.

My boys! I love this team no matter what. But today sucked, I’m sending whatever good juju or prayers I can to lock, really really hoping for some good news. But my main question is this, is Fangio the guy? Sure we have questions at other positions, but with the right guy at the helm, we should be great! I’m confused and frustrated by the no calling TOs in week 1, but I can get over it, it just seems we can’t finish games with him at the helm? Does he just need to finish one and things will be turned around? What do guys think? Can or will fangio get us to the promise land? Positive vibes only! I love my broncos! Thanks guy!

Okay, maybe I am wrong here but it seems that most of the pressure is coming from the right side and the middle of the line. I have rarely seen a lot of pressure because of Bolles plus he hasn’t had any holding calls. I think the munchak effect is actually working on him and he has improved at least to begin the season. Other than that Wilkinson has to go he’s been doing this since he became a starter last year and no QB can be good with 19 hits on them. Dotson needs a shot.

I was really hoping the sling on Drew’s arm was going to be like Wayoff P wearing ice at post game interviews, thus as a tool to make Tampa Bay think he will be inactive, they watch film on Driskell, and Lock actually starts. Thereby bringing down Tom Brady in an epic beat down. No dice. Thanks a lot Adam Schefter.
Anyway, glad to see the team has some serious grit to them. Jesus and Hamler going to cause problems for a long time.

Hold up…
Just read Mase’s article, and we had 319 YARDS OF OFFENSE?!?! Crimony that’s encouraging!

hey guys! let’s focus on some positives!

1) the broncos are EASILY the best 0-2 in the nfl. there are three teams- vikings, texans and eagles who were all playoff teams last year, all have highly paid ‘franchise’ qbs and all retained their offensive and defensive systems but they’ve all looked horrible in their first two games. meanwhile the broncos have fielded two competitive teams despite the offense learning a new system and the injuries on both sides of the ball.

2) this showed why kj was drafted. i call it the ‘will fuller effect’ where the offense is more productive when a team has to respect a dynamic player. we all saw how the steelers completely shut down saquon last week, and yes the giants had darius slayton but he’s doesn’t separate the way hamler does. there’s a reason why it was reported that hamler was one of the most well liked players amongst front offices coming into the draft. the broncos’ run game was much more productive and without going in depth and watching the all-22, i’m pretty confident that kj’s presence on the field helped keep safeties out of the box.

3) for mr b

4) we’re getting closer to calvin anderson taking meaningful snaps ?

Well *beep*

Ok assuming by the time this is read out we know about Drew and Sutton. Please let out a

“Hurray” if it is 2 weeks or less for Drew, or a
“Well this is *beep*ed” if two plus.
Someone scream into a glass of whiskey if Drew is out for season.

Anyhoot, I felt better about the broncos after that game than I thought I would.

Can I beg something of you? Please don’t talk about the 2021 draft, or redrafting prior years, or woulda coulda shoulda moves by John Elway – at least not yet. This team is, relatively speaking, very well built. The depth is showing through that the product that is going on the field is fantastic relative to the adversity they are facing. I am all for productive criticism of the organisation and the staff – but I hope we can all agree that the coaching staff are doing well with what they have.

Thought experiment – how do these teams and coaches fair with the position equivalent injury losses of the broncos?
Seahawks?
Packers?
Cardinals?
Rams?
Chiefs? (Might be the exception here…)
Titans?

I’d hazard a guess, not great.

And that’s before we talk about the teams that still have those positions and look worse than the broncos – yikes the poor Vikings….

Obviously everyone loves DNVR and we all love the pod but I think you guys may be in the wrong profession. I think it’s time you guys open the DNVR Broncos coaching clinic to teach Vic and Pat a few things about the players on their team. We all listen every day and most of us are probably thinking things like “that’s a good idea RK” or “Mase makes a lot of sense” and so on. And then what happens on Sunday? We see disappointment over and over again from the coaching staff. We all run here afterwards to complain about what we’re doing on offense, our coaching decisions and about how we did nothing mentioned on this pod. I say you guys get into Elways ear and get the Coaching clinic going. Maybe then we’ll see our dreams come true.

Zac, Ryan…Mase….heat me out…I’ve got 3 scenarios for you.

1 Drew comes back and has an ok season…we go 8-8 and end up with a draft pick not named Trevor Lawrence.

2 We…Lose for Lawrence and stop this whole earn your spot crap and let him start from day one.

3 (Zac don’t hate me)….dramatic pause….We sign Aaron “the CB Assassin” Rodgers! Say what you want Rodgers is NOT losing to the Titans on Monday night or that Steelers team we just played. With Aaron Rodgers we walk into the building with 21 points…we literally have an offense where “if you blitz…you die”!

I love Drew for real…but he is getting me killed in madden lol. I love you guys keep putting in work! Thank you for all that you do.

