Monday, October 7, 2013

Trevathan interception rescues the Broncos

Danny Trevathan makes the game saving interception against Tony Romo.
If your team scored 48 points in the 4th quarter in any NFL game you’d fully expect to be winning that game, probably even embarrassing the other team. Yesterday in Dallas that score could only secure a tie. And if Danny Trevathan doesn’t make a sensational play with a diving interception with less than 7 minutes to go in the 4th Quarter 48 points wouldn’t have been enough in this wild Arena Football like game.  

Thankfully for us Cowboys haters Tony Romo is still their QB and will be for the foreseeable future after signing a 6 year, $108 million contract extension with $55 million in guarantees and a $25 million signing bonus this off season. That deal makes Romo the highest paid player in Cowboys history and tops the $52 million in guarantees that Joe Flacco (the next big QB flop) received from the Ravens as part of his 6 year, $120.6 million contract. Hey Jerry Jones, thank you for cementing all your hopes on Romo it’s really working out well for you so far isn’t it?

The X factor in the game as it has been in so many games for the Cowboys is the checkered play of Romo. Despite having a career day throwing for 506 yards and 5 TD’s it took only one bad throw to erase the glory of all his gaudy stats. Romo is one of the most notoriously consistent chokers in the big games. This one has to hurt as bad as any he’s ever had in his career. It didn’t happen in the post season and the 2013 season hasn’t even reached the half way point yet but the devastation is no less humiliating and demoralizing.

Personally every time Romo’s name comes up in a conversation I think of this epic moment in 2006 when the Cowboys were playing the Seahawks in the playoffs.

  

Romo will never live this one down until he leads a Cowboys team to a Super Bowl win and frankly I believe that he’ll never come close to even making it to a Super Bowl game or even a playoff win which is fine with me. Next to the Raiders the Cowboys are 2nd on the list of most hated teams so that's fine by me.

All of that said as Broncos Fans we come away from this win having serious concerns about the Defense. The Broncos gave up 522 yards of total offense. The Broncos had 4 sacks in the game (2 by Shaun Phillips) but take away those 4 plays and the Broncos were not getting enough pressure on Romo. The Broncos had 4 DL at the line of scrimmage most of the time and even when they blitzed they never really got to Romo or slowed down. The secondary was and still is the achilles heel of the D and they could not cover Jason Witten or Dez Bryant. Tony Carter and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie were beaten up like baby seals.  

It didn’t help that Wesley Woodyard, Chris Harris and Robert Ayers were hurt in the game but we have to expect better overall play by the team regardless.

The Broncos Defense has allowed 27.8 points per game. Once the playoffs start this isn’t going to be good enough and it certainly won’t be if they make it to the Super Bowl. Thankfully the Broncos play the down trodden Jaguars next week so they’ll get a breather. The word is Champ Bailey will be back next week which is good because they need his wisdom and experience but from a speed prospective I still think Harris is just as good a start as Bailey.

Thankfully Von Miller will return from his suspension just in time for the Colts game in Indianapolis. Let’s all hope he’s finally learned his lesson and he understands that the game could be taken away from him for good if he doesn’t fly right. His pass rushing skills and tackling have been sorely missed. The Colts are a good team and his services will be needed.

Knowshon Moreno continues to amaze me. He had a sensational game yesterday, breaking tackles, running with authority and he made key catches to keep drives alive. His performance was overshadowed by Romo and Peyton Manning but he was a big contributor in the win yesterday.

As for Manning he finally threw his first interception of the season but when you consider that he’s thrown 20 TD’s for an amazing 1884 yards you can cut him some slack. He's playing at level right now that is beyond what any QB has done before or since, let’s just hope he can carry it over to the playoffs and a Super Bowl.

If the Defense can regroup and start playing better in the secondary it doesn’t look like anything can stop the overwhelming and unstoppable juggernaut that is Peyton Manning.        

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