Manning "Manned Up" as Broncos secure Playoff Spot

With a game time temperature of 18 degrees in Denver yesterday the big question going in was could Peyton Manning break the huge chunk of ice frozen around him regarding his past performances in cold weather games. Instead of using an ice pick to chip away at that criticism he used a massive sledge hammer. He shattered that ice into tiny shards and in the process with the help of his teammates secured a playoff spot.

Matt Prater kicked a 64 FG in the cold to set a new NFL Record.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the first 2 ½ quarters of the game yesterday but when I did drop in during the 3^rd quarter it was very clear that Manning was in complete control of his game. He didn’t look anything like that cold, unconfident and sometimes weak armed old QB in New England a few weeks ago.     

He was in total command, his passes were crisp, on time, he was never sacked and the OL gave him plenty of time to dissect the Titans D. Manning was sensational; he was a remarkable 39 out of 59, for 397 yards, and 4 TDs. After a slow start in the 1^st half he came out in the 2^nd and played as well as he has in any game for the Broncos. Each of the his stud WR’s Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker, Erick Decker and TE Julius Thomas caught a TD pass. The combination of Knowshon Moreno and Montee Ball had 155 yards on the ground and both of them scored a TD. It was a well executed and balanced approach by the O.

In short “Manning Manned Up” and proved he can be a real warrior in tough weather conditions and he deserves every bit of praise for this win.

That said, I hate to be a broken record again but Manning has been in this position many times in his career. He’s got to be considered maybe the best regular season QB to ever play the game but in the playoffs he still has one of the worst records there is when you stack him up against other NFL QB greats.

They still have to play them one at time and beat the Chargers this week and work towards the next step which is to secure home field throughout the playoffs. The final step will be taking the Broncos to and winning the Super Bowl. When he, with the help of his teammates, can accomplished that feat his legacy will have been a truly amazing one.

Much will depend on how well they play D down the stretch. The Broncos will have to improve defensively, especially in the secondary. As of this week of the 32 teams in the NFL they’re giving up 274.3 passing yards per game which is 29^th in the league. They’re 26^th in the league in points allowed with 26.5 and they’re giving up a total of 374.2 yards per game which 25^th in the league. Their best ranking is against the run, they’re ranked 7^th giving up just 99.8 yards per game. That stat should be taken with a grain of salt because in most games teams have had to play from behind and air it out to keep up with Manning’s O.

Giving up 28 points to a below average team like the Titans at home is not what John Fox had in my mind when he returned to sidelines this week. He more than anyone understands that won’t be good enough come playoff time. At times it's like they relax a little bit because they know Manning is on the bench and they know he can rack up a score in a hurry if they need it. In the NFL you can't take plays off.

The D did have some injuries this week to Rahim Moore, Derek Wolfe, and Kevin Vickerson. Duke Ihenacho, Champ Bailey and Wesley Woodyard (still hurting from his neck injury) played banged up but that’s no excuse. Every team this late in the season has injuries to deal with on both sides of ball and the good team’s find ways to win with their bench.

The next step to a Championship is to beat the Chargers this and move closer to home field throughout. It’s been an amazing season but there’s still work to be done.

Chargers win comes second to Peyton's ankle

Manning in the air is far better than Manning on the ground hurt.

The Denver Broncos win without John Fox on the sidelines over a much improved San Diego Chargers team yesterday was a critical milestone. It completes a season sweep and buries the Chargers at the bottom of the AFC West standings with the Raiders. YES! It gives Jack Del Rio his first win as interim Head Coach, an 8-1 record and sets up a very important Sunday night match-up against the undefeated division rival Kansas City Chiefs in Denver.

This is all welcome news to Broncos Fans but why I’m I feeling apprehensive and nervous this morning? You’d think it’d be a time of excitement, exhilaration and much anticipation. It’s simple, am I the only one who could care less about what happened in the game yesterday or about the pending one this week and actually more concerned with Peyton Manning’s future health long term?