Give Jeff Drizzle all the credit for making it rain and keepin em in it yesterday…

It feels too positive in these comments rn. I’m here with my bucket of cold water…

This team has been spinning its tires for the last 4.2 seasons. The O line has not been NFL caliber in that stretch, leading to every QB not named “Kase“ getting injured and missing time. The coaching mistakes since Kubiaks retirement are bountiful. Sure Vic seemingly held it together yesterday, aside from that mind boggling decision to kick a 58 yard field goal, but his and VJ’s collective gaffes only serve to remind that Elway is almost as inept as picking coaches as he is QB’s and LT’s.

It feels like every single time something positive happens for the team, the Broncos just say “hold my beer”. A perfect example yesterday: Give up an 80+ yard punt return TD, have a terrible and very lucky call bring it back, just so Ben can drop an 80 yard bomb on the very next play. This has been the status quo since 2015, and as a diehard fans, we are ALL tired, frustrated, sad and dejected by it.

The rash of injuries Isn’t surprising given the long layoff and this is happening league wide – the difference is the Broncos lack of depth is glaring. And the one position where the backup might be better than the starter is RT and for some reason our “not on the hot seat” HC refuses to insert a 10 year vet in place of a bad excuse for a swinging saloon door.

The uncomfortable truth which MUST be confronted by fans through the use of their wallets and addressed by the NFL itself is that since the moment The Late Great Pat Bowlen stepped away from the team and ultimately passed, this team has become a shell of itself. With next to ZERO leadership coming from above Elway, and the not so subtle extreme tightening of the teams purse strings in that time, this team has tried to get cute and instead got cheap.

While the Bowlen kids play tug of war with a once proud franchise that was built up by their amazing Dad, the very entities they wish to control is crumbling to pieces, and we the common fans are left to commiserate over what has happened, pretending like this is the year it’ll get better. So here’s a REAL solution:

1) Tank this season + draft Football Jesus from Clemson
2) Sell the team
3) Fire Elway
4) Fire Fangio (he’s an amazing coordinator, stick to what your good at my dude)
5) Cut the cord on the heroes from yesterday – that means you Von
6) Build around a core featuring Trev Law, Jeudy, Fant and Sutton.

Tell me that plan doesn’t sound good? Tell me that plan doesn’t sound as reasonable, if not MORE reasonable than “dReW LoCk iS tHe GuY”….cold water never felt so good.

I’ll be here all season folks.

Rule Check..

Didn’t they bring in a rule a few years ago, after Rodgers broke his collarbone, that stopped defenders from driving players into the ground or landing on them? Why didn’t Bud Dupree get a flag? Was it because he still had the ball in his hand and hadn’t thrown it?

As someone who thinks Football has become a little soft, and wishes the rules in the 70s were still in place today, Stickem aside, I can’t complain. Just wondered exactly what that rule is.

Lastly, what were our players doing at the end of the game?? You let Conner score there almost every time, as tackling him literally ends the game. So stupid. Have these NFL players not had thousands of hours playing Madden like us fans have?? Vic needs to force all his players to play at least 3 hours of Madden a day, and the entire coaching staff too, to iron these issues out. Game Management is so simple, yet I see so many teams/players messing this up. So which one of you three are going to ask this question at the next Vic Presser? I am laughing whilst typing this, imagining the look on Vic’s face when you ask that..

Peace out and love to all, apart from YOU, Bud Dupree..

The Big Tebowski

Hey guys just had to share this story with you.

The other night I went on a date with a girl I have liked for a LONG time. I picked her up and we went to a nice new steak house. It started out rocky as our apps came out a little burnt, but once we got some alcohol in us things went smooth. By the time our entree came out we were having a good time and I was feeling good about closing the deal. We made it to her place and as I was sitting in the car I was feeling good about getting a kiss. Well I leaned in and she leaned in and then we headbutted and I accidentally stepped on the gas and drove off a cliff into a 0-2 start. Now my good engine is out for 2-6 weeks and I have a go kart engine, one of my wheels is from a scooter, and my sister sits in the trunk and yells “TURNING” every time i make a turn.
okay, but seriously, seemed like we made good halftime adjustments. What were the pressures in the first half compared to the second half? Also, not on board with tanking for Trevor. Everyone complained about how this team gives up, but now they are fighting every game and people want them to give up. Stupid.