The hit Manning took yesterday with less than 2 minutes to go in the game to the back of his legs that aggravated a previous injury to his right ankle immediately deflated my enjoyment of the win. The pass Manning completed on that play give the Broncos another 1st down and helped them to run out the clock for the victory but with Manning lying on the ground in obvious pain my heart stopped.

Manning is a tough guy and he did get up and finish the game with a noticeable limp. Just because Manning is a great player and is 38 years old doesn’t make him any less immune to risk of an injury. Football is a very violent game dominated by much younger men that take no prisoners and should make no apology for hitting anyone in the mouth, even if he’s Peyton Manning. I know some will say the hit Manning took was a cheap shot but it’s a reach, it was a bang, bang play with the Chargers D desperately attempting to stop the Broncos to get the ball back. Unfortunately for Manning the blow came below the knees like some do but that’s football. Had the shoe been on the other foot and this was Rivers that went down instead would it have been a cheap shot then?

What I immediately was asking after the hit was why Manning throwing the ball in that situation to begin with? The better strategy right then would have been to hand the ball off to Knowshon Moreno even if he couldn’t run for the 1st down. Time was on the Broncos friend and the Chargers enemy and even had the Broncos had to punt the ball back to them, they probably would have had bad field position with less than a minute to go with no timeouts remaining to score 8 points. From an odds standpoint even then the Broncos had the upper hand and had been getting to Rivers with the pass rush. It was unlikely the Chargers could have tied the game.

I know Manning is a competitor and he really believed the only way the Broncos were going to win was if the ball was in his hands. In the heat of the moment you can’t blame or fault him for it but I believe Manning can still be a winner and survive to fight another day if he slows the game down just a bit and let’s some of his teammates do the heavy lifting.

Manning is only going to be a QB for the Broncos for a finite period of time and maybe that’s why he’s sometimes impatient and desperate I get that but he’s not immortal and he can’t do it all alone. From here forward let’s hope he thinks a little more of self preservation because there are still 7 games to go. The Chiefs game will be no gimme'.

The Chiefs O may be winning ugly but they’re an efficient unit with of Jamaal Charles as their stud. Their aggressive D is the real deal and they’ll be going after Manning early and often. Let’s pray that the Offensive Line can handle the onslaught and that Manning’s quick release can protect his tender ankle. I hope that Manning ego let's him hand the ball off to Moreno and Montee Ball often to slow the game down and kill the clock.

It was reported this morning that the MRI came back negative and Manning will start against the Chiefs Sunday. You know he'll be sore and have to wonder how mobile he'll be. The Broncos have won 8 out of the 9 battles so far but they haven’t won the war and without Manning out there as the Commanding General the war would be lost. So please Peyton, protect yourself.   

Jim Irsay's comments on Manning were not unreasonable

If someone would have told me the Colts would have convincingly beat the Broncos after their miserable performance against the Chargers last week I’d of said they were crazy. But this is the NFL and week to week you never know what’s going to happen on any given Sunday. As it turns out the Colts wanted the game way worse than the Broncos. 4 turnovers, penalties, a flawed offensive game plan and the worst Defense unit by the numbers in the passing game in the NFL finally brought the high flying Broncos back to planet earth.

You combine this with Peyton Manning having his worse game of the 2013 season and even a worse game still by Knowshon Moreno and it was too much to overcome.

A lot credit has to go the defense unit of the Colts they shut down Moreno and got after Manning when he tried to throw downfield. The Manning fumble that went into the end zone was a big play but I don’t see that moment as the turning point. The real one came when Offensive Coordinator Adam Gase or maybe it was Manning called 2 running plays up the middle on 3rd and short to Moreno and he couldn’t convert either one. The Broncos had way too many quick 3 and outs and it never gave the Broncos weak Corners and Safety’s a chance to catch their breaths against Andrew Luck who played a great game.  

Up until this game Moreno had played well beyond anything he has in his career thus far but in this one he played like the old RB that was on the horrible Josh McDaniels teams when the best he could do was pick up one or two yards per carry, showed zero quickness, no cut back ability, no power and would go to the ground after the first hit. Why Manning kept calling his number is a mystery. Not only was he totally ineffective on the ground, he was even worse when Manning used him as a check off Receiver in the flat and he still couldn’t make a play.

I don’t know how many times Manning chucked the ball to Moreno but the play wasn’t working. I have a hard time believing that the coverage was so good downfield that he couldn’t find either D. Thomas, Welker, Decker or J. Thomas open.

Manning was clearly feeling the pressure of the game early and once the Broncos got behind in the first half the crowd noise and his emotions hurt his ability to run the hurry up or get into any kind of a groove. In this kind of environment I almost wonder if it wouldn’t be better to slow the game down a little and huddle up to make sure the Receivers know exactly which routes to run. When Manning was trying to change the play at the line of scrimmage it had to be next to impossible for them to hear what play was being called.

Make no mistake after Manning coughed up the football and was sacked 4 times his confidence was rattled. He was throwing the ball into tight coverage and many of his balls had too much air on them without much zip. The absence of LT Ryan Clady became crystal clear because his replacement Chris Carter had no answers for the hard charging Robert Mathis, he sacked Manning twice.

"We've changed our model a little bit, because we wanted more than one of these," Irsay says, flicking up his right hand to show his Super Bowl XLI championship ring. (Tom) Brady never had consistent numbers, but he has three of these," Irsay adds. "Pittsburgh had two, the Giants had two, Baltimore had two and we had one. That leaves you frustrated. You make the playoffs 11 times, and you're out in the first round seven out of 11 times. You love to have the Star Wars numbers from, Peyton and Marvin (Harrison) and Reggie (Wayne). Mostly, you love this."

As many of you know that regularly read my blog I’ve been very cynical and skeptical about Manning’s ability to get the Broncos to a Super Bowl and win it. The comments Jim Irsay made about Manning this week have been the same ones I’ve been making since they signed him.

This loss had to really have an effect on Manning's headgame; it gives fuel to the doubters and naysayers that claim Manning buckles in big pressure games and the playoffs. Can he recover; can he still lead the team to Super Bowl win? Maybe, but now he and Broncos Fans can see he isn’t infallible or unbreakable.

The 2 immediate solutions seem easy. I believe they have to get Montee Ball on the field as their primary RB even if he isn’t as good a Receiver as Moreno he’s a better power runner than he is and they need the threat of a running game to execute the offense. More important still is John Fox and Jack Del Rio must find a way to get better play out of the Defensive Secondary because without it the Broncos cannot and will not go deep in the playoffs.  

Ravens Game Will Speak Volumes About 2013 Broncos Team

I watched both the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals Preseason Games but nothing that happened in them inspired me to write anything. The 3 most notable performances in the 4 games were turned in by Julius Thomas, Duke Ihenacho and Brock Osweiler. So if I could sum up the Broncos 2013 Preseason campaign and predict the outcome of the Baltimore Ravens Game and the early strengths and weaknesses of the team I’d say this.

ON OFFENSE

I think almost everyone would agree the Broncos are going to be very adept at airing the ball out. As long as Peyton Manning doesn’t get injured and the Offense Line can protect him, the Broncos should be able to move the ball up and down between the 20’s. On paper he has some of the best Receivers in the game to chuck the ball to in Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker and Eric Decker. Julius Thomas at Tight End is an exciting prospect; he was one of the few new players on offense in the preseason that stood out and he’s won the starting job.

The challenge will be how well Manning and the offense can score consistently in the Red Zone. If it can be done through the air great but if it must be done on the ground can they punch the ball in the end zone inside the 20 or inside the 5 yard line?

LT Ryan Clady, LG Zane Beadles and RT Orlando Franklin the 3 strongest OL for the Broncos should be fine to block in the running and passing game. The question will be will new Center Manny Ramirez and RG Louis Vasquez come together and make them a line that can play smash mouth or an aerial circus type of game?