Hey guys ! Dear #broncoscountry if you can’t be patient with this team don’t be a broncos fan ! Who wants to hear negative b.s. all game ! In my bronco group chat the lack of perspective pissed me off ! …… My buddy is just railing on Michael ojemudia …. A rookie who missed majority of training camp …saying he’s sucks and a bust cuz he dropped a int and got beat over the top (where’s the perspective ) !!! ….. The negativity on 4th-2nd play call ….dude we should have got blown out pat Shurmur put us in position to win ! Look all I’m saying is this team is young we’ve lost 7 of our top 10 players and people need to TEMPER THEIR EXPECTATIONS OR DONT WATCH ! ..play fantasy or madden idk how you wake up watch a game to be negative it’s dumb ! …. And the Courtland dropping the catch that really pissed me off did you see courtland on the 45 yard catch ? Healthy courtland would have took that to the house I’m sorry guys I’m just so pissed off with the fan base and negative denver Media I appreciate you guys for having perspective and stokley was very positive and a couple other denver Media but for the most part the what about trevor or justin fields b.s. it’s annoying made me feel like what kind of fans does Broncoscountry have ?

First of all, Fant looks like a top 3 TE! Throw him the damn ball! I know we shouldn’t get carried away, but I couldn’t help but to look at the rest of the schedule, and I have a hard time finding a way that Denver gets to 9 wins. Please advise thanks.

Shurmur’s performance in 2020 will need to be judged for what he does over the entire season, not just two games. His play calls have occasionally seemed odd, but perhaps there’s a longer term logic to it.

Fant clearly had the hot hand in the first game of the season, but then Shurmur goes away from him. It seems crazy, but over the course of the 2020 season, does it make more sense? Clearly Fant can deliver, but if this team is going to be good, Jeudy, Patrick and Hamler all need to be delivering too. Forcing the ball their direction early in the season may set up greater success down the road.

At this point, with Lock injured, we may never get to see the deeper plan. Given Shurmur’s pedigree though I find it hard to believe that he’s just making bad play calls.

Hey I wanted to air out some of my frustrations, so here it goes. I feel that we are again in coordinator purgatory. Scangs could have made the same mistakes we are seeing from Shurmur, too cutesy or bad calls in general.

When watching Herbert this week, a lot of the things he was asked to do were schemed up for him, why have we not seen more of this for Drew. Quick Passes, Screens, short slants and drags. Help a young guy out by getting the ball out of his hand. It seems like all the teams we face are able to do it, WHY CANT WE?

I know you all talked about Fant…FEED HIM THE BALL. He is killing it and I do not understand how he goes missing for a half.

4th Quarter 3rd and 2, WHY do we pay Melvin and bring in Glasgow…TO BE ABLE TO RUN UP THE MIDDLE. That is what I would call a money down and we did not even give him a shot to earn the 8 mill.

On a positive won my first game of the year as OC, taking my record including last year to 6-1.

Appreciate yall as always
Litvakski

I disagree with Zac. I think what we saw from this team at Pittsburgh gives me hope vs TB. Driskel proved that he can throw the ball and if we can keep a pass rush that’s not as good as Pitt’s out of his face I think we see a high scoring game. I think we see Gordon go off too.

Can we get 1 INT without a penalty from 45? At least this one didn’t negate it.

Get Vannett out of there and more Fant

I floated this idea in the DNVR Lounge last night and wanted to hear your take on this. By the time the podcast drops for today, we may already know the prognosis on Drew’s shoulder injury, but if Drew Lock misses 10 games or more (touch wood), what would you think of getting the Washington Football Team on the phone and inquiring about Alex Smith? I’ve got three reasons I think Alex Smith might be worth a call, if he can actually get out on the field:
1- His veteran presence should provide enough consistency for the young receivers to develop together. I worry that Driskel may not be good enough to spread quality targets around to our young receiving core on a week-by-week basis.
2- It is no secret that Alex Smith was a fantastic mentor to Mahomes, even though he knew that the acquisition of Mahomes signaled the coming end of his tenure in Kansas City. While Drew recovers, he can sit under Smith and learn from a true vet in the league–which is something he never got to experience under Joe Flacco.
3- We’re back to living in a world of suck, and we need a good story in Broncos Country. Alex Smith would be a GREAT story if it panned out.

So what do you think? I know its unlikely to happen, but fun to think about.

Team showed good fight and great heart. Gotta love that and it makes it easy to remain optimistic about where this team is going.

Regarding Drew – Remember last year he was sacked less than any QB in his 6 starts. And that was with a worse o-line than we have right now. It wasn’t because the O-line played better. It is because Drew can feel the rush and knows when to get on the move. It is a major part of his game and he excels at throwing on the run. But he HAS to learn how to protect himself. Both of these injuries came from someone chasing from behind. Get on the move and see if one guy is going to break free and if not fire it into the bench.

My boys! I keep hearing Bolles getting heat for being the second O-line failure in the play that Drew got hurt (Wilkinson being the first). To me, it looked like the D-line ran a stunt and Risner should have picked up Dupree. There is no way Bolles would have time to loop around Risner and re-engaged Dupree. Thoughts?