With Willis McGahee no longer in the backfield I’m just not convinced they’ve found a suitable replacement for him. He run with power between the tackles and could steamroll defenders in short yardage situations. In the preseason the only runner that exhibited any tackle breaking ability was C.J. Anderson in the first game and he’s out with a knee injury.

Montee Ball didn’t get a lot of carries in the preseason and didn’t really prove if he’s that kind of a bruising runner or not. At Wisconsin he put up some big numbers but sometimes RB’s who’ve had success in college don’t translate that success to the NFL. The reason is simple, the defenders in the NFL are stronger, faster and better tacklers than the ones they faced at the college level.

I’m not down on Ball at all and this doesn’t mean I’ve written him off before the season even starts. I think it’s possible that John Fox used him sparingly on purpose to save him for the regular season. Let’s hope that is the case and once he gets his start against the Ravens he’ll showcase his skill set and be the primary RB for the Broncos.

As for Ronnie Hillman and Knowshon Moreno they can be nothing more than role players. I’ve written in pass blogs why I believe this is to be the case so I won’t elaborate on these 2. 

ON DEFENSE

It can’t be overstated enough how bad the 6 game suspension of Von Miller will hurt the Broncos. If you combine this with the off season loss of Elvis Dumervil, the Broncos best pass rushing defensive lineman, it’s almost a back breaker.

In Miller’s place Nate Irving and the long in the tooth Shaun Phillips will back up Irving in attempt to hold down the fort at the Strongside Linebacker position in his absence. Neither are as remotely as talented as Miller as pass rushers or pass coverage guys. Wesley Woodyard starts at MLB and Danny Trevathan plays the WLB. Woodyard is good tackler but Trevathan had a few misses in the preseason games I watched.

On the Defensive Line if the Broncos play the straight 4/3 Defense it’s Derek Wolfe at LDE, Kevin Vickerson at DT, Terrance Knighton at NT and Robert Ayers at RDE. Wolfe is recovering from his neck injury in the preseason and that’s good news because at this moment he’s the best pass rusher in this group. 2013 1st round draft choice NT Sylvester Williams hasn’t cracked the starting line up yet. Shaun Phillips will back up Ayers at RDE.

The Broncos defensive backfield may be the single biggest roadblock to a Super Bowl. Champ Bailey, one of the best to ever play the game and a certain Hall of Famer is now in his 15^th NFL Season. While he still has football in him he doesn’t have the speed and cover skills he once had in his prime. Its unfortunate the Broncos couldn’t move him to Safety but since they don’t really have a CB that can perform better he keeps his spot on the left side. In the last 2 years Champ has been beaten for more big plays and Touchdowns than at any other time in his career. He’s backed up by Chris Harris and newly signed free agent Quentin Jammer from the Chargers.

Former Philadelphia Eagles CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was signed as a free agent this off season and starts at the other Corner. He’s an improvement but his last 2 years were relatively unproductive in Philly. In that time frame he had only 3 INT’s and the Eagles D as a whole was near the bottom of the league in every category. His backup is Tony Carter.  

Rahim Moore returns at Free Safety after having one of the worse games a player could ever have in the Ravens game last year. Let’s hope he’s regained his confidence. One of the big surprises of the preseason was how well Strong Safety Duke Ihenacho played in the preseason, so well in fact he displaced Mike Adams. This is good news because he can’t play any worst than Adams did in many key situations last year.

History has proven this time and again.

Summary:

I believe the Broncos should be able to walk away with the AFC West Title based on their offensive passing capabilities alone. Going in I’m very concerned about the RB situation and who will emerge as the go to guy. Montee Ball has to be the guy and come playoff time he’ll have to have established himself and have the game in his toolbox needed to take them to the next level. I just don’t see Hillman or Moreno being the guys they can count on in crunch time. They’ll have to score a lot of points to win games because the Broncos D isn’t as good as the one they had last year.

More concerning is how well the Defense plays early. Wolfe is the best Pass Rusher and Woodyard is the best Tackler after that you have to wonder just how well the Broncos can play against the run or pass. The Broncos secondary came apart in the Ravens game last year and it’s uncertain they’ve really improved their personnel all that much this season.

The X Factor is they have John Fox and Jack Del Rio as HC and DC respectively. With their coaching skills hopefully they’ll out scheme opponents and coach up the weaker players on D. It’ll be the key to whether or not they get out of the first round of the playoffs and make a Super Bowl run.

Thankfully we’re only 3 days away from the first step to the beginning of the journey. GO BRONCOS!!    

Broncos D is key to Victory Over the Chiefs

McCoy's Offensive is Vanilla 101.

So it’s down to one game, win you’re in lose you’re out. The Broncos Fans should rejoice at the opportunity to even be in a position to earn a playoff spot. No one predicted they’d get this far and certainly no one including me thought after they started with a 1-4  record that they would be in this position. Therefore this season is a total bonus and a gift far too many fans don't seemed to really appreciate. Win or lose this Broncos team has been one of the biggest group of overachievers in franchise history.

The Broncos Defense has been one of the worst in the NFL since 2005 and at the start of season the only significant change to the D was going to be that Elvis Dumervil would be coming back from injury and Von Miller would be starting at LB. So John Fox took a group that was basically the same team as last year and turned them into a better overall unit. During the winning streak the Broncos were hustling, tackling, covering, creating turnovers and pass rushing as well as any D in the league. In the last 2 games that’s not been the case and that’ll have to change even if they’re playing a terrible Chiefs offensive team.

There’s no question that the Broncos got creamed by the Bills last week in all 3 phases of the game, O, D and Special Teams. But the collapse of the D was the most glaring. I just kept waiting for the Broncos to get out of the 3 man fronts and put pressure on Ryan Fitzpatrick but it never happened. It was a mirror of the Patriots game the week before where Fox did the same and went into a zone D playing way to deep and allowing big passing plays to start short or down the middle of the field. Granted the Broncos had an injury to Brian Dawkins, 2 Rookies were forced into service in the backfield and Miller was playing with only one hand but they gave way to much respect to the Patriots and Bills Receivers.

Fox seemed to forget what helped win games and that was playing an aggressive D by blitzing and putting pressure on QB’s. It didn’t matter if they lined up in 3 or 4 man fronts they were not getting any QB pressure whatsoever. The other noticeable and ugly part of the game that’s eluded the Broncos D the last 2 games is good tackling by the front 7. Mays and Woodyard hustled and tackled very well during the win streak but in the last 2 weeks they’ve all but disappeared. They and the rest of the team let the Bills run wild with a back up RB playing against them. Since the Broncos DL is really the biggest weakness of the D all season the LB’s and DB’s must tackle at the point of attack again if they hope to stop the Chiefs. I just pray that Fox pulls out all the stops this week and gambles on D because this team can’t win if he doesn’t. 

You could say the same about the Broncos O in the last 2 weeks as well. The conservative approach by Mike McCoy via Fox on O has been an utter disaster the last 2 games. Fox is playing the kind of small ball that only Dan Reeves could be proud of. The only problem is Tebow doesn’t have the experience or skills yet to bring a team from behind like Elway could in the passing game.

At some point he has to let Tebow have some chances to throw on first down early in the game. The run on 1st, run on 2nd and pass on 3rd and long then punt it away on 4th didn’t work against the Pats or the Bills and it won’t against the Chiefs either. There has to be some balance in their strategy because the Broncos are not really fooling anyone and if the running game gets stopped early the Broncos should attempt to air it out.

No one can deny that Tebow had a horrible game last week but the truth is he was put in 3rd and long way to many times and since he as an average to a below average set of Receivers who can’t consistently get separation and have often dropped balls he isn’t going to succeed if he isn’t allowed to have more passing attempts.

That’s the key here… Everyone says Tebow can’t be a passing QB in the NFL but he hasn’t had many attempts to do so and when he has the opposing D’s know it and brought the heat on him. Waiting until the team is down by 2 or 3 TD’s then letting him air it out isn’t going to win many games with this group of WR’s so McCoy must let him throw on 1st and 2nd down in this do or die game.