My boys … What a brutal stretch of injuries

I have nothing to say. I had such high hopes this year but the rug has been pulled. I’m not saying there isn’t a Tebow like miracle that is waiting for us, but at this point, with the injuries we have, it doesn’t look great.

My main silver lining is this. If we do poorly due to injuries, we will get a high pick, we will come back next year and hopefully have everyone healthy. That will give the young guys all a season worth of experience and some seasoning going into next year which should be a “playoffs or bust” year.

Now the bad news is this, if Lock is out for a long time we are missing the window to see what he has. We might be set back another year if he isn’t the guy, and if he is the guy then there is really no worry. I like what I see from him but he’s no infallible. But alas, no rookie in his 7th start against a good team looks infallible

Sorry for the long one. I’m always gonna be here, and apologize for chirping at Zac when he said OJ was having a good game and I said “Yea real solid, dropped pick and burned for an 85 yd td” I calmed down and realized he really is having a solid start to his roomie career. He is being asked a lot. And the tweet was only out of frustration and hopefully Zac didn’t take it the wrong way!

Mile high salute to the haters. Go Broncos!

MY BOYS! I will keep this pithy, as there lots of comments already posted today. The only word that I can think of for the Broncos right now and 2020 in general is pain. A silver lining in all of this is if the Broncos and their fans exercise some patience, things could take a dramatic turn for the better in the near future. Fingers crossed that Drew Lock’s, Courtland Sutton’s, and Dre’Mont Jones’ injuries are not severe. If Lock’s injury turns out to be more than the two to four week variety, do the Broncos consider trading for Alex Smith or signing Sam Bradford or Blake Bortles? As we know, Bradford played very well for Pat Shurmur during their time together with the Rams and Vikings. Thanks for the great coverage. DNVRMY SALUTE!

My Peoples, Sorry in advance..

At this point the season is a wash. Lets see what the young guys have and go from there.

1. Ole Pat must not like Noah Fant. GIVE THAT MAN THE BALL.

2. Mase had been pounding the table for a better back up QB and now we will see just how right he was for it. Is there anyone (T-Money) you may think about bringing in?

3. For Mr. B

4. Ojemudia played really well..in fact i had just text my friend saying he looked really freaking good… then he missed the INT and it all fell apart.. My bad, sorry Juice!

5. Love Ya’ll,

PS. RK seems the Lakers did not learn from the Jazz and Clippers…Nuggets in 7

With all the injury news coming out, I wanna throw something out there. Broncos sit at 0-2 and Drew has another mildly serious injury that could keep him out for awhile. Spend as long or as little as you want on this. I know it may have a negative effect on the culture, but do y’all think it would be in the broncos best interest to tank for Trevor? I personally would rather see them win some games, but Drew damn near immediately getting injured again has me pretty concerned. Feel free to rip this take if you must!

Thanks fellas

Guys,

Since the end of last season there has been lots of talk about how the 2020 season is of the utmost importance for what this team can be in 2021. This is more relevant than ever. No tanking no giving up because an 8-8 season has never been so necessary. We have to win 8 dirty tooth and nail games. It will build heart and dog in these young guys. It will get them use to close games. And next season when everyone is healthy (please dear God) this team will have developed heart and leadership and break the losing season streak. Get back on track. Similar to the Steelers of last year.

What are the 8 games this three legged horse can win?

Take the 2020 Broncos out back and shoot them in the head. End this misery.

The amount of catastrophes is just getting ridiculous at this point. One thing after another.

I knew it was going to be VJ era bad but this… I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.

Seasons a wrap men.

Time to just focus on the young development.

Seems like a popular opinion put there is that we are losing due to coaching. That may be so, but it seems less black and white to me.
The 3rd and 2 and 4th and 2 at the end of the game seem to be the evidence for poor coaching because we didn’t run the ball. Doesn’t the quick passing game neutralize blitzing defenses? I thought the two calls we great. The 4th down looked like poor execution from Driskell. He has Gordon, Hamilton, and Patrick all open where the blitzers would have been and enough time to dump it off.
Our losses look like a combination of too many mistakes (Ojemudia drop, Vannett fall, Sutton tipped ball, etc.) made by too many people early in the game forcing us to be perfect at the end of the game. Its easy to point at coaching as the problem at the ends of games.
DB4L

It’s official I’m referring to the 2020 season as the lost year…… hopefully a lot of development allows this year to be the adversity to fortify the foundation of this team for years to come.

Last time I checked hope is a terrible strategy, Vic and Elway have seemed to use this word often lately.

Let’s have a better day and look to the positive development of this young team.

Could Jeff Driskel be Minnesota Case Keemun?

Man Sutton tears ACL making a tackle on an INT he caused when the ball bounced off his hands!?!double ouch. You can’t make this shit up. Brutal start to the season wow.

Worst news for the Broncos in 2020:
Justin Herbert´s gameplay

pain.