I know the media has focus on the Kyle Orton angle this week but I think it’s irrelevant to how the game will be played out. Orton isn’t going to be the deciding factor in this one, it’ll be the Broncos D controlling the game, the Broncos O playing with same balance and minimizing turnovers and playing the game to win it not to lose it by Fox that’ll be the difference.

This is a one the Broncos can and should win and I believe they will but if they don’t they have no business being in the playoffs. No matter what the outcome it’s been an amazing season and as a Fan the games on Sunday were fun and exciting to watch again. Next year looks to be much better too. 

The Best O is a Good D

I always try to write about originally interesting angles and find tweaks in a game that no one else has but it's a difficult challenge. So I’ll try, here’s the spin from my orange and blue hula hoop.

First kudos to Fox, his aggressive pressure defensive has worked very well in the last 4 games. The constant pressure Rivers felt throughout totally took him out of his game. He was sacked 3 times and when he wasn’t being sacked he was chased out of the pocket or forced to throw from it before he wanted to. The Broncos held Rivers to 188 yards, that’s chump change for the Chargers O whose strength is based on airing it out.

Whether the Broncos lined up in a 3/4 or 4/3 or blitzed him they pushed the Chargers offensive line back on their heels on almost every obvious passing play. Just like almost any other QB in the NFL when given time to find a Receiver down field Rivers can tear a team a part. Too many Pundits think he’s one of the elite QB’s in the NFL but he looked pedestrian in this game.

The Broncos game plan was clear, pressure Rivers early and often with 7 or 8 guys in the box and don’t give him time to beat you deep. The unending pressure made the DB’s job that much easier against one of the finest group of Receivers in the game. One big reason for it was the Chargers OL has had a rash of injuries to their starters. So in Rivers defense he didn’t have the kind of protection he might have had otherwise. Still the great QB’s with superior talent can overcome line injuries and with a team effort can still find ways to win games.The pass rush worked well but Ryan Mathews managed to grind out 137 yards for the Chargers. This is a deceptive stat because Mathews had a several big gainers and was held in check for most of the game.

Even though the Chargers had some success running the Broncos solid tackling throughout by all position players was outstanding. They made the stops on 3rd down and more importantly kept them out of the end zone.

Von Miller is to the D what Tim Tebow is to the O. He’s a box of C4 ready to explode on every play and his passion has carried over to the rest of his teammates on D. Miller is going to win the Rookie of the Year it’s just a question of how big.

Willis McGahee had another stellar performance pounding out 117 yards as the Broncos young Offensive Line opened up some nice holes. Every week the OL seems to be playing better and better. They protected Tebow extremely well during critical passing situations when they needed to move the chains.

As for Tebow it was another solid performance executing Fox’s conservative game plan and not making any mistakes or turning the ball over. Each week his passing game improves and will continue to. He made some great throws when he had to and had some very costly drops by Thomas and Royal. His stat sheet isn’t going to win any fantasy football games but his leadership on the field does win real ones.

I’ll take as a QB who throws for under 200 yards and 1 TD and no turnovers and wins over a QB that throws for over 450 with 2 TD’s and 4 INT’s and losses every time. Some fans may not like the small ball but if it’s executed the way the Broncos have in their last 4 wins how can you complain? A win is win is a win.

There’s something very special that is happening with the Broncos with Tebow as the starter. He’s a team player, a never say die warrior, with no ego, willing to do whatever it takes to help his team win. His greatest characteristic is that he is a leader and for all the fire he’s taken off the field he’s sure provided a mushroom cloud upon it.

I don’t think it’s entirely impossible for the Broncos to run the table and even beat the Patriots whom I think is the toughest game remaining but for now it’s take them one at a time and knock off the Vikings next week. Man, the orange and blue blood in my veins is pumping my heart like a juggernaut today! GO BRONCOS!!!